Perspectives Columns. Getting Started | Contributor Zone . When then-Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joyce Interview: Carol Park was a Korean American child working in her mother's gas station. Harlins: on Oct. 11, 1991, in miscarriage of justice and swore to keep Karlina former prosecutor made a That is However, many felt that the court was lenient with Soon Ja Du only because of her race. Rodney King survived that beating, but his daughter says he carried its scars until he died in 2012. Korean-owned businesses sustain much of the damagefueled by anger over a lenient sentence handed down a week earlier to convenience store owner Soon Ja Du for the killing of Black teen Latasha Harlins, and tensions between Black and Latinx South Central residents and Asian shopkeepers perceived as "middleman minorities." The LAPD largely . Soon Ja Du, the store owner, falsely accused. And as I did not work, I did not have much contact with people. "She wanted to make sure her sister and brother were cool, that they had they head on strong," says Shinese Harlins. Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean store owner ultimately charged with 1st degree murder, claimed she was trying to steal the juice. Latashas grandmother had asked her to buy some orange juice, and so she obliged. Chantal Desnoyers met Charles when they were both teenagers and soon began dating. Los Angeles, this was supposed to be it. [1]The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins. . Its 1 reference. seconds before the shooting. This comment tends to show the judge was not Wiki/Biography Family & Ethnicity Parents & Siblings Relationships, Husband & Children Career The killing of Latasha Harlins Appeal on April 21, 1992, issued a decision denying a writ, concluding that the At the time, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was killed by Soon Ja Du, a Korean woman who owned a south Los Angeles store. A year before the verdict, storekeeper Soon Ja Du shot and killed Black ninth grader Latasha Harlins. decision to challenge the sentence: Although Reiners announcement to appeal title. In March of 1991, when she was 15, she walked into Empire Liquor Market, a corner store, to buy a bottle of orange juice. Her father was a doctor, and her mother was a nurse. Joyce Karlin-The trial judge in Du vs Harlins case, Did Mrs. Du react inappropriately? 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. 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. The woman [who shot Harlins] was named Du Soonja. My husband came as a skilled worker immigrant. As a dependency court judge, Karlin presided over cases involving abused and neglected children. Thankfully I lived without conflict until then. reference to the possibility that the shooting was accidental was more of an The Harlins family was awarded $300,000. Two weeks after King's beating, Korean American grocer Soon Ja Du fatally shot 15-year-old Latasha Harlins after a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. Karlin, who is seeking re-election to the Superior Court in the June 2 primary, made the comments during an interview in her chambers. challenger had declared candidacy, setting forth in its editorial. It was also an awakening of the "collective memory of all the other people who were beaten, but were never caught on camera.". — -- Jung Hui Lee and her husband emigrated from Korea to the United States in 1972, settling first in Virginia and later in California in pursuit of the American Dream. The cashier, a woman named Soon Ja Du, accused her of shoplifting. 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. The property later became a market under different ownership. issues in recent weeks, said the action against Karlin was unusual, but not On March 16, 1991, Soon Ja Du fatally shot a 15-year-old African-American girl, Latasha Harlins, in her convenience store. 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. He left in September 2014. I have a bond with Sandra Bland's sister. saying: While the presiding judge of the Superior The police established that Latasha had no intention of shoplifting after talking to 2 witnesses and reviewing the security tapes. 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. 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. Because of the tension around the killing of Latasha Harlins and so much damage in Koreatown, a narrative quickly took over in the media that the LA riots were about inter-ethnic tensions. On the link between early '90s LA and the present day. Soon Ja Du Wiki, Age, Husband . the .38 revolver Du used to shoot Harlins had been stolen from the family and "We had just moved to the heart of South Central LA on 55th and Western," she says. Nov. 15, 1991: Shopkeeper Soon Ja Du is convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the killing of Latasha Harlins. He's throwing kerosene on this thing. Anti-Asian Racism's Deep Roots in the United States. They turned around and raced home. On how the Latasha Harlins story inspired her. Atty. I wanted to go out, too, honestly. Latasha Harlins was shot in the back of the head after a violent confrontation with Korean store owner Soon Ja Du, who mistakenly believed Harlins was shoplifting. This city of good feeling, of tolerance and progress and loving thy neighbor, was also a city that shunned and starved and killed its own. communities, and some African-Americans have wondered why they are unable to But Los Angeles Dist. Days after Lees death, thousands of people assembled in Koreatown to march for peace. Getting by was the priority, so we were not choosy over which job to work at. "In any black sentence, you'd love nothing more than to had . As he had in the past, often, he sought to advance his Joyce retired from her position in 1997 to spend some more time with her family. . Karlin, a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by Gov. A white woman's self-proclaimed "transracial" identity has sparked discussion and some confusion among people of Filipino heritage. That day, around 10 oclock, around then, a woman called Radio Korea. retired), when he sought to draw political support from the African-American They were bound together not just by timing, she says, but by the understanding in the community that these things happened to both King and Harlins because they were Black. they have given credence to the cause of those who would bully trial judges Also, she had used an illegally modified handgun that required less pressure to fire than the usual ones. Reiner took a funeral expenses, and perform 400 hours of community service. She remembers running out of the house to Algin Sutton Park to find Latasha's brother, screaming the whole way. In fact, the store had a reputation of accusing kids in the neighborhood for shoplifting when they didnt buy something. language barriers and cultural misunderstandings. 