HOW KOREAN COMMUNITY RELATED TO CRIME IN CITY OF LOS ANGELES

by Dong-Hwan Kim

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Living in Southern California A. Chasing Their Dreams B. Cultural Differences C. Family First D. Financial Hardship E. Second Generation III. Korean-American Community in Los Angeles City IV. Violence A. LAPD Interview i. Car-jacking ii. Domestic Violence B. A Lost Life C. Educational Emphasis D. A Tragic Death in the Liquor store V. My Experience VI. Conclusion

HOW KOREAN COMMUNITY RELATED TO CRIME IN CITY OF LOS ANGELES I. Introduction This land that we call United States, now consists of people of different race, Color, gender, and religion, and have been for many years. This is very much noticeable In California, especially in Southern California. In the city of Los Angeles, this is so much true that you might refer to it as a "melting pot community" or a big "salad bowl" of different people. After immigrating to United States were widely spread in Asia, many people came to United States in search of better education for their children, better job for themselves, safer neighborhood for their family, and most importantly a better life for their loved ones and for themselves. Many of those first Asian immigrants for some reason decided to reside in Los Angeles for their first choice. In this research paper, I will interview first generation Korean immigrants who are self-businessmen such as small storeowners, and I will also interview younger generations of Korean - Americans. It will also be referenced from newspaper articles about Korean - American community in Los Angeles, as well as journals explaining about related topics. In addition, as a Korean immigrant myself, I will do my best to explain about the Korean community to immigrants of other cultures and also to residents of Los Angeles. It is my intention to explain the problems Korean- American immigrants had to face in the how new can best manage our problems in the future. ` Therefore after reading this research paper the readers will have a better understanding of Korean cultures and be more aware of the Korean community in the city of Los Angeles and hopefully decrease the hate, and therefore decrease the hate related violence. II. Living in Southern California A. Chasing Their Dreams Big percentage of those immigrants were Korean immigrants, bringing their Family in Korea because they simply couldn't afford to bring their whole family to United States. Those who left their family members back in Korea had big dreams of making it here in United States and then reuniting back with their loved ones. In some cases it came true, and then on some tragic cases it did not. A very sad scenario if you think about it. A very big sacrifice to make, and a big chance to take, if you were leaving your whole family to come to an unfamiliar territory where you are considered as an outsider. Many immigrants came, many stayed, others left. Many succeeded and unfortunately others are still struggling to make a living everyday financially and socially. Now approximately 250,000 Korean immigrants reside in Los Angeles. And approximately 450,000 Latinos consisting of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorians, Brazilians, etc. and about 100,000 others reside in the city of Los Angeles. Most immigrants came here which almost no English ability and no knowledge of American culture. Because of that fact, plus other various reasons, racism was something that most immigrants had to face daily. Racial discrimination was inescapable to them. Regardless of age gender, and religion, almost all of the Asian immigrants had to experience racism or racial discrimination. B. Cultural Differences Second generations or younger generations of immigrants had it, and have it a little better, but yet still face racism in this society. Younger generations face yet another problem. Younger generations know American cultures and they know English but still have that shadow of Korean immigrant and racism is unavoidable. Plus, because of different cultures that they have to deal with at school and at home, many younger generations have to deal with that cultural difference problem. Also, it seems to me like Korean parents in America seem to have higher expectation from their children then American parents. Many younger generations have to live with the pressure of trying to live up to their parents' high expectations as well as the normal pressure of being a teenager. C. Family First According to Ms. Cho, my cousin, when her family and she immigrated to city of Los Angeles eight years ago, she wanted to help out her parents first before continuing with her education. One of her reason for immigrating to United States Was to further her education, but to her, her family was #1 priority. She wanted to build a solid financial foundation for her family first. She said she has always had a thing about fashion and clothing business, therefore she wanted to get involved in fashion/clothing business. So, with her clothing business experiences, she saved money to open up a fashion/clothing business. She said that she was very fortunate to open up a clothing store in LA. Obviously, her previous experiences with fashion business assisted her to start her own business. Up to now, her clothing business is going steadily well, and she said she has not thought about her education yet. B. Financial Hardship Another one of my interviews was with one of my mom's friend's family. This family had both parents and two daughters. They came here on 1992, and from the looks of their house, inside and out, and their daily activities, I could tell they were still struggling daily to survive. Inside their one bedroom apartment, they had a small old television and they did not even have a sofa set in the living room. Mr. and Mrs. Hwang both worded at a market nearby her house from early in the morning to late at night. The father worked as a grocery