I was staggering through the internet a few weeks back and saw that the folks at Violent Little Machine Shop, maker of some of my favorite ‘morale’ patches, had this little number:
What, you may ask, is a ‘Roof Korean’? Well, it was 25 years ago so it’s entirely possible that a generation of survivalists may have not even been around when the Roof Koreans (and Ground Koreans) were workin’ their mojo.
You know how in survivalist fiction there’s always those gun battles on Main Street with the townies and local shopkeepers swapping bullets with the bad guys like all the rules have been called off? Well, that actually happened.
Roof Koreans operating operationally.
The year was 1992 and a handful of white cops had beat a black motorist so badly that his parents must have felt it. The difference between this episode and the LA police departments other beatdowns was that this one was caught on tape and widely distributed. The cops went to trial on charges of police brutality. When the jury returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’ against the cops, a disgruntled demographic decided to politely protest the verdict by setting fires, looting, and committing violence against people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Where were the cops? Well…that’s a good question. The official story is that the cops were outnumbered, too busy, stretched thin, etc. The prevailing opinion, however, is that they decided to let the mobs ‘get it out of their system’ and things would cam down. The Koreans just happened to be the target of choice for the mobs to use to let off some steam.
The Korean connection is that there has always been some bad blood between the black community and the Korean shopkeepers. Korean grocery stores are often targeted in these sorts of events because the black community, rightly or wrongly, views the Koreans as people who are just making a buck off them and care nothing about, and contribute nothing to, the black community. Against this backdrop of the 1992 LA Riots, some Korean businesses were targetted for violence.
Koreans are an interesting bunch. The ones I’ve met tend to be quite industrious and hard working. The Korean grocer in my neighborhood in Brooklyn was, as we’d say, a real mensch. He was the kinda grocer who, if money was tight, would let you get groceries and pay later. His wife and little girl worked in that shop and you can bet that he took care of that store because it took care of his family. Solid guy.
And….guys like that don’t take kindly to someone threatening to burn down the business that they’ve worked so hard to build. And a surprising number of Koreans have had military training in the old country. South Korea, being technically at war for the last 60 years, does not fool around with it’s military preparedness and training.
So…take a demographic that is highly-motivated to protect their livelihoods, have a strong sense of community, have some military training (or leadership that does), a surprising amount of weapons, put them in an urban cage match where the referees (the police) have decided to stay home and you get… Roof Koreans.
Rook Koreans were the symbol of the Korean shopkeeper protecting his store and his neighborhood. Even the unorganized mobs that were bent on an orgy of ‘payback’ and ‘justice’ decided to give these guys a wide berth. And when they didn’t…it became a bullet party.
The LA Riots of ’92 were interesting to watch and had some wide ranging impact. Police policy changed and, more importantly, the notion of the recording of police activities by bystanders entered the mainstream. This new level of accountability, which was beyond police control, still causes headlines…it seems like every recent high-profile shooting is caught on video these days.
I don’t know anyone who was there with the Koreans, Ground Or Roof version, but I would imagine that the whole incident left a strong impression and that if it happens again there will be significant upgrade to the firepower. Standing guard all night behind barricades of bundled recycled cardboard definitely makes one think that perhaps a Mini-14 might be a better choice than a Ruger Red Label.
Given the nature of politics and media these days, it isn’t hard to think that there’s going to be more events like these in the future. Best we can do is avoid it if possible and be prepared for the times we can’t.
I was in the Marines stationed in the Orange County area at a base that no longer exists during the riots. Wall to wall coverage on the tv, the violence was terrible and I remember the Roof Koreans very well. So many Los Angelinos were shocked SHOCKED that the cops didn’t just go down there and take those guns away from the Koreans. “I mean they are just shooting people!” I got the impression that the cops were happy to leave them there and let them do their thing as it kept things from getting truely out of hand in those areas. A group comes by, tryies to start something and the Koreans would have none of that, after a few groups came by with the same results, the area became a little safer.
After about three days “random acts of kindness” started to occur, people across the street would bring the Koreans food, happy that their house was next to those who would drive off the “evil-doers”. A common business man would put down his briefcase and take over a hose line from an exhausted firefighter. And the churches started to take a stand and say “not our neighborhood.”
All in all a decent lesson in having weapons “just in case”.
I was working in Hollyweird and living in Highland Park/Eagle Rock/South Pasadena during the Rodney King Riots. Our shop in HW had a dumpster set on fire, but the FD was still responding at that point and saved our shop and livelihoods. I drove home past strip malls on Western avenue that had crowds milling about, that by the time I got home, were looted and burning. Missed getting caught in that by about 20 minutes.
