Thread by @nine_niall

@chadloder, I absolutely could have missed it but how come there seems to be a lack of pushback against Tony Moon (@RoofKorean7) using "Rooftop Korean" as if they did something heroic in 1992?

Is this shit supposed to be off limits or something?

'Cause I'm gonna talk about it.

https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1431134177752092675

For those that don't know, "Rooftop Korean" refers to groups of armed store owners and vigilantes who staged themselves on rooftops and in the streets of Koreatown during the 1992 LA Uprising.

First, you have to understand that Koreatown wasn't targeted out of the blue...

While there were a variety of factors that led to over 2,000 Korean businesses being destroyed (causing half a billion dollars in damages), there is one glaring, painful direct incident that occured.

First and foremost, though, LAPD and the (in)justice system screwed everyone.

Everyone knows the beating of Rodney King by LAPD on March 3rd, 1991.

Followed by the acquittal of the officers involved on April 29, 1992 and city erupting into chaos and flames.

What often gets lost in the story of 1992 (though it's seems attempts are being made to rectify...

this injustice, at the very least, saying her name) is the story of Latasha Harlins.

Harlins was a 15 year old Black girl who entered the Empire Liquor Store (91st and Figueroa) to purchase a drink for her grandmother.

She selected her grandmother's orange juice, placed it...

in her bag, and with money in hand headed towards the counter.

Soon Ja Du, the store owner, immediately assumed the girl meant to shoplift the drink (the store had a reputation for accusing local teenagers of shoplifting, regardless of proof) and grabbed Latasha by the arm...

Latasha swung, connecting at least once (leaving Soon Ja Du with a black eye). Soon Ja Du threw a chair at the teenager and Latasha tried to leave.

At this point, Soon Ja Du shot her.

As she was leaving.

In the back of the head.

Latasha's money still clenched in her fist.

A bottle of orange juice that coasts $1.79.

The date was March 16th, 1991. Almost two weeks to the day of the Rodney King beating.

An unrepentant Soon Ja Du attempts to claim she shot a 15 year old child in the back of the head in... self-defense.

There is no murder charge...

Soon Ja Du is arrested, tried and convicted on a voluntary manslaughter charge.

Yet there is no prison sentence.

On November 15th, 1991 she is sentenced to a ten year sentence.

SUSPENDED!

Instead there will be 400 hours of community service and restitution.

Five months later the Rodney King officers are acquitted and all hell breaks loose.

To be clear, Koreans have their own legit grievances.

Their stores are subjected to theft and violent robberies. I don't have the cite in front of me but I know there is a recent (for then)...

case of two Korean shopkeepers executed at point-blank during a robbery.

While there has always been an underlying "romanticism" with the Rooftop Koreans, last year militia, white supremacists and apperantly @RoofKorean7 went overboard with it, in the midst of Kyle Rittenhouse..

and Donald Trump's, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

The real legacy of the 1992 Rooftop Koreans?

They didn't prevent destruction of their businesses.

And, contrary to the claims they never shot or killed anyone, the majority had no idea what they were doing....

Many had never held a gun before, let alone shot one. The inexperienced far outnumbered the South Vietnam veterans sprinkled amongst them.

They engaged in gun battles, not just with looters, but blind three way battles with police, looters and each other.

Multiple killings...

occured within stores resulting in the deaths of alleged "looters."

Deaths never fully investigated or (as in the case of the unsolved death of Hector Castro outside a Koreatown market) deemed at the time "impossible to solve" due to 300+ shopkeepers and looters involved in...

a massive gun battle (no figure released on the number of LAPD surely involved).

Or deaths like Patrick Bettan, a security guard, who was accidentally shot and killed by a co-worker in Koreatown.

But the *real* legacy of the Rooftop Koreans should be Edward Jae Song Lee.

Lee, like Rittenhouse, was a teenager with a misplaced sense of responsibility.

A teenager who never should have been in the situation he was in.

A situation, like Rittenhouse, he placed himself in.

The difference is that while Rittenhouse walked away with three murders....

forever attached to his soul and his firearm, Edward Jae Song Lee lost his life.

Shot to death in a crossfire of two other Korean groups "protecting" their property.

There is an amazing interview with his mother detailing what happened that night...
abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/…

How Lee was answering a call for property protection from "Radio Korea," a pirate newscaster responsible for the spread of false, unverifiable "news" (so similar to today).

And today we have Tony Moon.

While Lee was born in the States and Moon arrived as a child in 1977...

(and assuming Moon isn't full of shit with his rooftop claims)... they were roughly the same exact age during those days and nights of hell, 1992.

The next tweet is the most important.

Everytime you hear the name Tony Moon, remember this...

CW: blurred graphic image

When you see that "Los Angeles Roof Korean Security - est. 1992" shirt that @RoofKorean7 so proudly wears to rallies...

Remember the toll Rooftop Korean Security took.

Specifically, these two images of Edward Jae Song Lee and his three friends.

That's the lasting legacy.

And finally, the best two pieces of news in this entire thread

1) Latasha Harlins was honored with a memorial in February of this year....

latimes.com/california/sto…

2) And in April, just a few months shy of what should have been her 46th birthday in July, the park in which she grew up playing was renamed in her honor.

Say her name.

#LatashaHarlins

abc7.com/amp/latasha-ha…

I want to make one more thing clear.

This isn't, in anyway, an indictment of the entire Korean community.

This was hard to write. Several times I almost stopped and deleted the entire thing because of the feeling "it's not my place" to speak out on.

It IS....

It IS absolutely a criticism of @RoofKorean7, who in addition to his horrid pride in the actions of the 1992 Rooftop Koreans, has been filmed multiple times the past few weeks attacking women.

It's a criticism of other Koreans who defend the rooftop vigilantes of 1992...

And I know I may be dragged over this thread.

Just know my ears and heart are open to discussion.

🙏🏼

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