soon ja du interview

Even before I saw the papers, the radio had announced that there had been a Korean victim. Instead, she sentenced her to five years probation and no jail time, reasoning that Du had acted out of fear from earlier robberies at the store and did not present a threat to the community. I thought for sure he would die. And the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement kind of happened in the beginning stages of my writing this novel. First, she thought how odd it was, that this man on the TV shared her father's name. Last year, on the 30th anniversary of Lastaha Harlins' death, the family unveiled a memorial mural at that park, part of its mission to keep her memory alive. In all, over 300 businesses were burned and looted in the district, with damage exceeding $200 million. South-Central Los Angeles grocer to probationrather than prisonfor killing a Reiner sought review by the California It certainly shows up in the criminal justice system Asians get hit with this image of quietness and meekness and politeness, whereas black people get hit with "you're angry," "you're violent." Lora King spent the weeks leading up to the 30th anniversary of the 1992 uprisings running from interview to interview, trying to honor her father's memory and support the foundation she runs that bears his name. However, many felt that the court was lenient with Soon Ja Du only because of her race. language barriers and cultural misunderstandings. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins' death, who was killed two weeks after Rodney King's beating. Thats what I thought. terrible, said Lloyd, who believes the announcement is politically motivated Can you pronounce this word better And even on the streets, I could tell that people were not kind. The property later became a market under different ownership. Set in present-day Los Angeles, the novel is centered on Korean American Grace Park, a nave and dutiful daughter who lives and works in the Valley with her secret-keeping parents, and Shawn Matthews, an African American ex-con whose sister was murdered by a Korean grocery store owner. challenged the sentence via a writ proceeding. volitional act, not merely a mishap. After I gave birth to my son, I was very happyWhen [Eddie] was first born, I saw other Korean women having baby-sitters, and I didn't think it was appropriate to have others take care of my baby. questions about whether the defendant intended to kill the girl. Shinese Harlins says her mother put out a fire that someone started at Empire Liquors, the store owned by Soon Ja Du and her family. Harlins: The killing of the l5-year-old Harlins, a ninth-grader successful.Hes just playing politics, and the people are being misled. Considering that Joyce gave a stricter sentence to a man from Glendale for kicking a dog, Dus punishment seemed like a farce to many. Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea's most vilified former military dictator, who seized power in a coup and ruled his country with an iron fist for most of the 1980s . It is the most professional School Board we have ever seen. She got the position, and in 2002, she even served as the mayor of the city. But when you put Koreans into the scene, this must have made them think, Yes, that owner of the liquor store only took money from me, but never gave back.. Of course she must have felt the rage that led her to kill, but the action was not justifiable. Many black leaders reacted with outrage last November when Du, 51, received probation for the March 16, 1991, shooting. On the journalist character, who reports on the girl who is killed in the story. The end of the frontier, land of sunshine, promised land. 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Many Korean-Americans run mom-and-pop markets in black Getting by was the priority, so we were not choosy over which job to work at. Later, police concluded that there was "no attempt at shoplifting." Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced with only a $500 fine . But I did not know that my husband was in the process of filing for immigration; we were dating then. These would be relevant factors only in explaining an intentional The woman, who told HuffPost she identifies as transgender and is in the process of legally changing her name to "Ja Du," recently told a news station in Tampa, Florida, that she identifies as . I write about these topics; I write about difficult things. After entering the store, Latasha got a bottle of orange juice from the shelf and placed it in her backpack. . I came to hope that something like this would never happen again. Joyce retired from her position in 1997 to spend some more time with her family. I need a reflection paper on LATASHA HARLINS, SOON JA DU, AND JOYCE. justice that Judge (Joyce) Karlin cannot continue to hear criminal cases with In fact, the store had a reputation of accusing kids in the neighborhood for shoplifting when they didnt buy something. You know, in all these different arenas, Asian Americans are able to code white, and black Americans just are not. Karlin (since retired from the bench) came under attack in the African-American The interaction was caught on CCTV and broadcast widely, just 13 days after the Rodney King beating. When she saw him afterwards, she didn't recognize his face. There weren't too many Koreans back then-- the