Request Stirs Memories of Time of Rage

On a busy South Los Angeles street lined with auto repair shops and dilapidated motels, the pink and turquoise Numero Uno Market advertises “Frutas y verduras frescas” -- fresh produce.

As shoppers go in and out of the South Figueroa Street market, there is no outward trace of the store site’s tragic past -- a history now being brought back into the public debate, nearly 14 years after a black teenager, Latasha Harlins, was fatally shot by a Korean American grocer at what was then the Empire Liquor Market.

Numero Uno’s general manager says the store today provides groceries and fresh goods in a neighborhood sorely lacking supermarkets -- a view supported by customers and neighbors. The store’s bid to sell beer and wine, however, has divided the community. And for those opposed to the liquor sales, the store’s application for a permit to sell alcoholic beverages brings back dark memories.

Latasha, 15, was killed in 1991, two weeks after the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney G. King in the San Fernando Valley.

Many African Americans, upset by the teenager’s death, were outraged at what they saw as a lenient sentence for grocer Soon Ja Du, who was convicted of manslaughter and given probation without jail time.

UCLA history professor Brenda Stevenson said that for many blacks, Latasha became “our daughter.”

The repeated broadcasting of a short video clip of Latasha being shot in the back fueled racial tensions.

The trigger for the Los Angeles riots, which erupted April 29, 1992, was anger over the not-guilty verdicts in the trial of four white Los Angeles police officers accused of beating King. But the killing of Latasha and the lack of jail time for Du, observers said, intensified the anger that was unleashed in the urban explosion.

Empire Liquor closed shortly after the shooting, was firebombed in the rioting and never reopened. Numero Uno, which runs eight other stores, opened there in the late 1990s.

Last July, Numero Uno filed an application with the city to begin alcohol sales at its store on South Figueroa near 91st Street.

The state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control requires businesses to win the city’s approval before they can obtain a liquor license.

R. Nicolas Brown, a city zoning administrator, is expected to announce his decision on whether to issue the permit today. The decision can be appealed to the South Los Angeles area planning commission.

What influence, if any, Latasha Harlins’ death will have on Brown’s decision is not known. Generally, administrators consider the project’s potential effect on the neighborhood and how many liquor outlets are nearby.

After the 1992 riots, the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment stepped up its opposition to the proliferation of liquor stores. “There’s lots of things you can’t find in South L.A.,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the coalition’s director. “Beer and alcohol aren’t one of them.”

Liquor stores tend to attract loitering, public drunkenness, drug dealing, prostitution and violent crimes, the coalition said. There are 529 stores selling alcohol in the South Los Angeles area, 138 fewer than on the day before the riots broke out.

The prospect of beer and wine sales at Numero Uno is particularly painful for some neighbors.

The site “has a sacredness to it. Here this young girl had her life taken away,” said Sandra E. Cox, executive director of a mental health facility across the street from the market.

Cox said she “loves” the store but worries about alcohol sales so near her building, which cares for many people with a history of alcohol abuse.

Store General Manager Joe Ramos said the market simply wants to accommodate customers who have requested the convenience of buying beer along with their groceries.

Ramos -- who points out the store is applying to sell only beer and wine, not distilled spirits -- said the store has lost business to other markets.

“If a family is having a Thanksgiving dinner,” said Ramos, and they “want a bottle of wine, they got to go to some other place.”

The Numero Uno on South Figueroa, which promotes itself as “Number One in Latino Products,” is part of Los Angeles-based United Grocers Inc.

Ramos noted that the store has security guards, hires employees from within the community and runs a free shuttle service that drops off customers at their doorstep.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks said he would not oppose Numero Uno’s application, if the market meets certain conditions. A key condition: requiring the store to buy a liquor license from an existing business to avoid a net increase in alcohol outlets in the area.

Parks said he opposes small convenience stores seeking to become liquor stores but takes a closer look at “legitimate” grocery stores such as Numero Uno. He also said Latasha’s slaying should not be a factor in considering the store’s application.

Capt. Sergio Diaz, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division, said one of his officers appeared at a November zoning hearing to speak against Numero Uno’s application.