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Slow Burn
The L.A. Riots | 2. No Justice
00:44:08
With the beating of Rodney King still on America’s TV screens, the killing of a teenager in South Central further inflamed the tension in Los Angeles’ Black neighborhoods.
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A
Father.
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B
Or should I call you Steve? Since it's a new year, maybe we should start cooking fresh with fewer smoke alarms this time. Your cooking's improving, but I can see the stress in your eyes. Anna's mom used this Blue Apron assemble and bake thing during our playdate. Pre chopped ingredients over 40 grams of protein and just one pan to clean up. She just tossed it in the oven and boom plating like she's got followers. So go to blueapron.com Steve make 2026 the year you win dinner blue apron get 50% off your first two orders plus free shipping with code listen 50 terms and conditions apply. Visit blueyprain.com terms for more.
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A
A quick warning this episode has some explicit language. Latasha Harlins was nine years old when her mother was shot and killed in a Los Angeles nightclub. It was November 1985, Thanksgiving Day, when.
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C
Her mother got killed. She took it real hard.
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A
That's Latasha's cousin Shanice Harland's Kilgore.
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C
She was hurt cause then her father left and that was the last time I believe that she's seen her father.
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A
Latasha and her family hoped her mother's killer would be found guilty of murder and spend her life in prison. Instead, the woman was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to five years. The justice system had failed them. The Harlins family was learning that life in LA was wasn't so different from the one they had fled in East St. Louis. In her book the Last Plantation, the author Itabari Njeri described their plight this.
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D
There was death in the family. It plagued theirs like cancer, heart attack, diabetes or stroke. In other families it was not the consequence of some deadly pathogen or organic breakdown, but seemed a disease unto itself, a natural, violent death.
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A
Latasha's grandmother, Ruth Harland, had suffered a lot of these losses. The father of one of her daughters was killed. One brother died in a car accident. Two others were killed in bars, one on the same Thanksgiving Day that another of her daughters, Latasha's mother, was fatally shot in la. But Ruth Harlins managed to build a decent life in California, working as a clerk for the Department of Social Services.
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D
There's something about her I just remember was very gentle and loving and tired. She seemed to be carrying so much weight, generational weight.
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Ruth Harlins helped raise Latasha and her siblings after their mother's death. She tried to give her family the peace it never had. There were three adults and four children living in the Harlands Home, it was crowded. Ruth Harlands did her best to provide for them on $1,600 a month. Shanice Harlins Kilgore she used to always.
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C
Put that out there in the, in the atmosphere. Family, family, family. Family is important. Family is all we got at the end of the day.
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A
Ruth Harlan's hadn't lived in the south since she was a child, but she still considered herself a southern woman. She made big family meals of ham, collard greens, cabbage, potato salad and cornbread. The food reminded her of home and helped to bring everyone together. She worked and saved so she could move into a three bedroom apartment in South Central la. A huge upgrade for the family. But even with the extra space, her grandchildren continued to share bedrooms.
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C
It was like, wow, we got this big space, but we still couldn't go without sleeping with each other. I guess, I guess we was used to it. So growing up, to me, we had a ball. We just knew we can go outside and play all fucking day and come back home before the streetlights come on.
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Ruth Harlins insisted on routines and chores. Her work ethic and resilience would be her grandchildren's inheritance.
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C
So we know to make sure that the dishes was washed, the floor was mopped, the kitchen was clean. Because the way she raised us was you wake up, you brush your teeth, you wash your face and you get dressed. You don't lounge all day and not do nothing. No, you get up. Cause nobody don't wanna talk to somebody with a funky ass breath. She was safe.
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Latasha thrived in Ruth Harlins safe and supportive home. In middle school, she was an honor roll student, a track star, and and a cheerleader. Every Sunday she went to church with her grandmother. As she entered her teen years, Latasha was a popular girl who knew all the latest dances, flirted easily with boys, and stood up for the people she loved. Her family encouraged her to pursue her ambitions. The people who knew her best could see her potential.