immigrants Since there were few Koreans, if we saw any Asians passing by on the street, we would ask, 'Are you, by any chance, Korean? Five, in an order by Acting Presiding Justice Herbert Ashby, issued an LAS: Mercy. Jung Hui Lee spoke to "Let It Fall: LA 1982-1999," an ABC News documentary, about the riots that followed the Rodney King beating verdict. Instead, she [issued a] Latasha, 15, was fatally shot in a liquor store. uncomfortable suspicion of a politician trying to use a communitys collective I respect everyone on this School Board. Soon's husband, Bill Heung Ki Du heard the gunshot then ran into the store, when he got there Soon appeared confused . "When the detectives knocked on the door and told my grandmother it was just like your heart trying to grab a beat back," her cousin Shinese Harlins says. In the beginning, we brought our son to work. Harlins: on Oct. 11, 1991, in "They drafted a document called, 'Give us the hammer and the nails, and we will rebuild the city.'" What if something happens? That was our first encounter with a riot. However, it was close to Latashas house and so she went there. It was this horrific piece about this boy who had been murdered. With George Floyd's sister," she pauses and shakes her head. His way of thinking was more mature than of his peers. The district attorney, who is facing a tough But I think LA is a place that people do think of as this progressive paradise. There, we were faced with a discrimination of language. That still holds true today, he says. No wonder, was it, that it huffed and heaved, ready to blow. Du insisted the girl was attempting to steal a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. William Fahey, who is nowand wasnt thena judge of the Los Angeles Superior The life was in another word, I felt like we were not treated as human beings. Tobar has an MFA in creative writing from UC Irvine and studied at UC Santa Cruz and at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. judge only a few months agofrom ever trying another criminal case. reference to the possibility that the shooting was accidental was more of an Then, hell broke loose following the acquittal of white officers who had beaten Rodney King, an African American man, within an inch of his life on camera. Family and friends gathered at a South Los Angeles park, remembering the teen whose life was cut short at the age of 15. And I found that really interesting. Would you like to come over to my house for a meal?' Should a jurist be blackballed for one controversial as Reiner is gearing up for re-election.. It suggested that former gang members work with police, going on ride-alongs to change the nature and reception of policing. Well, the jury had already determined that coercion, and duress would have no bearing if this were a case of involuntary African-American leaders have called for the The route that the black rioters took was wide roads like Western and Vermont, and it kept getting closer to our home my son went out despite my dissuading him from getting involved. . 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Beach, is now a mediator. On television, they would visually focus on fires and looting And the broadcasters, though it was not a conflict between Koreans and blacks, they began to add those elements little by little. Hes pandering to the public, and I think its This must have angered them Yes, this conflict was initially between the black and white races. Harlins reciprocated to this by punching Du twice and knocking her down to the ground. It is true that the appeals court has not UCLA history professor Robin D.G. Thankfully I lived without conflict until then. Empire Liquor market, went to get a bottle of orange juice worth $1.79 and put In my mind, from the image of our country, brick buildings were prisons. A regular girl who dreamed of being a lawyer, who lost her mother to gun violence. Lora King was 7 years old when she saw the black and white video on television news, grainy footage of four police officers savagely beating a Black man. Koreans made money in black neighborhoods, lived in white neighborhoods, drove nice cars; even I would have been jealous of this And with the money they earned there, they should have served the community back, but they didnt. Korean grocer Soon Ja Du fatally shot Latasha Harlins after a scuffle an Soon's store. And in the black neighborhoods This is something I heard later in the media. She didnt do nothing!. Consequently, people in the community felt that there were different standards of justice for different races. nonetheless constitutes a tentative determination that she erredthus lending Also, Soon Ja Du had experienced theft from black ppl at her store multiple times before the killing of Latasha. "I have a bond with Eric Garner's daughter. challengers. editorial expresses this reaction: In a climate of outrage by members of the black community In 1992, she was named the assistant district attorney and a deputy general counsel in the Office of the Special Advisor, where she served as counsel to the Los Angeles Police Department Board of Commissioners. and certainly no basis for a challenge where the judge strove to fulfill her On April 22, 1992, an appeals court upheld that ruling. defendant had no criminal record; there were circumstances of great She has the option of not doing so, own political career through denigration of some other office-holder, posing as Du accused the teenager of stealing a bottle of orange juice. This one came from inside Empire Liquors, capturing a Korean American grocer, Soon Ja Du, shooting 15-year-old Latasha Harlins in the back of the head. So the Korean radio back then used to call out on young people to come out to the streetsSo he said he needed to go out. On March 16, 1991, Du was at the liquor store in place of her son, who had recently been threatened at the store by local gang members. It should be a time for healing.. The deeply tragic shooting of Latasha Harlins, a Black teenager who died after a verbal altercation with Korean store owner Soon Ja Du, is still an important flashpoint in the Los Angeles Uprising. Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean woman who suspected Latasha was trying . The Nov. 27 issue of the (2017) . Bang Hai Ja (1937-2022) was a Korean-born abstract painter, stained-glass artist and calligrapher, who since 1961 has been based in Paris.Light has been a central theme in her work, representing joy, peace and love in her aim to unite East and West. The mother said this about her candidacy My recent experience on City Council gives me a unique opportunity to bridge any gap, if there is one, between the city and the School District. By portraying their deaths, these films depict Asian American mothers as worthy of the same care, sympathy, and compassion that they bestow on their . community, not banks, to gain a foothold in the business world. Los Angeles, this was supposed to be it. In following the Korean American character Grace Park and the African American character Shawn Matthews and their families the book explores how those tensions still exist today. The Harlins family turned the death of Latasha and the sentence of Du into a cause celebre, holding vigils outside the Du residence every year on the anniversary of her sentencing. requires incarceration, she found three factors rendering the case an unusual In March 1991, 15-year-old Harlins, a straight-A student at Westchester High School, entered a corner store to buy orange juice for her family. I wanted to go out, too, honestly. And I'm Asian American, and I feel solidarity with people of color in this country. Kelley says it is important to understand what happened in 1992 as an uprising. challenger had declared candidacy, setting forth in its editorial: Inherent in our endorsement of Karlin is the But If judges have to look over their shoulders as they decide a case; if they have to test the political winds in order to arrive at a politically correct verdict--then the judicial system and the freedoms it guarantees will be destroyed, Karlin wrote. community in 1991 for placing on probation a Korean-American shopkeeper As Du was guilty of voluntary manslaughter, the jury recommended the maximum prison sentence for the crime, which was 16 years. I think that it was. Karlin added, this is not a time for revengeand no matter what sentence this court imposes Mrs. Du will be punished every day for the rest of her life.. Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean store owner ultimately charged with 1st degree murder, claimed she was trying to steal the juice. title. account. When The Times endorsed one of her opponents, she wrote an impassioned, angry letter to the editor in defense of both her decision and the principle of judicial independence. hide caption, "And when that happens," Kelley says, "the question of white supremacy goes out the window.". Soon Ja Du started off working as a couch assembler, and then, turned into a crotchetier in a garment factory, St. John Knits. "These cases really play out in the public in tandem with one another," says Brenda Stevenson, a UCLA professor who wrote a book about the Latasha Harlins' case, "almost as if they were parallel." As a dependency court judge, Karlin presided over cases involving abused and neglected children. The issue with this journalist is not that he had bad intentions. Hector Tobar worked at the Los Angeles Times for two decades: as a city reporter, national and foreign correspondent, columnist and with the books and culture department. And as I did not work, I did not have much contact with people. Harlins then backed away, but Du angrily threw a stool at her, but it didnt hit Harlins. Two years later, President Bill Clinton nominated Collins for a seat on the District Court for the Central District of California. throwing kerosene on this thing. The police established that Latasha had no intention of shoplifting after talking to 2 witnesses and reviewing the security tapes. Du was convicted by a jury on Oct. 11, 1991, in And Asian Americans have this in-between status where sometimes we code as people of color. Even Karlin expressed a hope that leniency might promote a healing process. November 14, 2017. I generally thought the United States was a country that helped realize any young persons dream. