Remembering Latasha Harlins 25 Years Later

[Big Daddy]

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15-YEAR-OLD LATASHA HARLINS KILLED OVER A BOTTLE OF ORANGE JUICE
1 POSTED BY JAE JONES - NOVEMBER 17, 2015 - INJUSTICES, LATEST POSTS

Latasha Harlins was a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed on March 16, 1991 by Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean store owner. Harlens was a student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California. Her death happened thirteen days after the videotape of the Rodney King beating was released.

Storeowner Du saw Harlins putting a bottle of orange juice in her backpack. She thought that the young girl was attempting to steal the bottle of juice, she did not see the money that Harlins had in her hand to pay for the juice.

Du grabbed at Harlins by the sweater in attempt to snatch her backpack, but Harlins struck Du three times with her fist, allegedly knocking her to the ground. After Harlins backed away from Du. Du picked up a stool and threw it at her. Harlins then picked up the orange juice that dropped during the scuffle, and threw it on the counter and turned to leave the store.

That is when Du reached under the counter to retrieve a handgun. She then fired at 15-year-old Harlins from behind at a distance of about three feet, shot her in the back of her head, killing her instantly.

Du’s husband, Billy Heung Ki Du, heard the shot and rushed into the store and called 911. Harlins died with two dollars in her left hand. Du claimed self-defense and testified that she felt her life was in danger.

However, there were contradictory statements of two witnesses who were present at the time and the security camera footage that showed Du shooting Harlins in the back of the head leaving the store. The Los Angeles police department ballistics expert report also found that the handgun Du used had been altered in such a way that, compared to an ordinary handgun, much less pressure on the trigger was necessary to result in firing.

On November 15 1991 the jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter with a 16-year prison sentence recommendation, believing that Du’s shooting was fully within her control and she fired the gun voluntarily. The presiding judge, Joyce Karlin reduced the sentence to probation of five years, four hundred hours of community service, and a $500.00 fine.





RIP baby girl

 

[Heafcliffe]

16 years to probation? The $500 fine was a slap in the face (aka cherry on top).

 

[Eastside Get The Money]

Was just watching a LA riot doc the other day. I've always been torn on this story. On one hand, a life is never worth $2. On the other, the Koreans were sick of nikkas stealing their shyt and police not doing anything. They really took things into their own hands to defend theirs and I can't really be mad at that

 

[ridedolo]

Was just watching a LA riot doc the other day. I've always been torn on this story. On one hand, a life is never worth $2. On the other, the Koreans were sick of nikkas stealing their shyt and police not doing anything. They really took things into their own hands to defend theirs and I can't really be mad at that

u cant be mad at them killing a teenage girl over some orange juice?

 

[Big Daddy]

Was just watching a LA riot doc the other day. I've always been torn on this story. On one hand, a life is never worth $2. On the other, the Koreans were sick of nikkas stealing their shyt and police not doing anything. They really took things into their own hands to defend theirs and I can't really be mad at that

But she wasn't stealing

And she was shot in the back of the head, while exiting the store, WITHOUT the orange juice.
N!gga fukk your "torn" feelings

 

[NoMoreWhiteWoman2020]

too many examples of our lives being devalued in the courtroom- that judge can eat a bag of dikks.

 

[Diondon]

I remember this story. Sparked the LA Riots. Burnt that bytch to the ground.

 

[No_bammer_weed]

Some post-script facts:

Du's store was firebombed shortly thereafter, and then burned down during the L.A riots. She and her family left and never returned to the area again.

Close to 70% of the stores/shops that burned down during the L.A riots were Asian owned. This incident was said to be the tipping point in an already tension-filled relationship between local blacks and koreans in the inner city L.A areas.

Tupac's 'keep your head up' was inspired by the killing, and is a tribute to Harlin's memory.

 

[jdubnyce]

Was just watching a LA riot doc the other day. I've always been torn on this story. On one hand, a life is never worth $2. On the other, the Koreans were sick of nikkas stealing their shyt and police not doing anything. They really took things into their own hands to defend theirs and I can't really be mad at that

are you serious with this post?

she was no longer in possession of the orange juice
she had her back to the store owner
she was exiting the store
SHE GOT SHOT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD

breh....come on

 

[Big Daddy]

Sh!t is sad breh

"Latasha Harlins would not live long enough to witness the birth of Twitter or the era of the hashtag. Yet it’s difficult not to summon her name—or her story—amid hashtag memorials for another dead black girl, 19-year-old Renisha McBride, who was shot in the face earlier this month after knocking on a door in suburban Detroit.


Latasha, age 15, was shot in the back of her head by grocery-store owner Soon Ja Du two weeks after the infamous Rodney King beating in 1991. It happened during a dispute at Du’s South-Central Los Angeles store and ended with Latasha lying dead on the ground with a $1.79 bottle of orange juice sitting on the counter and two crumpled dollar bills in her hand. The memory of Latasha’s shooting eerily haunts the present as we confront the recent death of McBride, whose shooter claims self-defense.

As UCLA historian Brenda Stevenson observes in her new book, The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, much about Latasha’s life and death is all too familiar. As Du testified during her murder trial, in Latasha she didn’t see a black girl who loved BBD—the around-the-way girl with the “New Edition Bobby Brown button” on her sleeve that LL Cool J once lovingly observed. Rather, per Du’s teenage son, what she saw instead was a “gang member.”

Latasha’s sartorial choices—described by a friend in Stevenson’s book as “blue dikkies, a white T-shirt, and a black hoodie, always the black hoodie”—reflected her desire, no doubt, to simply fit in. As another friend of hers recalled, “Tasha was just very quiet and shy ... And she was hard, you could tell. You didn’t mess with her. She was like in her own world.” None of which suggests that she deserved to die on a Saturday morning in a grocery store doubling as a liquor store, in her own neighborhood."

 

[Medicate]

You should see the video of that shyt....straight up coward move

 

[Big Daddy]

Some post-script facts:

Du's store was burned down to the ground shortly thereafter, and she and her family never returned to the area again.

Close to 70% of the stores/shops that burned down during the L.A riots were Korean owned. This incident was said to be the tipping point in an already tension-filled relationship between local blacks and koreans in the inner city L.A areas.

Tupac's 'keep your head up' was inspired by the killing, and is a tribute to Harlin's memory.

That's why this scene in Menace II Society is so accurate. It was an exact portrayal of the relationship between Blacks and Korean store owners in the city during the 90s.

 

[Big Daddy]

You should see the video of that shyt....straight up coward move

Starts at 1:54. Latasha was "hitting" her because the fukking Gook grabbed her backpack.
It looks like she might've even saw her last moments, too, because she was still facing Du when Du pulled out the gun, then she turned away.. only to get executed. Sickening

 

[Splash]

So fukkin sad
R.I.P

 

[Eastside Get The Money]

But she wasn't stealing

And she was shot in the back of the head, while exiting the store, WITHOUT the orange juice.
N!gga fukk your "torn" feelings

are you serious with this post?

she was no longer in possession of the orange juice
she had her back to the store owner
she was exiting the store
SHE GOT SHOT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD

breh....come on

My guys, I am not saying she was right. It was just the tipping point. While the white/black tensions were high, many forget that the Korean tension was just as high too, maybe even higher because they shared the same hood. It was the symbol of "I'm getting robbed every day and nobody is doing anything about it"