It was incredibly strange going to work the next day, passing smoking holes and piles of rubble where businesses used to be.
One of my coworkers spent several days at his mother’s house, shooting at people who got too aggressive. Another learned first hand the joys of living in an urban area (artists lofts, and not the yuppie version) when forced to evac with his young family after the fires and shooting got too intense.
I laughed out loud at the gun stores with lines out the door, and a mandatory “waiting period” that the stupid sheep had voted for. After all, no one could need or want a gun RIGHT THIS DAMN MINUTE unless he was a raged out murderous spouse, right?
After a couple of days off, we returned to work and that was another absolutely eerie sight, with ANG soldiers standing on corners in downtown Hollywood, with slung rifles, and burning rubble in the background. It was absolutely post-apoc in places.
nick
oh, and with a side note to Situational Awareness. The second day we all went back to work. We had a big project to finish and had just gone to extended overtime to get done. HOWEVER, listening to the radio all morning it became clear that the rioting was gonna start back up, and we could hear in the news reports that the main mob was slowly headed our way. That’s when the boss called it and told us to go home and wait for the situation to stabilize before coming back. Radio and honest reporting saved us a lot of grief that day.
My roommate was not so lucky. He’d spent the day cloistered with his ex-wife, talking about reconciling, and in the evening stepped out to Circle K for some coffee. As he and the ex exited they were caught completely unaware by a gang of ‘youths’ and were beaten, robbed, and cut with broken bottles. He spent several days in the hospital as a result. Full on “hate crime” as the “youths” shouted racial abuse at him and his ex during the beating, but no one was ever charged or prosecuted. He had no idea that the neighborhood had gone WROL between his breakfast and dinner. His situational awareness failed on a macro and micro level, and he’s got the facial scars to prove it.
Here is some video at the time that shows the Koreans defending their property from the scum that composes much of LA. I work in downtown LA, and I know “that of which I speak.”
https://youtu.be/PmsKGhLdZuQ
https://youtu.be/nzkBGQx3HAc
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe that the depredations of these looters will not happen again if given half a chance.
My son was 12 at the time. He was in LA for a school marine biology weekend field trip. Luckily the buses stayed on the freeway and didn’t get caught up.
I remember poor Reginald Denny getting pulled out of the truck and nearly beaten to death (IIRC he did sustain permanent brain damage) for no other reason than being white. A lack of situational awareness and no weapon also played a big part. Note to self: Keep door locked and keep driving.
The Roof Korean’s showed that one will need to join forces to fight off the bad guys. One person wouldn’t have had a chance.
The cops were acquitted when the jury saw the ENTIRE videotape. What those tv assholes showed was just the part intended to inflame the public. The feds got pissed and hit them with charges to make them pay for the temerity of daring to do their job. IIRC, the main problem was the husband/wife CHP team involved. King kept trying to get at the female, which was why they kept hitting him. “stay down!”, WHACK!, repeated multiple times.
The LA area cops stopped all gun and ammo pickup at gunshops and pawn stores. They did the same thing here in the San Jose area. IIRC, they were told to close their doors for the duration, even though there wasn’t any rioting.
Never shoot all your ammo when you go target shooting. You may need it on the way home.
There was the story about the couple who went shooting in the Angeles Forest that day, and then had to traverse the entire city to get home that evening. Car full of guns, and not a single round on hand. Wasn’t until they were midway before they discovered the city had come apart at the seams.
I second that about never shoot all the ammo you have with you. I read about a couple who went on a shooting holiday and where on their way home (200 miles +) on Sep 11 2001. In a SUV with 3 AR-15s. 2 .45s a bolt-action .308 .22 rifles & handguns but not one round of ammo. Every shop which sold ammo on there way home had been closed.
