Editing Blog/2024-11-27/LA Koreatown (section)

== Koreatown ==

Talking to him about LA, it's funny to realize that some of the nation-defining moments that the US has had were part of the lives of folks like him. In his case, it was the 1992 LA riots. I know in the abstract that many Koreans took to their rooftops with firearms to protect their shops and homes. But the reality of people's experience is quite something when described.

Imagine your friend getting a call to defend the family's shop and you go there holding bats and stand in front of the store only to see pickup trucks in the distance with people in the back yelling; and then hiding in the store to see a large group of people armed with handguns and bats go by. When I recall my eleventh standard high-school experience it had no shade of this kind of threat. What a turbulent nation!

One particularly sad story he told us is about how Korean radio would broadcast information about places that needed help to be defended. One of the big scandals in the community is that one of the people whose store was under threat mistook reinforcements for imminent attack and killed a friend in friendly fire. What a way to go. But when trained soldiers end up doing this, I suppose it can't be helped that this sort of thing happens.