Editing 1992 Los Angeles riots (section)

==Involvement==

===Korean Americans===
{{See also|History of Korean Americans in Los Angeles}}

Many Korean Americans in Los Angeles refer to the event as 'Sa-I-Gu', meaning "four-two-nine" in the [[Korean language]] (4.29), in reference to April 29, 1992, which was the day the riots started. Over 2,300 mom-and-pop shops run by Korean business owners were damaged through ransacking and looting during the riots, sustaining close to $400 million in damages.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/25-years-after-la-riots-koreatown-finds-strength-saigu-legacy-n749081|title=25 years after LA riots, Koreatown finds strength in 'Saigu' legacy|work=NBC News|access-date=May 12, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref>

During the riots, Korean Americans received very little aid or protection from police authorities, due to their low social status and language barriers.<ref name=Kim>{{cite journal |last=Kim |first=Rose M. |title=3. Violence and Trauma as Constitutive Elements in Korean American Racial Identity Formation: The 1992 L.A. Riots/Insurrection/Saigo. |journal=Ethnic & Racial Studies |year=2012 |volume=35 |issue=11 |pages=1999–2018 |doi=10.1080/01419870.2011.602090|s2cid=144670407}}</ref> Many Koreans rushed to [[Koreatown, Los Angeles|Koreatown]] after Korean-language radio stations called for volunteers to guard against rioters. Many of the volunteers that helped defend the Korean stores were from an organization called LA Korean Youth Task Force and they went to protect these stores because there were no adult males in those families that could do it.<ref>Kang, Hanna, "Korean American-Black conflict during L.A. riots was overemphasized by the media, experts say", NBCNews.com, April 29, 2022.</ref>  Many were armed, with a variety of improvised weapons, handguns, shotguns, and [[semi-automatic rifle]]s.<ref name="LA Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-02-mn-1281-story.html |title=King Case Aftermath: A City In Crisis : Looters, Merchants Put Koreatown Under The Gun : Violence: Lacking Confidence In The Police, Employees And Others Armed Themselves To Protect Mini-Mall |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=August 25, 2016 |first=Ashley |last=Dunn |date=May 2, 1992}}</ref>

Television coverage of two Korean merchants firing pistols repeatedly at roving looters was widely seen and controversial. ''[[The New York Times]]'' said: "that the image seemed to speak of race war, and of vigilantes taking the law into their own hands."<ref name="NY Times2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/riot-los-angles-pocket-tension-target-rioters-koreatown-bitter-armed-determined.html?pagewanted=all |title=Riot In Los Angeles: Pocket of Tension; A Target of Rioters, Koreatown Is Bitter, Armed and Determined |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 25, 2016|first=Seth |last=Mydans |date=May 3, 1992}}</ref> One of the merchants, David Joo, said, "I want to make it clear that we didn't open fire first. At that time, four police cars were there. Somebody started to shoot at us. The LAPD ran away in half a second. I never saw such a fast escape. I was pretty disappointed." Carl Rhyu, also a participant in the Koreans' armed response, said, "If it was your own business and your own property, would you be willing to trust it to someone else? We are glad the National Guard is here. They're good backup. But when our shops were burning we called the police every five minutes; no response."<ref name="NY Times2"/> At a shopping center several miles north of Koreatown, Jay Rhee, who said he and others fired five hundred shots into the ground and air, said, "We have lost our faith in the police. Where were you when we needed you?" Despite Koreatown's relative geographical isolation from South Central Los Angeles, it was the most severely damaged in the riots.<ref name="Kim"/>

The riots have been considered a major turning point in the development of a distinct Korean American identity and community. Korean Americans responded in various ways, including the development of new ethnic agendas and organization and increased political activism.

====Preparations ahead of the 1993 verdict====
One of the largest armed camps in Los Angeles's Koreatown congregated at the California Market. On the first night after the officers' verdicts were returned, Richard Rhee, the market owner, set up camp in the parking lot with about 20 armed employees.<ref name="Los Angeles Times">{{cite news |title=Cover Story – The Man Behind the Monster |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-28-ca-436-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=July 28, 1991 |access-date=August 30, 2009 |first=Robert |last=Pittman}}</ref> One year after the riots, fewer than one in four damaged or destroyed businesses had reopened, according to the survey conducted by the Korean American Inter-Agency Council.<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/10/us/korean-shop-owners-fearful-of-outcome-of-beating-trial.html?pagewanted=all |title=Korean Shop Owners Fearful Of Outcome of Beating Trial |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 25, 2016|first=Seth |last=Mydans |date=April 10, 1993}}</ref> According to a ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' survey conducted eleven months after the riots, almost 40 percent of Korean Americans said they were thinking of leaving Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-19-me-12656-story.html |date=March 19, 1993 |title=40% of Koreans in Poll Ponder Leaving : Riots: Survey of business owners finds deep concern. Blacks also voice fears but fewer want to relocate. |author=K. Connie Kang |newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 11, 2011}}</ref>

Before a verdict was issued in the new 1993 Rodney King federal civil rights trial against the four officers, many Korean shop owners prepared for violence. Gun sales increased sharply, many to people of Korean descent; some merchants at flea markets removed merchandise from shelves, and they fortified storefronts with extra [[Plexiglas]] and bars. Throughout the region, merchants readied to defend themselves, and others formed armed militia groups.<ref name="NY Times"/> College student Elizabeth Hwang spoke of the attacks on her parents' convenience store in 1992. She said at the time of the 1993 trial, they had been armed with a [[Glock 17]] pistol, a [[Beretta M9|Beretta]], and a [[shotgun]], and they planned to barricade themselves in their store to fight off looters.<ref name="NY Times" />

