Rooftop Koreans or Roof Koreans refer to the Korean American business owners and residents during the 1992 Los Angeles riots who armed themselves and took to the rooftops of local businesses to defend themselves. The unrest in urban areas was sparked by the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers in the beating of Rodney King and resulted in rioting, and looting, along with widespread violence and arson throughout the city. [1] [2]
Tensions had existed between the Korean and African American communities in Los Angeles. According to some Koreans, there was a feeling among blacks that Koreans were taking from the community, via the operation of small businesses in the area, which led to racial resentment. [3] Previous violent incidents including the 1991 killing of Latasha Harlins, an African-American teenager who was fatally and controversially shot by a Korean-American convenience store owner, Soon Ja Du. [4]
Du was tried, convicted, and given ten years in prison. However, the sentence was suspended, and she was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community service and payment of $500 restitution, as well as Harlins' funeral costs. [4] [5] The sentencing was widely regarded as extremely light, with a failed appeal reportedly contributing to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. [6]
Following the Rodney King verdict, Los Angeles police were unable to provide protection to many affected areas due to the overwhelming scale of the riots. Controversially, they opted instead to set up a defensive perimeter around the Beverly Hills and West Hollywood cities, cutting off Koreatown and abandoning other minority and low-income communities, leaving the Koreatown community to mostly fend for themselves. [7] In response, many Korean business owners and residents took matters into their own hands. [8]
Local Korean radio stations in Los Angeles put out a call to help Korean business owners, leading to volunteers arriving with their own firearms. The intersection of 5th Street and Western Avenue served as a flashpoint, where the California Market (also called Gaju or Kaju) Korean grocery store was a major point of conflict. Other locations that were defended by citizens with firearms, included 8th and Oxford, as well as Western and Third Street. [9] The Los Angeles Times stated there were multiple people on the roof of the grocery with "shotguns and automatic weapons". [2] [4] Ebony magazine noted the use of "rifles and handguns." [10]
Because South Korea has a two year mandatory military service for males, it was noted that many Korean immigrants had experience with handling firearms. [11]
The actions of the rooftop Koreans sparked debates about gun control and vigilantism, while simultaneously spurring praise for the residents' bravery and resourcefulness. [12] Edward Song Lee, a Korean American was shot and killed mistakenly by his peers when protecting shops near 3rd street. Hector Castro, a Latino was also fatally shot in Koreatown during the riots. Authorities could not determine who killed him, as both merchants and rioters were shooting in the area. [13]
Police were on "tactical alert" thus not responding to any calls from citizens. Order was not restored until President Bush invoked the Insurrection Act (declaring it an insurrection) deploying 15,000 troops. Order was restored almost immediately. [14]
The rooftop Koreans have been cited by gun rights advocates for the value of citizen ownership of firearms and "being your own first responder." [15] In recent years, it has also been the subject of social media memes, contributing to ease of tensions with African American communities especially in the 2014 Ferguson unrest, [16] the emergence of Black Lives Matter, and the increased racial tensions around Stop Asian Hate. [11] [12]
Rodney Glen King was an African-American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was severely beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during his arrest after a high speed pursuit for driving while intoxicated on the I-210. An uninvolved resident, George Holliday, saw and filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage, which showed Mr. King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest, to local news station KTLA. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public uproar.
Korean Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. The majority of Korean Americans trace their ancestry to South Korea.
Koreatown is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street.
A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The incident had been videotaped by George Holliday, who was a bystander to the incident, and was heavily broadcast in various news and media outlets.
Joyce Ann Karlin Fahey is an American lawyer and politician. She served as both a federal prosecutor and a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. She is known for having sentenced Soon Ja Du, the merchant who killed 15 year old Latasha Harlins with a fatal shot to the back of her head, to only five years' probation and 400 hours of community service, with no jail time. The sentence was widely condemned, including by the LA County District Attorney and black community leaders in Los Angeles, and has been cited by some as a catalyst for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, also known under its past name Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, is a multi-ethnic immigrant worker civil rights membership organization based in the Los Angeles Koreatown area.
Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in the Wilshire region of Los Angeles, California.
A gun buyback program is one instituted to purchase privately owned firearms. The goal of such programs is to reduce the circulation of both legally and illegally owned firearms. A buyback program would provide a process whereby civilians can dispose of illicitly owned firearms without financial loss or risk of prosecution. In most cases, the agents purchasing the guns are local police. A gun buyback program can either be voluntary, or it can be mandatory with penalties for failure to sell.
This article lists examples of the ongoing influence on popular culture of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In the United States, economic competition and racial prejudice have both contributed to long-lasting racial tensions between African Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. There have also been inter-racial tensions between African Americans and Asian Americans.
Falling Down is a 1993 American psychological thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Ebbe Roe Smith and released by Warner Bros. in the United States on February 26, 1993.
Latasha Harlins was an African American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 by Soon Ja Du, a 49-year-old Korean American convenience store owner. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter over the killing of Harlins, based in part on security camera footage. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community service and payment of $500 restitution, and Harlins' funeral costs. The sentencing was widely regarded as extremely light, and a failed appeal reportedly contributed to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, especially the targeting of Koreatown. The killing of Harlins came 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
As of 2008, the 60,000 ethnic Koreans in Greater Los Angeles constituted the largest Korean community in the United States. Their number made up 15 percent of the country's Korean American population.
The history of Koreans in Baltimore dates back to the mid-20th century. The Korean-American community in Baltimore began to grow in the 1960s and reached its peak between the 1970s and 1990s. The Korean population is anchored in central Baltimore, particularly the neighborhoods of Station North and Charles Village, a portion of which has an historic Koreatown. Since the 1990s, the Korean-American population has decreased due to suburbanization, with many Korean-Americans settling in nearby Howard County.
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992 is a 2017 American documentary film directed by John Ridley about the decade preceding and including the 1992 Los Angeles riots. It was produced by Lincoln Square Productions, a subsidiary of ABC News, and was released in theaters in Los Angeles and New York on April 21, 2017. A shorter version aired on ABC on April 28, 2017. A rebroadcast of the film took place on June 16, 2020. The film has received critical acclaim.
"When the looting starts, the shooting starts" is a phrase originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21", of taking "advantage of the civil rights campaign" that was then sweeping the United States. Having ordered his officers to combat the violence with shotguns, he told the press that "we don't mind being accused of police brutality". The quote may have been borrowed from a 1963 comment from Birmingham, Alabama police chief Bull Connor. It was featured in Headley's 1968 obituary published by the Miami Herald.
The boogaloo movement, whose adherents are often referred to as boogaloo boys or boogaloo bois, is a loosely organized far-right anti-government extremist movement in the United States. It has also been described as a militia. Adherents say they are preparing for, or seek to incite, a second American Civil War or second American Revolution which they call "the boogaloo" or "the boog".
On June 24, 2021, a woman posted a video to Instagram in which she had confronted staff at Wi Spa, a Korean spa in Los Angeles, about the presence of a nude individual with a penis, most commonly believed to be a trans woman, in the women's changing area of the spa. The video went viral, attracting significant attention from gender-critical feminists and from some media, which led to protests and counter-protests. Some media outlets initially questioned whether the alleged incident had been a hoax.
Tensions between African American and Korean American communities in major U.S. cities gained national attention in the 1980s and 1990s, marked by events such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the Family Red Apple boycott in New York. In response, organizations such as the Black–Korean Alliance emerged to alleviate tension and improve community relations.