clerk while the mother worked as a cashier. They had to work nearby her house because they did not have a car. Both of their daughters were attending Cerritos College until last year, but their family's financial hardship forced them to quit school temporarily in order to get a job to help out their family. I felt kind of sorry and uncomfortable interviewing this family because they were having such a hard time trying to survive. Needless to say Mr. Hwang's family were still struggling daily hoping one day, they too will have a comfortable life. C. Second Generation Naturally, we have more and more second generation of Korean-American immigrants living here in LA City. I interviewed Michelle, who we consider as a second generation (many times considered as a 1.5 generation), who was the younger daughter of the two. Besides her family financial hardship, she said she was having academic problems when she was attending school. She had tears running around her eyes while she was talking about her experiences. She said it was hard for her to see her parents work so hard but yet not able to provide a comfortable life their family. Obviously, quitting school, not being able to see her friends at school, and seeing her parents trying as hard was very hard for her. She said that she would do her best to help out her family. She also said that she would do her best academically to make her parents proud when she goes back to school. It really saddens me to see these types of second generation kids not being able to show their full potential. III. Korean - American Community In Los Angeles City Korean Town exists in many places in Southern California. There is pretty much a Korea Town in every major city in Southern California. But one of the biggest one and One of the most busiest one is located here in the city of Los Angeles. The most concentrated area of Korea Town here in the city of Los Angles is located mainly from north of Olympic Blvd. To the south of Wilshire Blvd, and in between Vermont Ave. to Western Ave. It is considered the heart of Korea Town because of several reasons. First of all, one of the biggest Korea markets named Hanam Chain can be found at the cross street of Vermont Ave. and Olympic Blvd. One of the major Korean banks and many churches can also be found in the heart of Korea Town, and you can also find countless Korean restaurants in this community as well. Where there is lots of people, especially lots of diversely cultured people, you are bound to have racial discriminating problems, which in many times turn to violence and crime. Korean community in the city of Los Angeles is no exception. Anywhere you go crime is a serious problem and it becomes more aggravating and more deadly when racial hate is involved. It sounds foolish that we as a human being have to hate each other for example, from the color of our skin but it has existed for a very long time and sadly it will probably stay as long as there is different races living as one society. Crime rate has steadily been increasing in the last 10 year (by Korean Times). IV. Violence To begin, let's discuss about hate related violence in Korean community. Crime rate usually is hard to keep down because of the population increasing by the minute. The more people there are the most hate crime there is. When it comes to hate crimes, it gets more violent and it becomes harder to control. A. Interview With My Friend Who Wants To Be A Los Angeles Police Officer A my friend, James Lee, already passed the test to be a L.A.P.D and he is now waiting for enrolling the Police Academic School. I was fortunate enough to fing about a day in the life as a L.A.P.D officer, and I could understand how their job was, what they thought about their job, etc. A talking with my friend was very informative and also fun and quite enjoyable. He told me some real experiences, but he also heard about from his friend who works as a Los Angeles Police. I just can promise that all of these experiences are very true, very interesting, and sometimes scary too. i. Car Jacking One of his experiences dealt with Car Jacking. This incident involved three African-Americans, one of them carrying a machine gun, car jacking a Chrysler Convertible, which two Caucasians were driving. He said they the suspects, tried to get away so he had to call in back ups, L.A.P.D helicopters, and canine police dogs to find the suspects. He said the L.A.P.Ds ended up catching two of the suspect was the one with the machine gun. Whether this crime was a racial hate crime or just another statistics in the crime record book, we will never knew, but I personally have a hard time imaginging a car jacking crime where an African-American becomes a car jacking an African- American too. These types of crimes are unimaginable to Korean culture because guns to Korean People are unheard. Not only are guns strictly illegal in Korea, guns are not available to get in Korea. I have personally seen many Korean immigrants who cames to L.A and witnessed these types of crimes and ended up going back to Korea because they simply could not imagine those crimes happening to them or their families. Because of these crimes, L.A gets judged upon as a crime city overall. It is my and our responsibility to make our neighborhood clean, and as crimeless as possible. It definitely will take a ling time and a great dedication, but cooperative with the L.A.P.D officers, it is possible. Whenever I hear about these crime stories and think about how the police officers put their lives on the line to apprehend these suspects to make our communities safer, it gives me a new respect for the police officers, which they really do deserve. Many people, including me have bad image about police officers because they give traffic citations to drivers but police officers not only give traffic citations, they also protect our community. Not only L.A.P.Ds, but also L.A.F.Ds should get everybody's utmost respect for the work