100 Post-Riot Claims Allege Police Didn’t Protect Stores : Law enforcement: Most complaints are from Korean-Americans whose businesses were looted. Police deny allegations of discrimination in deployment.

The lawlessness triggered by the verdict in the Rodney G. King beating case rushed into Ben’s Market like a tidal wave.

“A lot of people opened my store and they took everything,” said owner Hai Ik Son. “We called the police, but they said they could not come to my store.”

She and her husband, Kee Joo Son, also approached officers who were watching a fire at a nearby mall. But the officers said they were busy and could not protect the Sons’ Long Beach Boulevard market, which is now closed, the couple said.

That was more than six months ago. Now the Sons are seeking compensation from the city of Long Beach for their losses.

They are among more than 100 people, most of them Korean-American, who have filed claims alleging that police failed to protect their businesses from being looted and burned during last spring’s riots.

The City Council forwarded the claims last week to the city attorney’s office. Each claim seeks compensation for losses of more than $10,000.

Most of the claims include a statement that accuses the Long Beach Police Department of deploying its forces in a discriminatory manner.

The Assn. of Korean American Victims of the L.A. Riot, which is based in Los Angeles, produced the statement and helped many of the Long Beach merchants file their claims within six months of the riots, the legal deadline that expired earlier this month.

“The police didn’t do their job,” Jin Lee, general secretary of the association, said in an interview. “They were turning their backs on Korean-American business owners.

Long Beach officials have acknowledged that police were sometimes overwhelmed. But Assistant City Atty. Robert E. Shannon said race had nothing to do with the way officers were deployed.

“Any allegation that there was any kind of discrimination by the Police Department is just baloney,” Shannon said. “Everything was handled in Long Beach in a totally non-discriminatory manner.”

Shannon added that many of the claims were vague, and he did not see any “reasonable possibility” the city would pay damages.

The merchants will decide whether to file lawsuits against the city if the claims are denied, Lee said.

In all, 387 Long Beach businesses were affected by the riots that followed the not-guilty verdicts last April for four police officers accused of beating King, according to city officials.

The city already has rejected three claims, the only others related to the riot, Deputy City Atty. Michael J. Mais said. The plaintiffs in one of those cases have since filed a $5-million lawsuit against the city in Long Beach Superior Court.

The lawsuit seeks damages for a broken ankle and other injuries suffered April 30 by 16-year-old Clarabell Hardgraves, who was hit by a police car that sped away from the scene of earlier rioting.

The other two claims stem from the April 30 shooting death of one Long Beach man and the wounding of another.

Matthew Haines was killed and his nephew, Scott Coleman, was injured when they were attacked by a mob as the two rode a motorcycle near Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

Lawyer Dana D. Denton, who represents Coleman and Haines’ family, said he plans to file a lawsuit against Long Beach this week.

Of the 98 claims referred to the city attorney’s office Tuesday, all but 15 were from Korean-Americans. One claim was filed on behalf of 29 business owners, most of whom are Korean.

Grocery markets and liquor stores, clothing, shoe and jewelry shops, stereo and video-rental stores, a dry-cleaning shop, a bicycle store and a self-service laundry were among the businesses mentioned in the claims.

Most of the businesses were looted. Some were vandalized and set afire as well. The claims did not specify the exact amount of damage suffered, only that it exceeded $10,000.

Some claims also allege physical and psychological damage.

Chu Op Bark was injured when she was thrown against a wall as she tried to stop a man from looting her video-rental store on Long Beach Boulevard.

“I’m still suffering from a severe headache and memory loss,” Bark said in her complaint.

Some merchants reported trouble sleeping, marital difficulties, negative feelings toward blacks and fear of strangers.

“I get angry every time I see black people,” one business owner said in a claim.