Rioting in Los Angeles

The black community was raped twice last week and three times in the past six months. The first attack came with a judge’s lenient sentencing of a Korean-born store owner for the killing of Latasha Harlins. The second attack came with the “not guilty” verdict for the four police officers in the King case. And then the final attack by their own people, primarily hoodlums and gangsters, who rampaged through the black community.

As a non-black American, I am outraged at the sentence given by the judge to the store owner. I am angry and shocked at the verdict given the four defendants in the King case. As a humanitarian, I am heartsick at the senseless attacks these hoodlums and gangsters made on people and property in the black community. It was a few hundred criminal youths who caused the problems.

We in California pride ourselves on our progressive attitude in many areas of American life. However, when it comes to race relations and the true integration of all ethnic and racial groups within our community, we fall short.

TERRY JACOBELLI, Cypress