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C
She wanted to be an attorney so bad because I know her mom wanted to be a real estate agent and that's what she was studying for. So I think she had that same charisma, that same go get it attitude like her mom.
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A
But her mother's death and the way the justice system had failed the family still cast a shadow. In an essay for her ninth grade history class, Latosha explained why she wanted to become an attorney. The most important thing to me, she wrote, is that my family is always protected by a shield so that they won't be Harmed by dangerous, ruthless, uncaring people.
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E
She was so, you know, devastated by the sentencing of her mother's killer that she wanted to make sure that this didn't happen again.
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That's Brenda Stevenson, an author and African American studies professor at ucla.
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E
She wanted to be able to protect her family from this kind of injustice. She realized that the criminal justice system failed black families so incredibly.
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A
As a high school freshman in 1991, Latasha Harlins had a vision of her future. But the present day was a struggle. Her high school was far from her neighborhood. That meant an hour long bus ride each way, sometimes more. Her grades slipped. She cut class, and when she did go to school, she got in trouble. The dean of students called her a teacher's nightmare. Latasha told her grandmother she'd try harder and improve her grades. She vowed to graduate with a perfect GPA and to go to college. But her family's still worried about her. How do you think the world saw Tasha?
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C
Another. Another black girl? Yeah, just another black girl not not knowing where she came from or who she is. So of course it's a lot of stereotype going on. So she was just a regular, normal black girl, just like me, you know, that's struggling.
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Despite her struggles, those close to Latasha said say she was always the same person.
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C
One of my friend girls named Wanda, and I didn't know she knew my cousin. Then she told me the story that she was like, Tasha used to walk me home every day and she used to comb my hair. And I'm like, at 14, she combing somebody else's hair besides mine. And at 14, she had literally other 14 year olds looking at her. And she would walk them or comb their hair or protect them in any kind of way. And you'd be like, wow, Tasha was my defender. Like, she would come and defend me all the time because I was small and I was getting bullied a lot. And she hated me getting bullied. She hate bullied, period.
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A
The Empire Liquor Market was a five minute walk from the Harlan's family's apartment. Despite the name, it was more of a convenience store than a liquor store. It was run by a family of Korean immigrants. They hadn't been in the neighborhood for long, but already had a reputation for being hostile to their black customers. Shanice would only go there if her grandmother asked her to.
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C
They were some rude assholes. And I gotta admit it, you know, the couple times that I did go in there, I just refused to go in there again. Because you're not Finna stereotype me and take my money.
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A
But Latasha would still go to the Empire Liquor Market. On the morning of March 16, 1991, she went for the last time. This is Slow Burn. I'm your host, Joel Anderson. In March 1991, two acts of violence rocked Los Angeles. Both were caught on videotape. Both revealed the fault lines a of race, of money and of power among the city's 9 million people. And both would make clear to the city's black residents just how little their lives matter to the justice system. One was the beating of Rotten King. The other was what happened to Latasha Harlins at the Empire Liquor Market. The case that won't go away grew from an argument in an obscure market in South Los Angeles.
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F
This was such a a stunning miscarriage of justice. It's a racial, political, legal mess. There are some beginning efforts at peacemaking, but there is an anger that wants redress and might not wait much longer.
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A
This is episode two, no justice. The owner of the Empire Liquor Market was named Billy Du. He and his wife Soon Ja Du had immigrated to the US from South Korea before coming to the States. The Dues had been living well by the standards of post war Korea. But they wanted something more for their three children. So like a lot of middle class Koreans in the 1970s, they headed to Los Angeles, part of a wave of immigration that would make LA home to the largest Korean population in America. For the dudes, life in California was a struggle. They could only afford a small apartment, and Billy's limited English meant he couldn't find the sort of management work he'd done back home. Eventually, he got a job as a repairman at a Radio Shack. But the money Billy earned wasn't enough for the family to live on. So Soon Ja went to work too. She assembled couches and crocheted clothes in a garment factory. The goal was to go into business on their own. Following the example of other Korean immigrants, they gravitated to corner grocery stores, a business that you could start with a little money and operate without speaking much English. Here's Elaine Kim, a founding member of the Asian American Studies program at the University of California, Berkeley.