As a then-lifelong resident of L.A. throughout the incident in question, I offer a few points of order:
1) There was a bit more to the black v. Korean angle than was mentioned.
a) Virtually every store (all minimart/liquor stores) open in South Central was run by Koreans, they being entrepreneurial and not risk-averse, as well as hard-working, and all the black-owned stores and major grocery chains having been cleverly burned out by the residents in the prior 1965 Watts riots, never to return.
b) Squarely astride the Rodney King trial, there was another incident, wherein a teen Dindu shoplifted an orange juice, was accosted for same by the middle-aged female Korean clerk, who grabbed the miscreant by the backpack, whereupon said big fat Dindu teen chick commenced to wail on mamasan something fierce (all caught on security camera, natch), until from exhaustion at getting beat down, mamasan finally turned loose of fat black chick thief, to enjoy the fruits of her crime. However, said thief strolled rather than running out, at which point she caught a parting gift from mamasan, in the form of a slug or two of well-aimed ballistic love, in a Darwin Award-winning manner. (Lesson: It ain’t over till it’s over!) When a jury saw the magnitude of the beating the decedent had delivered on the clerk to steal the OJ in question, the shopkeeper was found not guilty of anything but violating the noise ordinances for discharging a firearm within city limits, or something to that effect.
c) When the Rodney King verdicts came down, it was seen as a chance to pay back not only the LAPD, but to get even for the miscarriage of justice in the shoplifting shooting, and several other such incidents, by targeting the Korean businesses.
2) LAPD, did, in fact, drive over, and confiscate the rooftop Koreans’ shooting hardware, with much finger-wagging and admonishing them not to go all vigilante just because citywide looting was in full swing, while the cops hid. This affront the Koreans meekly protested. Then, when LAPD was off hiding at the city bus yards and the parking lot of Dodger Stadium while the city went up in flames, the Koreans went home, got their second set of rifles, and returned to their original posts. LAPD didn’t seem inclined to tempt fate, and try the good will of the merchants in question by attempting to disarm them a second time. Even odds they’d have been shot had they tried, and they were stupid, but not that stupid.
3) LAPD’s plan, from Chief Gates on down, was to run and hide, mainly out of pique that the King beatdown applied was even prosecuted, to punish the entire city for questioning their authority.
4) When the CA Army Notional Guard (not a typo) showed up to quell the rioting, the news media was happy to inform all and sundry on every channel that they weren’t a threat to rioters,because they had no bullets for their M-16s, whereupon the Guard fled to their armories for some time, lest they be jacked, and have to hand over their empty but full-auto capable assault rifles to some gang bangers with loaded .22s, etc.
5) The riots ended, for all intents and purposes, when US Marine infantry and LAV battalions from Camp Pendleton, crewed by troops with both plenty of live ammo, and their recent experience liberating Kuwait in training to use it, arrived. One dumbass rioter decided to test them by sniping at a Marine vehicle, and a load of .50BMG returned on his hide site with extreme prejudice ended his experiment with some finality.
At that point, all concerned decided that the previously scheduled Free TVs and Nike Tennis Shoes Festivities were cancelled for the duration, and went home en masse. All that remained was for the fire department, escorted by the CHP, to put out a few thousand fires within Los Angeles city limits, from the ocean to the mountains. And for somebody to tell the LAPD it was safe to go out and protect and serve (themselves) once again.
6) Notably, other municipalities whose police had evidenced enthusiasm for shooting looters and arsonists on the spot experienced a riot event tally approaching zero attempts, total, for the week.
Only L.A. city itself experienced significant losses, the bulk of which were in the very same neighborhoods burned down in South Central in 1965.
Because things were tough in the ‘hood, so tantrums and molotovs.
Which is why, to this day, South Central residents have to drive to miles-distant locales to find a department store or supermarket, and have nothing but Korean minimarts at which to shop within walking distance.
7) The cops were acquitted when the white jury in another county, in a city populated (some 30-40% by actual tally) by the same LA police, fire, and city employees who were loathe to live in the city they worked for, decided that the cops tazing and beating a guy – of any color – for minutes and minutes, including fracturing his skull multiple times, after surrounding him 15 to 1 seemed like a good idea, because the trial had been moved out of the city where it took place, and they had no personal stake in the consequences of their decision.
It should also be noted that when the citizen who shot the video attempted to deliver the videotape to the LAPD desk sergeant of the Foothill division where it took place the next morning, with a view to them investigating whether the officers involved may have been a bit more than enthusiastic, he was essentially told to GTFO, before they bum-rushed him onto the street, and then arrested him for annoying them, and administered a PR-24 shampoo to him for that offense.
So he took it to KTLA-TV instead, and the LAPD earned and deserved entirely all the malice afterwards, including the fact that none of their police reports seemed to have covered anything like the beating the videotape revealed had occurred.
(Cue >Shock!Surprise!< that the LAPD were a bunch of lying and out-of-control thugs with badges and an infallibility complex.)
Wait…Police in America who think their feces is odorless, and the citizenry are their vassal bitchez?!
Stop me if you've heard this one…