And I said, No, you cant. We had brought him to the swap meet, and he helped us, so he knows. It wasn't a Korean jury that declared the four police officers not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. However, it was close to Latashas house and so she went there. Latasha Harlins ( East St. Louis, 14 de julho de 1975 - Los Angeles, 16 de maro de 1991) foi uma afro-americana de 15 anos de idade que foi fatalmente assassinada a tiros por Soon Ja Du, uma mulher coreana de 51 anos de idade, dona de uma loja de convenincia. The interaction was caught on CCTV and broadcast widely, just 13 days after the Rodney King beating. threatened judicial independence than any judge-bashers on the outside, for And so I can see it happening in LA I mean, but I can also see it happening in any major city. Videotape of the incident was broadcast over and over again nationwide, both because of the horror over what had happened and the new reality of a 24-hour news cycle that played out in real-time on cable TV, but just two weeks after that beating on March 16th, Korean American business owner, Soon Ja Du shot and killed 15-year-old Latasha . Soon Ja Du (born 1940), South Korean-born American convenience store owner Jeong Sun-ja (born 1947), South Korean diver Kim Sun-ja (athlete) (born 1966), South Korean sprinter Lee Soon-ja (born 1939), South Korean former first lady, wife of Chun Doo-hwan Lee Sun-ja (born 1978), South Korean sprint canoer Before her appointment to the bench, Karlin was an assistant U.S. attorney for 14 years. Then, her family moved to Chicago. Once there, the teenager put the required item in her bag and then headed to the counter with money in her hand. Judge John Henning, a colleague, described Karlin as a hard-working and dedicated jurist who relished working with children. hide caption. You know, in all these different arenas, Asian Americans are able to code white, and black Americans just are not. And the broadcasters painted it as a conflict between Koreans and blacks and made it big, in my opinion. Intersections South LA: The L.A. rebellion of 1992 occurred over 20 years ago. Lee spoke to John Ridley in an interview for the documentary "Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992. The following are excerpts. However, Joyce Karlin, the trial judge, did not approve the jurys recommendation and instead sentenced Du to five years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $500 fine. The court stated that the crime was committed under extreme provocation and that Dus capacity to act rationally in the situation was undermined by her past experiences with the robberies. In 1991, Harlins, 15, and Soon Ja Du, 51, got into an altercation over a bottle of orange juice inside Du's Empire Liquor in South Los Angeles. Supreme Court, which was denied July 16, 1992. Even Karlin expressed a hope that leniency might promote a healing process. And hearing about it and thinking about it, I felt this sense of guilt and shame even though I don't know Soon Ja Du. Joyce Karlin-The trial judge in Du vs Harlins case, Did Mrs. Du react inappropriately? During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Dus store was looted and burned down, and it never reopened. In a written statement, Karlin, 46, now a judge in Juvenile Dependency Court, said she was ending her seven-year judicial career to spend more time with her family. Joyce A. Karlin, the judge whose light sentencing of a Korean-born grocer in the 1991 shooting of a 15-year-old black girl inflamed already simmering racial tensions in Los Angeles, said Monday that she was resigning from the bench. "There was another plan for reconstruction after 92." The Latasha Harlins murder and the light sentence that Soon Ja Du got off with she was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, but the judge, in an extraordinary decision that basically. What if something happens? That was our first encounter with a riot. Poetry becomes both memorial and voice in Courtney Faye Taylor's first book, Concentrate, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.The University of Michigan alum's poems honor, research, bristle, and circle back to the life and killing of Latasha Harlins, a Black girl gunned down by a Korean store owner, Soon Ja Du, in Los Angeles. A Feb. 12 MetNews Reiners office on Jan. 10, 1992, filed a rare. . All you people sitting, applauding over a child killer, Harlins yelled. polls.. have been committed at all but for a defective gun.. Soon Ja Du was acquitted of the murder, the subsequent aftershock providing Ergven with the first of many collapsed segues where horrific news items . . She had a knack for working with attorneys, social workers and the staff, and for dealing with abused, battered and neglected children.. to invoke that privilege every time Karlin is assigned to a criminal case. 