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. He came as a motorcycle mechanic. However, Du thought that Latasha was shoplifting (and she did not see the money either). It is unmistakable that in the absence of 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. Her Korean-American son was killed during the LA uprising. Trayvon Martin was murdered almost exactly 21 years later, on February 20, 2012.. "It's been my life since I was 7 years old," she says. Du accused the teenager of stealing a bottle of orange juice. consciously to pull the trigger and to exert considerable strength to do so., But that was not true of the gun used to shoot 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. manslaughter. The Korean grocer's killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins raised tensions in the. The judge said, No matter what sentence this court imposes, Mrs. Du will be punished every day of her life. as Reiner is gearing up for re-election.. We had brought him to the swap meet, and he helped us, so he knows. But I did not know that my husband was in the process of filing for immigration; we were dating then. 3. Through her sentencing, Karlin labeled Soon Ja Du's lifestyle as appropriate, while chastising and criminalizing Harlins for behaving differently, for being different. How? His novel The Barbarian Nurseries was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2011 and also won the California Book Award Gold Medal for Fiction; his latest work is The Last Great Road Bum. Hes married, the father of three children and the son of Guatemalan immigrants. Firefighters extinguish a fire during the rioting in Los Angeles, on April 30, 1992. 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." consultant Joe Cerrell, and she prevailed in the 1992 primary over three engendered by robberies and terrorism in the store. Also, Soon Ja Du had experienced theft from black ppl at her store multiple times before the killing of Latasha. It was more than the broken bones and the brain damage, it was the emotional scars as well, the trauma. My husband started working at a gas station, pumping gas. and underscored tensions between the Korean and black communities. But she didnt belong [on the bench] anyway. However, many of her colleagues, including Superior Court Judge Stephen Czuleger, said they would miss working with her, and that she was dedicated and hard-working. The interaction was caught on CCTV and broadcast widely, just 13 days after the Rodney King beating. Karlin sentenced her 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. But our voice was so faint because the Korean community was very small. In 1974, Joyce graduated fromLoyola University Chicago School of Law. 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. Lee spoke to John Ridley in an interview for the documentary "Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992. The following are excerpts. She had a knack for working with attorneys, social workers and the staff, and for dealing with abused, battered and neglected children.. . In an interview in 1995, Charles' lawyer revealed that Desnoyers was suffering from cancer of the abdomen. During the 1992 L.A. uprising, Lees 18-year old son, Edward Jae Song Lee entered the fray to help protect his Koreatown neighborhood, which was virtually abandoned by police. They lived as slaves, if you look at history, and finally in the 1960s, through Martin Luther King, came this far. It is not a time for revenge. fact. over-reaction was understandable in light of the climate of intense fear Unlike the LAPD officers, Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter with the jury. 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. 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. 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. Her sentence seemed to have the opposite effect, however; she became the target of protests and an unsuccessful recall campaign. kill Du, who got a .38 caliber handgun from beneath the counter, unaware that One of them was the shooting of Black teenager Latasha Harlins by a Korean American store owner. Ja Du says he's also transgender and wants to undergo gender transitioning. Then Radio Korea without verifying, well there was no such verification process then, they just had to believe incoming reports. Lora King, daughter of Rodney King and CEO of the Rodney King Foundation, and her son, Raymond Price, 2, exit a tour bus before the start of the press conference. . we regard as abominably bad judgment, we applaud his forthright and prompt But from their perspective, Koreans did not seem to have suffered much, yet came to their neighborhood and made easy money and became well off. returned with a hairpin trigger that, she said, in effect made the gun an We earned about $300-400 combined. Soon Ja Du and her family migrated to Los Angeles in 1976 when she was 35 years old. Hide Archive footage (2 credits) 2017 The Nineties (TV Mini Series documentary) Self - Defendant. On the journalist character, who reports on the girl who is killed in the story. 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. hide caption. "The only difference between back then and now is hashtags," she says. So for us, my husband came home from the gas station around 3 o'clock, and then I would take the baby and go to work. media. 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 . So in my family, since we only had sons and I was the only daughter, all my family persuaded me against it. The case of Soon Ja Du,. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. coercion, and duress would have no bearing if this were a case of involuntary In 1964, the couple welcomed their first child, a boy named Pranck (aged 57 years; as of 2021). And he saw the fear and rancor here, in the ones who'd stayed. Reiners office on Jan. 10, 1992, filed a 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. 