Orindans stopped, stared and unlimbered their cell phones after local police moved in on a carload of suspected burglars in the BevMo parking lot Tuesday.
Orinda Police Chief Jeffrey Jennings said that things started off about 11:05 a.m. when a Muth Drive resident called police to report that she saw a white car stop in her neighborhood, an occupant get out and begin knocking on doors while three other individuals remained in the car.
The caller provided a general description of the car and occupants, Jennings said, and it was later determined that all four individuals eventually exited the car and went to the rear of a Muth Drive Home.
An Orinda police sergeant spotted the car, a white Mitsubishi Mirage, on Moraga Way and Orchard Road and followed it to the BevMo parking lot where officers converged and a felony stop was executed at 11:20 a.m. -- officers approaching the suspect car with guns drawn.
The four occupants of the car, all juveniles, were detained for questioning. Police later received a call from a resident reporting that a suspected burglary had taken place on Martha Road. A witness was driven to BevMo by police and the four in-custody juveniles were positively identified as the suspects in the burglary, Jennings said.
The four, whose names were not released due to their age, were arrested for residential burglary and conspiracy, according to the chief. Police allegedly recovered numerous stolen items from the Mitsubishi, including cash, jewelry, cameras, musical instruments and weapons. The four were booked into Juvenile Hall.
According to Jennings, the four have been connected to at least one burglary in Orinda and Lafayette police are investigating to see if they are linked to recent residential burglaries in their jurisdiction.
"Kudos to the Orinda resident who quickly called police when she saw suspicious activity," Jennings said. "This case would not have reached a successful conclusion without her. We encourage residents to call police if they see any suspicious people, vehicles or activity."
Sorry I don't agree with your friends' sense of entitlement to "OPP" and I'm glad they were legally pulled over and arrested. Take that noise back over the Caldecott -- it don't play here.
They will forswear crime forever afterward! We and the dog can persuade them of the wisdom of following the arduous path of the straight and the narrow path of righteousness, and we won't need Jesus, just the terrier.
It's not racial profiling if a neighbor calls about suspicious behavior. Neighbors know better than anyone what to expect. That's why we have Neighborhood Watch, because the public is very keen at feeling that something is not right. Yes, that neighbor may have felt something was not right in part because these 4 men were black. We will never know. It's not racial profiling if you see suspicious behavior of 4 guys knocking on several doors. You can't NOT report it because they are of any particular race. The solution is to do our best to integrate Orinda by making ourselves a welcoming community, not to blame the perceptive neighbor or the police officer, who made the stop. It's good to be sensitive to these issues, though. So, I am not criticizing those who raised the concern for discussion.
If these four perps were wearing Miramonte shirts and not behaving suspiciously, do you really think the cops would have been called?
I would have preferred that the physical description were retained. I suspect these four will be on the street again shortly....
This works just like affirmative action. Give a college preference to some groups and pretty soon everyone presumes that all students from those groups are underqualified. You can't break a stereotype by artificially imposing its inverse. The only way to break a false stereotype is to let the facts prove it false. A true stereotype cannot be broken. It should be dealt with directly by teaching readers that individuals must be considered as individuals regardless of group membership. Unfortunately that philosophy is in direct conflict with affirmative action. J.D.'s stated policy of consistently deleting group identification after arrest is neutral to race and ethnicity. It's the most sensible solution I have seen to this dilemma. Street criminals come in all sizes, shapes, sexes, and colors.
"We include descriptions of race in all breaking news situations where individuals are being sought and that information is helpful in keeping the public informed and safe". How is this applicable in this article? they were already stopped and arrested.
So then your original story was written prior to the stop and arrest and didn't include the above photo(s)?