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A lot of people felt they had no way of advancing themselves in the white society except by doing business for themselves. That would be the only way that their own work would result in some benefit to themselves and not to somebody else.
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A
In 1980s Los Angeles, there were plenty of properties available for relatively cheap. That was especially true in inner city neighborhoods which had largely been abandoned by Jewish Shopkeepers after the racial unrest of the late 1960s. In 1981, Billy bought a grocery store in San Fernando, a middle class area that was rapidly losing its white population. The du's were small business owners now. They'd gained some control of their economic destiny. But it wasn't an easy life. Soon Ja worked in the store, due to flee, but begrudgingly, almost every day she developed chronic migraines. Still, Billy pressed forward. In 1987 he sold the first a store and bought another in the nearby suburb of Santa Clarita. Their son Joseph worked in the market. Another son was a supervisor at Korean Airlines and their daughter was studying to become a nurse. Billy and soon Job moved into a four bedroom home in the San Fernando Valley. Soon Job filled the house with black lacquer and mother of pearl furniture from Korea. Things were looking up. In March 1989, Billy dude decided to expand his business. He bought the Empire Liquor Market in South Central Los angeles. It cost $380,000. That's about $840,000 today. It was the first time the Dudes had operated a store in a largely black neighborhood. Each day they commute to the inner city from the suburbs. Here's Elaine Kim again.
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G
You do have a potentially explosive situation where this foreigner seems to have come into the community and is able to buy the place whether anybody else wanted it or not. And that's for lots of reasons, but people don't want to be taken advantage of.
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A
Black Americans still face discrimination when they try to buy property or borrow money to start a business. The fact that recent Asian immigrants were able to invest in black neighborhoods when they couldn't, that was incredibly frustrating.
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C
Why don't you open a market that we can use for our families?
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H
Go back to Korea.
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C
We're the one making you.
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A
Why don't you hire blacks? Why don't you hire blacks? The violence of these neighborhoods only inflamed the tensions in the 1980s. The gang related killings of Los Angeles reached record highs and became the subject of national panic over the course of a month. In 1986, Florida, four Korean merchants in South Central LA were murdered during robberies. The sister of one of the victims suggested racial resentment was a factor. People don't care, she told the LA Times. They think we got money from God or something. Some Korean and black leaders tried to downplay the racial element of the attacks. They said the murders reflected Koreans growing presence in the city's worst area for crime. They pointed out that when black people were killed in South Central, it didn't draw nearly as much attention or media coverage. But something still had to be done.
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I
The goal was to develop a model for facilitating dialogue and improve relations between two communities.
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That's Edward Chang, a professor at UC Riverside and member of Los Angeles Black Korean alliance, commonly known as the bka.
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I
Well, in the beginning, the premise here is that the reason why we are having this conflict is because we don't understand each other. However, the membership was small, about 20, at the most 30. And membership was unstable and fluctuated, and it was difficult to forge common agenda.
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A
Other local activists weren't interested in building bridges. Did you think that the bka, like, served any real purpose or did you think it was useful in any way?
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H
I did not.
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That's Danny Bakewell. He was one of LA's most prominent black activists and businessmen. People urged him to join the black Korean alliance, but he declined.
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H
It was, in my judgment, it was a hollow attempt to do something that really wasn't beneficial for black people because it asked us to go into an alliance with Koreans. But the alliance was all based on helping them to do business better in the black community. What about an alliance that helps us to open up businesses in the Korean community, but never a conversation. And that's always the problem that we have.
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A
It seemed the tension in South Central wasn't going to get better anytime soon.
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I
I knew it was a ticking time bomb, getting worse and worse.