that they do and for the good role model that they are to our community and to our younger generations. ii. Domestic Violence The next experience was a domestic violence case. There are many different names for domestic violence such as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, and often wife beating because most of the times it is the husbands beating one their wives. Without getting too much in depth about this case was unique because in this domestic violence case, the wife was beating on her husband. When we, as a Korean-American, see these types of problems we really do not understand it because in our Korean culture, domestic violence is strictly forbidden. It does happen from time to time, but it is kept so quiet that most of times even the next door neighbor do not even notice them. Going by the Korean culture, domestic violence brings a great deal of embarrassment to the family and to both of their parents, most of the times they will keep it a secret if they can. My friend, James, said that his friend ended up taking the wife to jail because the wife cut her husband's hand up with a knife and she became a felony suspect by doing that. There were many more interesting experiences given by my good friend, but most of these experiences including the two explained above are the types of things that are just intolerable, and unimaginable to Korean-American cultured society as well, but not as comparably as bad as to Korean-American. B. A Lost Life There was an article from Korean Times about a merchant owner who was shot to death in a robbery at their south central Los Angeles market. The wife and husband were working one Friday night and robbers intruded in. When the robbers came into the store and demanded money, she gave robbers all the money she had because did not want anyone to get hurt. Unfortunately, even after getting all the money, the robbers shot and killed her husband. She was having nightmares at night and her life was virtually trembling down in front of her eyes. She had a very hard time going through those nightmares. She mentioned that she was thinking about selling the store and going back to Korea because she did not want to go through that horror ever again. C. Educational Emphases Education is also looked at form of a different point of view. Education is very importantly taught right from elementary school. Good education is far more emphasized in the Korean society. It is so much emphasized, if you ask Korean immigrants with kids for one of their reason for coming to United States, One of their responses would surely be related to their children's education. Not only is it much more costly to attend Universities in Korea, it is very hard to get accepted to decent Universities. It is almost Considered that if a person is not a college graduate, you will not get accepted in Korea society as well as if you were college graduate. It seems to me like Korean parents in America have higher academic expectations From their children then American parents also. For example, speaking from my personal experience, many American parents will be proud of their children if they just graduate from a high school, but many Korean parents will not be proud of their children unless they graduate with honors. Better yet, many Korean parents will not be proud of their children until they graduate from a famous university or even a graduate school. Many second generations have to live with the pressure of trying to live up to their parents' high academic expectations as well as the normal pressure of being a teenager. Sometimes, second generation Korean-American immigrants can not handle all that pressures and end up turning to alcohol, and drugs. In some cases, they end up joining Asian gangs, end up running away from their parents, and end up running their lives. In Korea Times News Paper, dated Thursday 9/17/98, there was an article about a second generation Korean-American high school student, Michael Cho, who ended up committing a suicide with a hangun because he thought he was not receiving good enough academic grades from his high school. He was afraid that his parents would get disappointed at him after seeing his grade. These types of things are things that are not common in Korea. Many parents in Korea will not even treat their children like their children if they do not get decent grades from school. I am sure his parents felt so sorry for making their son felling that way. It is articles like these, which makes the newspaper readers' step back and think for a minute. It is articles like these, which should make Korean-American parents think twice before demanding straight A's on their children's report cards. Even I used to think that the world would stop revolving if I was to bring any report card with more than one B. But this is just how much Korean-American parents expect from many of their children. D. A Tragic Death In The Liquor Store I have mentioned about a merchant owner who was shot to death in a robbery. This kind of crime I think is one of the most terrible violence. Unfortunately or Fortunately for my works, my former roommate's mother told me a tragic death of her older son. My former roommate's name is Tai Kim and he works as a sales manager in LA downtown. He lives in a house in Cerritos with his mother. His house looked very clean from outside, I could tell it was recently built, and it was in a nice neighborhood. Inside this house was just as good as it was outside, and was oozing with leather luxuries not to mention expensive electronics. His mom, his older brother, and himself immigrated to United States on October of 1990. Unfortunately, his father had passed away in Korea on 1988, so this immigration for his family was even tougher than other immigrates. Their first and most important reason for immigrating United States was that it was hard for them to carry out a normal family life without their father after he had passed away, after