Police Make Arrests in Asian Restaurant Robberies

Oakland police have arrested two suspects in a series of armed robberies of Asian restaurants. Nineteen-year-old Lance Linquest was charged with 57 felony counts of armed robbery. He is being held on one million dollars bail. In addition, police arrested Mandi Coleman, also 19, as a second member of the crew believed responsible for holding up restaurants from Richmond to Union City since August. Both men are Oakland residents. At least eight Oakland eateries were robbed, some more than once; none of them are in Chinatown.

Surveillance photo of suspect (KTVU)

The hooded men staged takeovers at dinner time, brandishing handguns and a Tommy gun and robbing both the business and the customers.

Oakland police worked with the Berkeley and San Leandro departments to break the case. The incidents earned special attention when it was clear that the same thugs were repeating their script over and over. The threat to the viability of Asian restaurants, a vital part of the East Bay cultural scene, was also obvious.

Oakland police are as professional and capable as any in the country, and they got results in this case quickly once resources were assigned. The problem is that not enough resources are available. The department has only eight robbery investigators, overwhelmed by 3,964 robberies reported in 2006. (OPD reports to city council public safety committee, Feb. 13 and Nov. 27, 2007)

A third member of the holdup group surrendered to police on Dec. 31. He is a 15-year-old who was recruited for the robberies at a Chrisian youth symposium by Mandi Coleman. After police apprehended the adults, the youth confided in his mother, who persuaded him to confess to police.

Once again, residents and merchants of Oakland and surrounding areas paid the price for the fact that City Hall maintains half a police department. Most major cities have 35 to 45 officers per 10,000 residents; Oakland has 18. The depolicing of Oakland was felt in this four-month crime spree at the restaurants. The residents of Oakland also feel depolicing when they see a holdup in progress, call for help, and wait ten vital minutes to reach a dispatcher; when thieves steal vehicles and OPD simply cannot respond; and when burglars stroll neighborhoods in daytime testing one house after another, knowing that the odds of an officer coming by are near zero. In addition, the city suffers an avalanche of quality-of-life crimes when practitioners of the culture of disrespect blast stereo from "boom cars" and roam the streets in sideshow mobs.

Until the city council makes a commitment to a solid plan for a police staff of at least 1,100, up from a little over 700 today, people and businesses will be victimized far too often, giving Oakland its rank as the fourth most dangerous city in the country, according to the Morgan Quitno research unit of Congressional Quarterly. Every diner whose pleasant meal turned into fear for her life should know that the members of the Oakland city council – none of whom has made the commitment to 1,100 officers – bear some responsibility for the terror and loss.