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A
By the time Billy Diu bought the new store in South Central. Soon, Jiadu wanted out. She begged her husband to buy a house close to the beach where she said they could spend quiet days fishing. Billy brushed off his wife's concerns. He believed the store was a good investment. Their son Joseph felt the same. This was Los Angeles, Joseph Due said. How bad could it be? When the Dew family opened their store in South Central, they struggled to adjust to their new customers. Here's Edward Chang.
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I
You know, when customers, African American customers walks into the store, you know you're supposed to make eye contact and greet, hello, how are you? What can I do for you? However, in Korea, they don't do that. They do not make eye contact. If you do make eye contact, it is shown a sign of disrespect or trying to make a trouble. And of course, many African American customers took it offensively. Right.
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A
One thing most Korean immigrants did pick up on was the racial hierarchy of their new homeland. A study at the time found that most Korean shopkeepers in LA felt black people were inferior to them and weren't worthy of courtesy or respect. Here's Elaine Kim.
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G
So they were kind of aspiring towards upward mobility, and many of them, they wanted to move as far away from black people as possible. So success would mean, well, if I want to get ahead, obviously, I have to live in a community close to white people or with white people.
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A
With two stores, one in Santa Clarita and the Empire Liquor Market in South Central, the Dew family was spread thin. Instead of living her dream of a peaceful life in a beach house, soon Ja was stuck working behind a counter. Making things worse, Billy Dude's investment wasn't paying off. The Empire Liquor Market didn't make as much money as expected. The family bounced checks, and some distributors stopped making deliveries to the store. But most damaging was the family's beef with the Main Street Crips. Here's Brenda Stevenson, the UCLA professor and authority.
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E
There were gangs that were operative in the neighborhood. It was during the crack epidemic, and it had serious impact on that community.
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A
In early 1991, three suspected gang members assaulted Joseph Du and robbed the store. The Dewes called the police, and the men were arrested. That only escalated the conflict. The Crips returned to the store and threatened to kill the family. The Dew shut down the market for two weeks. Hoping to calm things down, Billy Du even tried to broker a truce with the Crips. It didn't work, unfortunately.
- [19:21]
E
Her son and her husband had been victimized to a certain extent by some people who had come into the shop. And so that just fed into the mythology of black criminality that they arrived with.
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A
Billy Du's wife and son begged him to close the store, but he couldn't find someone to buy the market at the price he wanted. So they stayed in South Central in a neighborhood they feared, with neighbors they didn't trust. Let's go through what happened on March 16, 1991. What happened that day?
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E
Well, Latasha goes to into the Empire Liquor market at about 9:31am When Latasha.
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A
Walked into the store, soon Ja'du was working the counter. Her husband Billy was sleeping outside in the family's van. A surveillance camera inside the store recorded what happened next.
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E
She comes into the shop. She walks to the back of the shop, and she gets a bottle of orange juice, which is about $1.79. I believe that was the price of it. She places it in her backpack. She has a backpack on, is sticking out the top, you know, and then she works her way back to the counter.
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A
In the video, Latasha is wearing a UCLA cap and sneakers. Soon, Ja'du's son had warned her that People who wore clothes like Latasha's were gang members. Two witnesses later testified that Soon Ja'du confronted Latasha.
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E
When she gets up to the counter, she is immediately accused by Mrs. Du, who is the wife of the shopkeeper estate. And Latasha tells her right away, I'm not stealing, you know, she has the money, which is $2, in her hand.
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A
Soon Ja'du wasn't satisfied. In the video, you can see her lean over the counter and grab the left sleeve of Latasha's sweater. Latasha slaps away Doo's hand. Doo holds onto the sleeve and tries to pull Latasha closer. At this point, you see two younger children move toward the door. The conflict is escalating. Latasha swings her backpack at Dewe's head and follows up with two hard punches to her face. Doo falls behind the counter, then gets back up. She chucks a stool at Latasha. The stool misses. Then Doo reaches behind the counter and pulls out a gun. She points it at Latasha, clutching it with both hands.
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E
Latasha sees the gun, and this is what's very interesting about the video. As you see her, see the gun, and she, you know, continues what she's doing to put the orange juice down. And she turns around to walk out.