====Aftermath====
[[File:Los Angeles Riots, 1992 (17094954065).jpg|thumb|People looting a clothing store]]

About 2,300 Korean-owned stores in southern California were looted or burned, making up 45 percent of all damages caused by the riot. According to the Asian and Pacific American Counseling and Prevention Center, 730 Koreans were treated for [[post-traumatic stress disorder]], which included insomnia and a sense of helplessness and muscle pain. In reaction, many Korean Americans worked to create political and social empowerment.<ref name=Kim />

As a result of the LA riots, Korean Americans formed activist organizations such as the Association of Korean American Victims. They built collaborative links with other ethnic groups through groups like the Korean American Coalition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rtjournal.cgu.edu/nancy_park.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304173745/http://rtjournal.cgu.edu/nancy_park.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 4, 2009|title=Untitled Document|date=March 4, 2009}}</ref> A week after the riots, in the largest Asian American protest ever held in a city, about 30,000 mostly-Korean and Korean American marchers walked the streets of LA Koreatown, calling for peace and denouncing violence. This cultural movement was devoted to the protection of Koreans' political rights, ethnic heritage, and political representation. New leaders arose within the community, and second-generation children spoke on behalf of the community. Korean Americans began to have different occupation goals, from store-owners to political leaders. Korean Americans worked to gain governmental aid to rebuild their damaged neighborhoods. Countless community and advocacy groups have been established to further fuel Korean political representation and understanding.<ref name=Kim />

Edward Taehan Chang, a professor of ethnic studies and founding director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at the [[University of California, Riverside]], has identified the LA riots as a turning point for the development of a Korean American identity separate from that of Korean immigrants and that was more politically active. "What was an immigrant Korean identity began to shift. The Korean American identity was born ... They learned a valuable lesson that we have to become much more engaged and politically involved and that political empowerment is very much part of the Korean American future."{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}

According to Edward Park, the 1992 violence stimulated a new wave of political activism among Korean Americans, but it also split them into two camps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lmu.edu/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=22013 |title=Asian Pacific American Studies |work=Loyola Marymount University|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018180912/http://www.lmu.edu/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=22013 |archive-date=October 18, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://myweb.lmu.edu/epark/ |title=Edward J.W. Park|work=Loyola Marymount University|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629205348/http://myweb.lmu.edu/epark/ |archive-date=June 29, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The liberals sought to unite with other minorities in Los Angeles to fight against racial oppression and [[scapegoating]]. The conservatives emphasized [[law and order (politics)|law and order]] and generally favored the economic and social policies of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. The conservatives tended to emphasize the differences between Koreans and other minorities, specifically African Americans.<ref>Edward J.W. Park, "Competing visions: Political formation of Korean Americans in Los Angeles, 1992–1997", ''Amerasia Journal'', 1998, Vol. 24 Issue 1, pp. 41–57</ref><ref>Nancy Abelmann and John Lie, ''Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots'' (1997)</ref>

===Latinos===
According to a 1993 report by the Latinos Futures Research Group for the Latino Coalition for a New Los Angeles, one-third of those who were killed and one half of those who were arrested in the riots were Latino; between 20 and 40 percent of the businesses that were looted were owned by Latinos.<ref name=Hayes-Bautista>{{cite journal |last1=Hayes-Bautista |first1=David E. |last2=Schink |first2=Werner O. |last3=Hayes-Bautista |first3=Maria |title=Latinos and the 1992 Los Angeles riots: a behavioral sciences perspective |journal=Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences |date=November 1, 1993 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=427–448|doi=10.1177/07399863930154001 |s2cid=145556665 }}</ref> Hispanics were considered a minority despite their increasing numbers, so they lacked political support and were poorly represented. This lack of social and political representation obscured acknowledgment of their participation in the riots. Many who lived in the area were new immigrants, not yet able to speak [[English language|English]].<ref name=Newman>{{cite news |last=Newman |first=Maria |title='After the Riots: Riots Put Focus on Hispanic Growth and Problems in South Central Area |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/11/us/after-riots-riots-put-focus-hispanic-growth-problems-south-central-area.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 9, 2012 |date=May 11, 1992}}</ref>

According to Gloria Alvarez, the riots united Hispanics and black people instead of driving them apart. Although the riots were viewed as having different aspects, Alvarez writes that they contributed to greater understanding between Hispanics and blacks. Hispanics now heavily populate the once-predominantly-black area, and the relationship between Hispanics and blacks has improved. Building a stronger and more-understanding community could help prevent outbreaks of social chaos,<ref name=Alvarez>{{cite news |last=Alvarez |first=Gloria |title=20 Year Ago: For Many Latinos, the L.A. Riots Were Not About Outrage |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWed?p_product=AWNB&p_ |publisher=Eastern Group Publications |access-date=November 9, 2012 |archive-date=June 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613051708/http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWed?p_product=AWNB&p_ |url-status=dead }}</ref> although hate crimes and widespread violence between the two groups continue to be a problem in the Los Angeles area.<ref>{{cite news | first1=Sam |last1=Quinones |first2=Richard |last2=Winton |first3=Joe |last3=Mozingo |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2013-jan-25-la-me-0126-compton-20130126-story.html |title=Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence |work=Los Angeles Times |date=January 25, 2013 |access-date=September 6, 2013 }}</ref>