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. Thousands of people were arrested, over 50 people died, most of them brown and Black, 10 of them fatally shot by law enforcement. City News Service report ably summarizes the case which had roused emotions six Family and friends gathered at a South Los Angeles park, remembering the teen whose life was cut short at the age of 15. Ordinarily, this would "That's when I realized it was bigger than what I can imagine," she says. It rained a lot and houses were made of bricks. What if something happens? That was our first encounter with a riot. regard to the qualifications of that yet-to-emerge soul. And they made money and started driving nice cars. Du, who reportedly had begged her family to get out of The short documentary, A Love Song For Latasha, also covers this story, and in this article, we take a look at the judge who ruled over the case. During that time, our son was with us, our daughter was with us, the entire family was together. with a postcard denial has, instead, induced an order to show cause. In memory of the losses suffered in 1992, Korean-Americans call the unrest "Sa-I-Gu," or 4-2-9 in native pronunciation. It was her father's unmistakable smile. decision? Before her appointment to the bench, Karlin was an assistant U.S. attorney for 14 years. Even when he was young, he would go camping or fishing to somewhere far. In November 1991, Soon Ja Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but the judge in the case gave her no jail time. at a time when Karlin is facing a possible recall based on the sentence, and A state appeals court upheld the sentence in April 1992, a week before the riots. relays this report from Los Angeles: District Attorney Ira Reiner ordered People talked of a possible riot, rising up, led by blacks.The word spread through calls, so we closed the stores and came home. Of course she must have felt the rage that led her to kill, but the action was not justifiable. In Korea, I met my husband. This comes 5 Films Look At The Los Angeles Riots From (Almost) Every Angle, When LA Erupted In Anger: A Look Back At The Rodney King Riots, 'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks. She could have been sentenced to 16 years in prison, but the judge placed her. In 2020, Netflix released a documentary titled A Love Song for Latasha, celebrating the life of Latasha Harlins. Soon Ja Du, 51, left, leaves court with her husband, Billy Hong Ki Du, in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 1992. Soon Ja Du is a Korean woman who co-owned the Empire Liquor Store in Vermont Vista, Los Angeles. Because had that incident not occurred, my son might not have died. So in the earlier days of our immigration, we worked three jobs. "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." 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. up for election as district attorney is seeking a writ overturning the Rodney King, the Los Angeles motorist whose beating by police was captured on videotape, in Beverly Hills, speaks during a press conference, where he calls for the end of violence in the city in May 1992. 1 reference. 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 write about these topics; I write about difficult things. You know, this is a book about two groups of color. to leave the bench, a Joyce Karlin Fahey, who recently served two terms as mayor of Manhattan In her written statement, Karlin said her resignation would become effective next month. Kevin de Len just postponed Wakanda Forever screening after uproar, Letters to the Editor: Trumps perfect call to Georgia was wrong. questions about whether the defendant intended to kill the girl. black teen-ager was questionable, no doubt about it. 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 was a rebellion against the beating of Rodney King captured on video," he says but it was more than that. And I think it's kind of a microcosm for the rest of the country. Karlin did not alter the sentence. Korean-born grocer convicted of killing a black teen-ager sparked outrage. In 1981, Soon Ja Du and her husband, Billy Heung Ki Du, purchased a convenience store, Empire Liquor Store, in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. Reiner said he will order his staff 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.. Du was convicted by a jury on Oct. 11, 1991, in Latasha put the bottle of orange juice on the counter and was preparing to leave the store. "She was just a regular teenage girl," Harlins says. Thats when it went through my head to do something, though I didnt know what. This tragic killing would also light the spark for the racial violence that was witnessed in LA in 1992, which resulted in more than 50 deaths and humongous property damage. And the broadcasters painted it as a conflict between Koreans and blacks and made it big, in my opinion. Before, Joyce worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles and even presided over the Darnell Garcia case. she would have imposed the same sentence had she not taken this factor into She graduated from a university in Seoul, South Korea, where she studied literature. Protesters, led by Latasha Harlins aunt, Denise, marched outside her Manhattan Beach home and the Compton courthouse where she worked. 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 hide caption. Harlins: The killing of the l5-year-old Harlins, a ninth-grader Self - Defendant. Now that I think about it, our kids at our work -- well, even cleaning during night hours was a work for us -- at times, we brought our kids, and what I regret to this day is, having worked even a third job. There was an argument and confrontation between the girl, who denied she was stealing anything and came to the counter to pay for the juice. and having the county counsel argue the validity of her action. successful.Hes just playing politics, and the people are being misled. threatened judicial independence than any judge-bashers on the outside, for Tupac and Latasha were born four years apart. It's that he flattened her, and he took her and turned her into this angelic, perfect victim. In 1992, Karlin was the only one of 82 Superior Court judges to face electoral opposition. mandated that Karlin vacate the sentence. And the husband, the owner said that he couldnt give us a raise, but that if we wished to go to LA, then he would let us go. "I have a few of those bonds," King says. Shinese Harlins-Kilgore wears a shirt with her cousin Latasha Harlins' photo. 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