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A
As Latasha begins to walk away. Soon Ja'du pulls the trigger. Just like that, Latasha collapses out of sight of the camera. Latasha Lavon Harlins died right there on the floor of the Empire Liquor market. She was 15 years old. A police officer showed up at Ruth Harlins apartment later that afternoon. Latasha's cousin Shanice was in the living room.
- [22:45]
C
Latasha and I, we were headed out that afternoon. I think we was going to the movies, so they came and knocked, showed a picture, and my grandmother verified it was Latasha. And all hell broke loose. I remember running out the house, and I remember falling down in our driveway, just crying like, they killed her. They killed her. Like they killed her.
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A
Let's take a break. The video of the Rodney King beating had been broadcast 12 days before the March 16 killing of Latasha Harlins. The footage was still dominating the national and local news. On March 17, the LA Times metro section featured a long profile of King. The lead photo in the Metro section showed protesters gathering outside of LAPD headquarters demanding the resignation of Police Chief Daryl Gates. The abc, CBS, and NBC Evening News all ran series on police brutality in the lapd, but there were no stories anywhere about Latasha Harlins. The cops and prosecutors had seen the video of Latasha's killing, but the public hadn't. Unlike in the Rodney King case, no one brought a copy to a TV station. After a brief investigation at the store, police arrested Soon Jatu three days later. Prosecutors charged due with murder. On March 19, 1991, in the LA Times first story about Latasha's death, an LAPD officer said the case was just a business dispute and was not racially motivated. Nonetheless, responses to the killing broke down along racial and ethnic lines. Some Koreans saw Soon Ja do as a frightened shopkeeper in a crime ridden neighborhood, defending herself against a violent threat. Here's Elaine Kim.
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G
Honestly speaking, my initial impression was similar to the other Korean people who thought, poor Soon Ja do, this girl is dead. But poor Soon Ja do was probably terrified. What were the circumstances of poor Soon Ja do inadvertently shooting someone because she was slugged and she was terrified.
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A
Black people in communities like South Central saw something different. A teenager shot in the head by an adult with a racist grievance. In those neighborhoods, Latasha's death tapped into years of anger and resentment. More than 200 of Latasha's classmates signed a letter to the LA Times. Was Latasha shot and killed because of racial intolerance? They asked, when will this stop?
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H
We needed to make our voices heard. We needed those voices to be loud and we needed to, you know, get the community riled up about it. And we did.
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A
Danny Bakewell is the activist who was skeptical of the Black Korean Alliance. In the days after Latasha Harlins killing, he organized a demonstration in front of the Empire liquor market. About 150 people showed up. They posted a sign across the front of the store reading clothes for murder and disrespect of black people. Stop killing our children. We want justice. Bakewell helped organize boycotts of other Korean merchants that were accused of discriminating against black customers. This was the kind of moment the Black Korean alliance had been set up to address. The group promoted dialogue, not boycotts. But now the divisions were much harder to contain.
- [26:40]
I
Edward Chang we still try to forge coalition and sustain it, but without any support, human and financial support, and the media just overwhelmed us. The media wasn't interested in mitigation. Media was interested in covering conflict, tension, boycotts, values.
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A
In June, another Korean store owner shot and killed a black customer he suspected of trying to rob his store. No charges were filed. In August, three Korean owned stores in South Central were firebombed. LA Mayor Tom Bradley held a press conference in front of a burned out storefront. He surrounded himself with Korean American business owners, black clergy, and members of the Black Korean Alliance. He urged everyone to talk out their differences. But Bakewell was done with talking. He kept up the boycotts for another month.
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H
This is not a game. This is our lives. This is our community. This is our children. And you have to be more responsive and respectful or we are going to have a problem with each other.
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A
Soon Ja Du's murder trial was originally scheduled to take place in Compton, near the Empire Liquor market. But in August 1991, a judge ordered a change of venue. The proceeding was moved to downtown Los Angeles. The judge's reasoning that some witnesses and court staff, including a Korean interpreter, might feel intimidated driving in and out of Compton every day. The trial of Soon Ja do began in September. At the center of the prosecution's case was a surveillance videotape from the liquor store, the first time that footage had been aired in public. In her opening statement, prosecutor Roxanne Carvajal let the jury know what they were about to see.