they. Immigrated to the United States on 1990, they didn't have enough money, nor any credit to rent an apartment for their family so they had no choice but to reside in their relative's house. Mrs. Kim worked all day at a liquor store from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., 365 days a year. She worked hard so that she could provide the tools that her sons needed to excel in their classes. It was very clear that her two sons were her pried and joy. She told me that she wanted her sons to attend UCLA or UC Berkeley. She basically wanted the best for her two children. She also worked hard to save money so that one day she could afford a place to live for her family. Lucky for her, her relatives did not charge her any rent fees for living it was for her. Mrs. Kim woke up at 4:00 a.m. every morning to make breakfast for every member of the household and ended up going to bed past midnight everyday. It obviously was very hard for her for many years, Because of Mrs. Kim's high academic expectations from her two sons, She made her older son go to UCLA. In addition, her sons had to help out their mom and work at the liquor store whenever they had time on their hands. It was very tough for her two sons and for the mom. Luckily, after about five years of hard work, Mrs. Kim and her family were able to adapt to buy off that liquor store she had been working for. She worked harder to make the store better, and more profitable. After two years of ownership, she managed to buy a house in Cerritos on 1995. Her life was seems to be a lot better. As I say through a Korean proverb, Both a good thing and a bad thing are come to us together and same time. Some day, unfortunately, my friend's older brother came by the store to help his mom. When they work hard together, A robber, but he refused and fought with robber. He finally killed by a robber's shooting, in front of his mom's eyes. I could see she was having difficulty bring back her hard memories of that time she says she never regrets immigrating to LA before a death of her older son because even though it was hard at times she says she has done everything. She now has employees for her liquor store and never allows my friend come into the store. She has only one, my friend Tai Kim. All the families that I have interviewed, it was pretty apparent to me that all of them had to experience some kind of racial discrimination one way or the other. There are other cultural differences that have not been mentioned above. Such as having Different morals, different family values, and how they respect other older people. Korean families in LA are different than Korean families in Korea. Fortunately, by what I have experienced and read in the last couple of years, I strongly believe that the racial discrimination is decreasing at a steady pace, not only here in city of Los Angeles but worldwide. Presently, Korean-Americans here in the Los Angeles City take up a major percentage of the city's population, but because of their quiet personalities; they sometimes do not get the recognition that they should. Korean- Americans are no different from any other immigrants. They came here in search of a better life like the rest of the immigrants. Korean-Americans here in city of Los Angeles need to get more recognized as hard workers, not only as school teachers, as judges and lawyers, as engineers, architectures and contractors, and even as city councilman. Korean-Americans should get recognized as people who not only care about the well being of their family, but also who cares about the well being of their neighborhood and their city. V. My Experiences I have had a fortunate chance to have a long discussion about the Korean- American communities growing in Los Angeles. Sure, I have had my bad experiences as a Korean-American also but on the other hand, I am so glad that I am studying here abroad and not in Korea. The reason is Korean schools have so much competition among other students that they almost literally fight over better academic grades. That was not the academic environment that I wanted to be in. I sometimes wished that I was an American with American parents because of how more flexible typical American parents are, academically and socially, but I thank god for making me what I am, and who I am. It has been hard for me to study here also, but I personally did not experience that much racial discrimination due to the fact that there are many Korean-American people living here in Los Angeles. I am also proud to be a Korea-American. I can combine both of the cultures and utilize the best from both of them. VI. Conclusion We have faced many problems because many different cultured communities are not aware of the Korean community cultures. I hope that as time passes, different cultured communities will be able to understand Korean cultures and not look at us as an outsider but accept us for who we are. I also hope that in the near future the racial hate will diminish for good and bring all of us closer together as a neighbor, as a town, and as a city. I hope in the future, Los Angeles City will be looked upon as a wonderful, peaceful city, which everybody would want to live in. I hope that the color of Los Angeles city will not be told by the color of our skin, or where we come from, or what our beliefs are, but it will be told by the character of each individual. . Bibliography Korean Overseas Information Services. "Fact about Korea." Seoul, Korea : Samhwa Printing Company, 1993 Myoung Gum Cho : my cousin My friends Lee, James : "L.A.P.D." Kim, Tai : "store manager." Kim, Jung : "Tai's Mother." My neighborhood Hwang, Michelle : "clerk of video shop" Lee, Johnny : "high school student." Kang, Connie : "owner of liquor store." Park, Andrew : "owner of liquor store." Song, Ki Jung : "selected bibliography of Korea studies : A brief survey of the history of the contemporary Korean studies." Seoul Korea : The academy of Korean studies, 1995