Latest Meeting of Gang Members, Grocers Produces Few Agreements

Leaders of a Korean-American grocers group--who have come under intense criticism in their own community for meeting with gang members--agreed to offer four jobs but little other aid to the gangs in a second set of closed-door talks Friday.

Except for the job commitment, participants said, the meeting resulted in few firm agreements despite a series of ambitious proposals put forward by about 10 gang members led by James H. Stern, a minister who operates a gospel theater in Inglewood. More talks are scheduled in two weeks.

The four-hour meeting in Lakewood came a day after representatives of the Korean-American Grocers Assn. were upbraided by other Korean-American leaders, some of whom said they should spend more time helping victims of the riots.

Nevertheless, at the end of the meeting, Stern said he was “on top of the world. I feel very good.”

The Korean-Americans were more subdued, with David Kim, president of the Southern California chapter of the grocers association, downplaying the importance of the talks.

“We don’t really speak for the Korean community . . . and we are treating (gang members) as individual human beings,” not as representatives of the black community, he said.

But both sides strongly disagreed with critics who called the talks an attempt by gang members to extort aid from merchants with an implicit threat of violence. Participants said Friday’s meeting produced several agreements:

* The grocers pledged to take resumes and job applications from four gang members, and said they will try to find jobs to the applicants’ liking.

* The grocers agreed to take part in a June 19 unity celebration in a Koreatown park, with details to be worked out. A second party will be held later in South Los Angeles.

* The grocers said Korean-American film producer Duk Han will let the gang members use a preview of his film, “For the Color of Love,” to raise funds. The film is about interracial relations.

* The grocers also agreed to consider a black-Korean joint venture to operate a market on Long Beach Boulevard.

But the Korean-American delegation balked at other far-reaching proposals.

They said they had no power to agree to Stern’s request that a Korean-owned bank move a branch into South Los Angeles. They also would not commit to proposals to move a vocational school to South Los Angeles or to help obtain loans to finance new businesses.

Kim defended the grocers’ decision to continue meeting with the gang members, despite questions raised about Stern’s background, which includes a 1988 fraud conviction.

We get “mutual understanding, a feeling of the culture. . . . We find out that the concept of gangs is different from what we thought,” he said.

Charles Jenings, 27, a former gang member who also took part in the meeting, expressed some disappointment.

“The Koreans explained to us that they’re still exploring,” said Jenings, who runs his own entertainment production service. “But we ain’t got time for them to be exploring. We want to keep peace. . . . This is a joint effort.”