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J
I do have to warn you that you should brace yourself because you will see Latasha being killed and she will die in front of your eyes.
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A
Carvajal hoped to show the jury that Doo had been the aggressor. Doo had grabbed Latasha's sleeve. Doo had thrown the stool. Due had pulled out the gun. And when Latasha tried to leave the store, Due shot her. Earlier, you heard Elaine Kim say that like some Koreans, she had sympathized with Soon Ja Doo when she first heard about the killing. That changed when she saw the video.
- [29:14]
G
It looked like she was executing her. That's what it looked like to me. Just to see some woman pick up a gun and shoot the girl in the back of the head as she was leaving is so shocking. And so, yes, it made a huge difference to see. To actually see that happen. I can't believe that people would still think that Latasha Harlins was at fault in any way.
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A
Due's lawyers argued that she'd acted in self defense. On the witness stand, Doo testified that she thought Latasha might kill her, either with her punches or with a gun that she might be carrying in her backpack. Latasha didn't have a gun, but remember, Doo claimed that she believed Latasha was a gang member. Under cross examination, Doo said she'd been beaten senseless almost to oblivion, and that even with a gun in her hand, she thought she was going to die. But Dew's version of events didn't line up with the tape. She wasn't beaten senseless, and she had no reason to fear a teenage girl who had turned around and was walking away from her. Here's Brenda Stevenson.
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E
It really goes to this notion of how black people are perceived within our society. We are perceived as being criminal, as being aggressive, you know, people who are violent. And just to be clear, Asian American women are not perceived in that way at the moment in which we were this case took place. Mrs. Dew was thought of as more feminine. She was thought of as more respectable because of her racial status and her generation. Latasha was thought of as being, you know, a rash teenager, as being someone who was brought up in a violent atmosphere. As the defensive person, say, she hit like a boy.
- [31:06]
A
So that's what the jury had to consider. The security videotape versus the defense's caricature of a teenage black girl. They could find Soon Ja'du not guilty on self defense grounds. They could find her guilty of second degree murder, or they could convict her of a lesser charge, voluntary manslaughter, defined as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice upon a sudden quarrel. They deliberated for three days.
- [31:33]
J
Ms. Shepard, would you please give the bailiff the verdict? Would the clerk please read the verdict? We, the jury, remove every time of.
- [31:42]
A
Action, find the defendant seeing Ja Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter was the same verdict that came down in the killing of Latasha's mother. The verdict that made the family feel they hadn't gotten justice. The verdict that made Latasha want to be a lawyer to protect her family. That was the verdict for Soon Ja'du. But do didn't feel that she'd gotten off easy. She was facing up to 16 years in state prison. When the verdict was read in court, she lowered her head and wept. Soon Ja'du's fate was now in the hands of Judge Joyce Carlin. Karlin had been appointed to the bench by Republican Governor Pete Wilson just two months earlier. This was the first case she'd presided over that had gone to trial. The punishment she handed down would have huge consequences for the Harlan's and Duke families and for the city of Los Angeles. We'll be right back. When Soon Ja'du was interviewed by a probation officer before her sentencing, she admitted that she was frightened by black people and didn't understand them. She also said that if she was in the same situation again, she wouldn't do anything differently. The probation officer recommended the maximum 16 year sentence. Judge Carlin rejected that recommendation.
- [33:10]
F
Was it murder persons? A jury convicted due of voluntary manslaughters. But Judge Joyce Carlin, on the bench just since July, imposed probation. A $500 fine, no jail time.