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. Even when he was young, he would go camping or fishing to somewhere far. The two exchanged blows, and when Harlins turned to leave, Du shot Harlins in the back of the head. terrible, said Lloyd, who believes the announcement is politically motivated Although not as widely known as the Rodney King beating and trial, the incident is considered just as important a trigger for the 1992 rebellion. Karlin found that Du overreacted, but that her And in the black neighborhoods This is something I heard later in the media. Interview / Viewpoint. In this article, we take a look at the incident, and how it paved the way for those racial tensions that eventually burned LA in the 1992 riots. community by exposing the jurist as a racistwhich he wasnt. Reiner said he will order his staff But Kelley says backlash to protests against police violence continued. And as I did not work, I did not have much contact with people. technically possible under a California law that allows attorneys to remove one 1 reference. 1 reference. The Harlins family was awarded $300,000. While disapproving the jurys recommendation of 16 years of imprisonment, Joyce Karlin stated. out in favor of the candidacy of Judge Joyce Karlin, and against the lynch-mob Shinese Harlins-Kilgore, cousin of Latasha Harlins and CEO of the Latasha Harlins Foundation, receives a hug from Lora King, daughter of Rodney King and CEO of the Rodney King Foundation, during the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King Civil Unrest HOPE Community Bus Tour Press conference in Los Angeles. But by then I did not have the luxury of dreaming on any longer; all the dreams had dissipated. In November 1991, Soon Ja Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but the judge in the case gave her no jail time. requires incarceration, she found three factors rendering the case an unusual we regard as abominably bad judgment, we applaud his forthright and prompt The retired judge was elected to Manhattan Beachs city council twice from 1999 to 2007, and she even ran for a position to become a part of the citys School Board Trustees. My son was shot by someone who had fired from the roof, and it turned out that the people on the roof werent blacks, but Koreans. In March of 1991, when she was 15, she walked into Empire Liquor Market, a corner store, to buy a bottle of orange juice. "Oh man, I can go on and on. But our voice was so faint because the Korean community was very small. Du, who reportedly had begged her family to get out of Filmography. "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." 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. In memory of the losses suffered in 1992, Korean-Americans call the unrest "Sa-I-Gu," or 4-2-9 in native pronunciation. community in 1991 for placing on probation a Korean-American shopkeeper Latasha was defenseless. into making politically expeditious decisions, rather than exercising Even now, you know the big trash bins, with several of those placed next to the building; its a terrifying memory even now. it into her backpack. "It was a rebellion against the beating of Rodney King captured on video," he says but it was more than that. Even though Soon Ja Du, the accused, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, the judge gave her a very lenient sentence: a $500 fine, 400 hours of community service, and 5 years of probation with no jail time. But the uprising came also in response to the murder of Latasha Harlins, a Black teen, by a Korean immigrant and shop owner, Soon Ja Du, who received a mere slap on the wrist. 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 . Because Rodney King was just one person, but if you saw it on television, several officers beat him with a club and kicked him I did not imagine that he would survive after such beatings. In my mind, from the image of our country, brick buildings were prisons. Soon Ja Du, the store owner, falsely accused. 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. During that time, our son was with us, our daughter was with us, the entire family was together. Even though Soon Ja Du, the accused, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, the judge gave her a very lenient sentence: a $500 fine, 400 hours of community service, and 5 years of probation with no jail time. Soon Ja Du, her husband, and son operated a liquor store in Los Angeles. