UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS / PART 3 : WITNESS TO RAGE : THE YOUNG : ‘When they were looting the store, I was just laughing.’

We have a corner store which was owned by a black man who leased it to Koreans. So they were selling their products to the neighborhood, and they burnt that down. A couple of blocks down, they burnt the the whole ABC grocery market. It was like all around here, it’s like every Korean store that was up was burnt down--either looted or burnt down.

When they were takin’ the stuff . . . when they were looting the store . . . when they was taking out the goods or whatever from there, I didn’t pay no mind. I was just laughing ‘cause I was outside lookin’ at ‘em. I didn’t actually go in there and take something, but I didn’t mind. At some point, I felt that they deserved it for the way that they was treatin’ people.

When there’s an opportunity, people will take it. There was an opportunity to get a lot of free stuff--especially food--because food around here is like a lot of money. ABC is high-priced.

And the money that we are giving to the stores, they’re taking it to their community, Koreatown. If a black man owned the store, the money would stay among us and help us build the community up. Just because it’s labeled as the ghetto doesn’t mean it has to be.