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A
After announcing that dude would serve no jail time, Judge Carlin read a statement. She said Latasha's death should be remembered as a catalyst to force blacks and Koreans to confront an intolerable situation and create solutions. This is not a time for rhetoric. It is not a time for revenge. It should be a time of healing. Carlin said Due had acted out of fear and that she wasn't a threat to the community. Carlin also said that DU likely hadn't shown remorse because of cultural and language barriers. After Carlin read her statement, Soon Ja do cried out thank you, God in Korean. By then, the Harlins family had already left the courtroom. Once again, the justice system had failed them. Here's Ruth Harland, Latasha's grandmother.
- [34:25]
E
I think it was an injustice. Justice has not been served. This lady has killed my 15 year.
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A
Old granddaughter and she'll get away with five years probation.
- [34:35]
E
This is an injustice. You know, justice has not been served.
- [34:40]
A
Shanice Harlan's Kilgore if it was the.
- [34:42]
C
Other way around, if Latasha would have killed Soon Ja do, she'd probably be in prison to this day today, you know, because she a typical black girl in the ghetto with a bad reputation, reputation on her name. So we live in a fucked up world. I guess the justice system is not for us.
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A
Soon Ja Do's light sentence turned what had mostly been a local story into a national scandal. Supporters of the Harlan's family focused their outrage on Judge Carlin.
- [35:16]
H
Wake up, Los Angeles.
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A
Wake up. Let not her blood be in vain.
- [35:24]
F
Black anger boiled over.
- [35:26]
H
I'm declaring today the black community is at work with Judge Karen. Am I right? Are you with me?
- [35:36]
F
Even the district attorney stoked the flames by condemning and blacklisting the judge. This was such a stunning miscarriage of justice that Judge Carlin cannot continue to hear criminal cases with any public credibility whatsoever.
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A
Black leaders led pickets at Carlin's courtroom and home. Some Koreans and Korean Americans also criticized the sentence. They worried that the judge's ruling might come back to hurt them in their community. Edward Chang.
- [36:07]
I
She handed out that very light sentencing. Didn't help at all. I mean, just probation for taking away a person's life. It's just unacceptable.
- [36:26]
A
The English language newspaper the Korea Times pointed out that Soon Ja Do's sentence was less severe than the 30 days in jail a Korean man received for kicking and stomping a dog. Some justice, the paper wrote. The LA Times looked at sentences given to people convicted of violent crimes in Los Angeles in the previous year. Of 247 defendants, only two got straight probation with no jail time. Both of those were assault cases, not killings. In an interview almost three years later, Joyce Carlin lashed out at the media.
- [37:03]
J
The media is supporting the notion that racism is behind every decision that is made. That racism is behind is the skeleton in everybody's closet. I have never been so aware, forced to be so aware of racial issues. Nobody thinks in terms of just human beings anymore. No statement is made without injecting some politically correct thought. I think that they. I think we have to stop focusing on racism so much. I really do. You have to stop seeing it behind every door.
- [37:37]
A
Carlin said that she remained comfortable with how she handled the case.
- [37:41]
J
You don't make a decision because it's going to make you look good or bad. You don't make a decision because you're afraid of being called a wimp or too aggressive. You make decisions for the right reasons and not personal consequences. That's my belief. That's certainly my belief as a judge. And if there comes a time when I can't make decisions without thinking about personal consequences, then it's time for me to leave the bench.
- [38:07]
A
Soon. Ja Douu's sentence confirms something the Harlins family and many black Americans already knew. The justice system seemed to go into overdrive when meting out punishment to black people. But when a black person or family came to court as a victim, nothing worked as it should. Brenda Stevenson.
- [38:25]
E
Again, this was really, really a devastating judgment as far as black people were concerned. If it's not the police and it's not the jury, then it's the judge.
- [38:39]
A
Black Angelenos would not forget the pain of Latasha Harlins killing. When the riots began six months after Judge Carlin issued her verdict, demonstrators would write Latasha's name on Protest signs and 2,300 Korean owned stores would be looted and burned. But the Empire Liquor Market, it stayed standing. The building would be set on fire four separate times, but neighbors always put out the flames. They wanted to preserve the store as a memorial to Latasha, and they didn't want the Dew family to get any insurance money. In the years following the trial, Latasha's aunt, Denise Harlins, started an effort to recall Judge Carlin. She hoped to conjure the justice her Family never found in court. Denise Harlins spent years lobbying public officials, staging protests and crashing events where Carlin was appearing. Denise, who died in 2018, is Shanice Harlan's Kilgore's mother.