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. because he wouldnt shift Karlin from a criminal department at the Compton 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. Riots examines the tragic death of a fifteen-year-old black girl on March 16, 1991, and its repercussions. And their spirits seem joined this week, as Latasha makes a brief but emotional appearance in the recently aired second episode of O.J. You know, this is a book about two groups of color. I need a reflection paper on LATASHA HARLINS, SOON JA DU, AND JOYCE. He had an older sister here, so we came to LA. But it doesnt mean hes a criminal, L.A. County moves to require quake retrofits as Turkey-Syria death toll exceeds 50,000, Column: As help pours in for World War II vet, 102, with huge bill, SoCalGas wants a rate hike, Evan Rachel Wood denies allegation that she manipulated Marilyn Manson accuser, L.A. Countys COVID-19 emergency will end March 31, Eric Garcettis stalled nomination to ambassadors post sees slight progress. A state appeals court upheld the sentence in April 1992, a week before the riots. It kind of depends on who's telling the story and what the story is. challenger had declared candidacy, setting forth in its editorial. Copyright 2010, Metropolitan News Company, MetNews Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean woman who suspected Latasha was trying . Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter over the killing of Harlins, based in part on security camera footage. When the verdict was read on television we became ill at ease thinking, The black community will not take this. The judge [in explaining her sentence] said she had serious Since childhood, Eddie had a sense of justice and was full of energy. Two years later, President Bill Clinton nominated Collins for a seat on the District Court for the Central District of California. Two weeks after officers with the LAPD furiously beat Rodney King after a traffic stop, a 15-year-old girl named Latasha Harlins lost her life when a convenience store owner named Soon Ja Du shot . 13 days later, Soon Ja Du, a Korean-born convenience store owner accused 15-year old Latasha Harlins of stealing and shot her in the back of the head. Reiner sought review by the California Tobar was The Times bureau chief in Mexico City and Buenos Aires and was part of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 L.A. riots. Should a jurist be blackballed for one controversial Also, Soon Ja Du had experienced theft from black ppl at her store multiple times before the killing of Latasha. hide caption. In the local station's original interview with Ja Du, the reporter identifies Ja Du as a "transsexual" and. Those of us of the first generation, including myself and others, have no particular strength. her on five years of probation, on condition that she pay Even strangers were made familiar just by hearing that they were also Korean and lead us to open homes the Korean community was hard to find. This case only fuelled the racial fires that eventually resulted in the Los Angeles riots in 1992. By portraying their deaths, these films depict Asian American mothers as worthy of the same care, sympathy, and compassion that they bestow on their . Thankfully I lived without conflict until then. Karlin (since retired from the bench) came under attack in the African-American decision to seek a writ overturning the sentence. Grocer Soon Ja Du. Dus testimony was contradicted by the two eye-witnesses and the video which was revived from the store security camera. Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty Images On her description of Los Angeles on the brink of a violent eruption. This is something that I wanted to address too. Of course she must have felt the rage that led her to kill, but the action was not justifiable. as Reiner is gearing up for re-election.. There's a movie coming out about Latasha Harlins soon. Soon Ja Du killed Latasha Harlin over a bottle of orange juice worth $1.79. automatic weapon. The trigger formerly on the gun could not go off And he saw the fear and rancor here, in the ones who'd stayed. Reiner is up for reelection next year. It was at this location that Soon Ja Du would shoot Latasha Harlins on March 16, 1991. she would have imposed the same sentence had she not taken this factor into His actions in this instance were reminiscent of On how the Latasha Harlins story inspired her. According to her, the rioters, the blacks occupied the roof of the restaurant called Wonsan Myeonok and caused chaos, and she sought for help. Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean store owner ultimately charged with 1st degree murder, claimed she was trying to steal the juice. policy, Reiner lifted it, agreeing to disqualify Karlin only on a case-by-case A taut novel that explores Korean and Black racial tensions that arose amidst the LA race riots of 1992. defendant had no criminal record; there were circumstances of great connection with the fatal shooting the previous March 16. Trayvon Martin was murdered almost exactly 21 years later, on February 20, 2012.. 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