The Oakland Police Department and the Little Saigon community held an emergency meeting Wednesday following the recent crime in the area.
Oakland police are promising to throw multiple resources in the Little Saigon community to try and make the area less of a target for criminals.
Chien Nguyen, owner of Quickly on East 12th Street attended Wednesday’s meeting.
“I’ve had customers get robbed right in front of our store,” he said. “There’s no restaurants around here that is open no later than 7 p.m.,” he said.
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Oakland police officers listened to many of the community members' stories at the emergency meeting next door to Nguyen’s restaurant.
Community leaders, business owners and elected officials all came together to talk about the solutions.
“I am of course very angry about the violence that has been happening. But I think with an organized community and the unity I'm seeing here, we have a plan to move forward,” said Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas.
The plan the Oakland police are promising to implement includes burglary and robbery suppression units, the deployment of vice operations specific to Little Saigon and increased patrols in cars and on foot. The department said it’s also working on opening a substation in the area.
“The death of Dr. Lili Xu was really the straw that broke the camel’s back and really, the breaking point for the community,” said Dr. Jennifer Tran of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce.
Xu was shot and killed during an attempted robbery on Sunday and that has shaken the area into action.
“Given that our communities are still not a priority because of this mentality of bodies over property, that’s the outrage. Do we have to wait until more bodies, more lives are lost?” said Dr. Tran.
Nguyen, a single father, has been running this business for seven years said that he hopes increased police presence will work.
“We wish that it will make immediate impact but who knows? We can only hope,” Nguyen said.