- [39:35]
C
My mama didn't work at all. This was her job, a non paid job. So this was her life to make sure Judge Carlin wouldn't sleep comfortable knowing she let a murderer off.
- [39:51]
A
Joyce Carlin didn't get recalled. She retired as a judge in 1997. She said she wanted to spend more time with her family. Latasha Harlins family struggled to cope with her death. When Latasha was killed, her cousin Shanice was still a teenager herself.
- [40:08]
C
Hell, I just lost my fucking best friend and the person I talk shit to the most, you know what I'm saying? The one that combed my hair, I just lost her. And you just be like, what? Life just stopped right then and there. I don't care how old you are. It was very painful to go home and to sit and just still have her clothes there, still have her smell there.
- [40:33]
A
Billy and soon Ja Due didn't respond to our interview request. The author Itabari Njeri spoke with Ruth Harlins in the year following Due's sentencing.
- [40:43]
D
I can remember this painful kind of squeaking voice from Ruth Harlins saying, talking about Mrs. Dew, she has her grandchildren. Why don't I have my grandchild? Where is my grandchild?
- [40:59]
A
Los Angeles never delivered on its promise of a peaceful life for the Harlins family. But what Ruth Harlins couldn't give them in safety, she gave in love. She still lives in la, not too far from the home where she once lived with her children and grandchildren. She is now 79 years old, having outlived two of her daughters and a granddaughter. Today, the pain of Ruth Harlins many losses still lingers.
- [41:24]
C
My grandmother, the way she takes death is super crazy because when her daughter passed away, my auntie passed away. My grandmother didn't keep no pictures up. None. She took every picture down of my auntie that she possibly can have and she hid it. She put him away. So when Latasha passed on, she did the same thing.
- [41:54]
A
How long did it take her to take those pictures down?
- [41:57]
C
I don't honestly know. But if you was to walk in her house in the 90s, you wouldn't see a picture of Latasha or her mother. But now, 30 years later, she's able to put a picture up of Latasha and her mother. She accepts it.
- [42:19]
E
The.
- [42:20]
C
The death she's dealing with the pain somehow some.
- [42:43]
A
Next week on Slow Burn, an outraged city meets an immovable force. LAPD was the most powerful political force in the city. I'm basically a fairly mild mannered person, but I reached my limit. The chief had stepped over the threshold that I could tolerate. Slow Burn is a production of Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. You can sign up for Slate plus to hear a bonus episode of the show this week and every week for the next two months. And in this week's bonus episode, you'll be hearing more from Ida Bari Najeri, who wrote a book about the Harlan's family called the Last Plantation, and from Edward Chang, who was a member of the black Korean alliance. Head over to slate.com slowburn to sign up and listen now. It's only a dollar for your first month. We couldn't make Slow Burn without the support of Slate plus, so please sign up if you can head over to slate.com slowburn slow burn is produced by Jason De Leon, Ethan Brooks, Sophie Summergrad, Jasmine Ellis and me, Joel Anderson. Editorial direction by Josh Levine and Gabriel Roth artwork by Jim Cook Theme music by Don Will mixing by Merritt Jacob. Brenda Stevenson's book was a great resource for us. It's called the Contested Murder of Latasha Harland. Special thanks to the Department of Special Research Collections at the UC Santa Barbara Library. Luke Cannon, Jackson Vanderbecken, Devin Schwartz, Stan Mizrahi, Laurel Berlanti, Jarrett Holt Lowen, Liu Derrett, John, Derek Johnson, Evan Chung, Davis Land, Janae Desmond Harris, Amber Smith, Bill Carey, Rachel Strom, Seth Brown, Meredith Moran, Chow Tu, Asha Saluja and Katie Rayford. Thanks for listening.