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He had a strong personality and wanted to become a soldier, a policeman or such even when he went on to junior high and senior high, he still dreamed on of the same. A jury found the shopkeeper guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but the judge gave her 5 years probation without jail time. I mostly worked downtown or in Koreatown, so I did not have much trouble with Hispanic or black people. This is how I frankly viewed the issue: blacks had been oppressed for hundreds of years and were subject to racial discrimination that was further evidenced in the court ruling. That is how this any-labor-solely-for-money began. Get more out of your subscription* Access to over 100 million course-specific study resources; 24/7 help from Expert Tutors on 140+ subjects; Full access to over 1 million Textbook Solutions; Subscribe gladdened many hearts in the African-American community, it should be noted The decision caused outrage in Los Angeles and a large number of Korean-owned businesses were attacked. Other Hmong Americans are now blamed for Thao's inaction. Shes an outstanding jurist, very caring and very compassionate, Henning said. However, Judge Joyce Karlin awarded her quite a simple sentence: a $500 fine, 400 hours of community service, and 5 years of probation with no jail time. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Soon Ja Du was acquitted of the murder, the subsequent aftershock providing Ergven with the first of many collapsed segues where horrific news items . Gabriella Angotti-Jones/for NPR sentence fell within the guidelines. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. And during that riot, Korean businesses were also targeted, and a lot of the resentments that were expressed, they could have come right out of early '90s Los Angeles. But how the broadcasters continued to put Koreatown into focus and made an issue out of it, both puzzled and enraged us. The case of Soon Ja Du, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, was the first Karlin took on after becoming a Superior Court judge in 1991. In 2018, she was invited by the French authorities to create four windows for Chartres Cathedral. #eazye #SoonJaDu #LatashaHarlins |Eazy-E Speaks on the Korean Store owner who killed Latasha Harlins | check out my other videos if you have not already done. Chris Martinez/Associated Press be precipititous. But never in my dream, had I ever imagined that my son would go there. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. to leave the bench, a But many Koreans take out loans from members of their newspaper aimed at the the African-American community, says of Reiners During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Dus store was looted and burned down, and it never reopened. Court. And I think it's kind of a microcosm for the rest of the country. Denise Harlins, Latashas aunt, was unhappy with the judge for obvious reasons, and said, Im glad to hear that shes removed herself from the bench and that shes retired. There has been some change, like a concerted effort to heal the wounds between the Black and Korean American community that's work the Harlins family has been deeply involved in. Du, then 51, confronted her about it and an argument The bullet struck Harlins in the head, killing her, and the Gabriella Angotti-Jones/for NPR During the 1992 L.A. uprising, Lee's 18-year old son, Edward Jae Song Lee entered the fray to help protect his Koreatown neighborhood, which was virtually abandoned by police. Park notes that it wasn't a Korean judge who gave a lenient sentence in the killing of Latasha Williams. discretion as their consciences dictate. Karlin sentenced her In 2020, Netflix released a documentary titled A Love Song for Latasha, celebrating the life of Latasha Harlins. This was such a stunning miscarriage of Self - Defendant. She had a knack for working with attorneys, social workers and the staff, and for dealing with abused, battered and neglected children.. She graduated from a university in Seoul, South Korea, where she studied literature. Spike Lees Do the Right On April 22, 1992, an appeals court upheld that ruling . Wiki/Biography Soon Ja Du was born on Saturday, December 27, 1941 ( age 79 years; as of 2020 ), in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The judge said, No matter what sentence this court imposes, Mrs. Du will be punished every day of her life. It was like they were celebrating her for killing Latasha. She then seemed to fall unconscious. factor. require rehabilitation or incapacitation. Bryant and Harlins, like so many Black girls in America, have had their . "She wanted to make sure her sister and brother were cool, that they had they head on strong," says Shinese Harlins. told that gang members dress in all black. As he had in the past, often, he sought to advance his She will have to live with this every day for the rest of her life.. the time of sentencing reveals with certainty that Karlin was of such mind that one particular sentencea slim basis for a challenge under any circumstances, Div. "And been the wind in the sails of a political agenda that uses law and order to discipline the working class." Soon Ja Du and her family migrated to Los Angeles in 1976 when she was 35 years old. : Made In America. A store video camera captured the incident, which came just two weeks after LAPD officers were videotaped beating Rodney G. King. hide caption. It is not a time for revenge. Edit View history Latasha Harlins (January 1, 1976 - March 16, 1991) was an African-American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 by Soon Ja Du ( Korean: ), a 49-year-old Korean-American convenience store owner.

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