Blacks, Koreans Seek Conciliation : Race relations: Merchants say they would hire gang members to help manage some businesses. Gangs may form ‘Guardian Angel’ style patrols.

Hailing it as a breakthrough in local race relations, a group of Korean-American merchants announced plans Monday to explore a series of ventures in African-American neighborhoods, including hiring black gang members to help manage some Korean businesses.

After a closed-door meeting with a handful of gang leaders, officials of the 3,600-member National Korean-American Grocers Assn. said they will begin researching the possibility of establishing a Korean-owned bank in riot-torn South Los Angeles to make it easier for residents there to obtain loans.

The gang members, in turn, said they might initiate their own “Guardian Angel” style patrols to protect businesses in Koreatown and South Los Angeles.

Both groups endorsed a plan to stage cultural exchanges and market T-shirts that would promote greater mutual understanding between African-Americans and Korean-Americans. The shirts would bear a Korean flag along with the likenesses of red and blue gang bandannas.

“This means a total bond between the two groups,” said the Rev. James Stern, who initiated the nearly 2 1/2-hour summit meeting and said his efforts are supported by more than 85 gangs, most of them Bloods and Crips.

Relations between Los Angeles’ African-American and Korean-American communities deteriorated last November when grocer Soon Ja Du was granted probation in the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins. When rioting erupted after the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case, Korean-run businesses in predominantly black areas--where blacks have been offered few jobs--were among the first to be looted and torched.

Since the riots, apprehensions between the two ethnic groups have continued to smolder, according to some African-American and Korean-American leaders.

City Councilman Nate Holden praised Monday’s developments but said “it’s not going to meet all the needs of the community because it’s far greater than a few businesses saying, ‘I’ll give you a job.’

“They’ve got to give these guys better education and better job training,” Holden said, “and at the same time provide very meaningful jobs.”

The gangs represented at Monday’s summit constitute a mere fraction of the hundreds in Los Angeles County, which have an estimated 100,000 members. In addition, the discussions left several questions unanswered, including the number of gang members who might be employed or when they might begin patrolling black and Korean communities.

Nevertheless, Stern and others in attendance described their talks as an encouraging first step and said more discussions are planned Friday.

“A lot of misunderstanding has gone on over the years,” said Stern, a Watts minister who has worked with gang members for several years. “It is time to do something other than talk.”

The first tangible action that will likely occur as a result of the meetings, according to participants, will be the selection of at least four gang members--two Crips and two Bloods--to fill managerial or other professional-type jobs in Korean-run businesses.

“We don’t want minimum-wage paying jobs--we need good jobs to support families,” said Liz, a Blood gang member who attended the summit wearing a red bandanna, sunglasses and baseball cap to conceal his face.

At a news conference afterward, he expressed confidence that Korean merchants would come to appreciate the varied employment skills of veteran gang members like himself who, he said, would rather work than fight.

“You have to get around us,” Liz said, “to know us.”

Yang Kim, president of the Korean-American Grocer’s Assn., agreed.

“I have hope in this idea,” said Kim, whose own grocery store on West Pico Boulevard was destroyed during the riots. Last year, in an effort to ease tensions between Korean-Americans and African-Americans, Kim and several other Korean merchants agreed to offer 100 jobs to residents of mostly black areas. The positions ranged from minimum wage to management level.

Meanwhile, about 60 placard-carrying demonstrators marched Monday from the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues to a nearby park in South Los Angeles chanting demands that the thousands of people arrested during the riots be granted amnesty.

“We want to contribute to the healing process,” said B. Kwaku Duren, a member of the Los Angeles Rebellion Action Network, which organized the march. Amnesty, Duren said, would “wipe the slate clean and we could start again with the recognition that the government system caused this (unrest) to happen.”

Members of the network, a multiethnic coalition of community activists, walked about two miles to St. Andrews Park. Speakers defended the actions of those arrested during and after the unrest as a justified expression of outrage against an unfair system.

“We’re here to say we support amnesty for all, most particularly the L.A. Four,” Duren said, referring to the four men charged with assaulting trucker Reginald O. Denny. “These four black men are being made to pay the price of a rebellion of the whole community.”

In another post-riot-related action, former gang members joined ministers at a news conference Monday calling for the Los Angeles Police Commission to investigate allegations that officers are harassing youths attending gang unity events throughout South Los Angeles.

“They’re crying foul play, that the police are harassing them because they’re coming together,” said the Rev. Carl Washington, who has worked over the years to establish peace between the Crips and Bloods.

Washington, a spokesman for The Ministers’ Coalition For Peace, said his group will ask the commission today to look into strategies used by the LAPD when monitoring the various picnics, meetings, and parties being thrown in celebration of a truce between the warring gangs. Gang members have complained that officers harass them verbally, have their cars towed away and do other things to heighten tensions during the events, Washington said.

Los Angeles police officials could not be reached for comment.

Compton’s acting police chief, Hourie Taylor, denied the allegations. “We have not been harassing anyone,” said Taylor. “We just don’t want any problems, so we feel it best to disperse these situations at nightfall if there’s a possibility they may deteriorate to violence.”

The ministers’ coalition is calling for the formation of a task force of gang members and police officers to help the groups work out their differences.

“We want to tear down the barriers between police and gang members,” Washington said. “We’re not anti-police. Nor do we condone gang violence.”