Soo Myung Koh. Wan Joon Kim. David Joo.

They are not “Rooftop Koreans.”

Instead, these men are hard workers. They are beloved members of families as sons, brothers, cousins, uncles, husbands, fathers, and grandfathers. They are loyal to their circle of friends. They all became American citizens. They possess a diverse variety of passions and interests—from loving music to collecting art to mountaineering and rock climbing.

They are also among the many Korean American storeowners I had the honor of interviewing for my award-winning nonfiction book, RISING FROM THE ASHES: LOS ANGELES, 1992. EDWARD JAE SONG LEE, LATASHA HARLINS, RODNEY KING, AND A CITY ON FIRE (Norton Young Readers, 2024). My book has received 5 starred reviews (Kirkus, Horn Book, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books) and won many honors, including the prestigious 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award

For my book, I also interviewed over 100 sources, including my in-depth personal interviews with the courageous and resilient families of Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, and Rodney King. 

My book features a chapter exploring the problematic #RooftopKorean meme that distorts the history and legacy behind the true story of what happened in 1992 Koreatown and thus unfairly pits our communities against each other in a racist manner. 

Korean Americans have their own name for the 1992 Los Angeles uprising: “사이구 – Sa I Gu,” which stands for the numbers 4-2-9 indicating the first day of civil unrest that resulted in $1 billion dollars in damage (almost half of it disproportionately in Koreatown), 63 deaths, over 2300 people injured, 12,000-plus arrests, 3,600 fires, 1,100 buildings burned to the ground and 2,300 Korean-owned businesses destroyed.

As I write this, the legacies of Soo Myung Koh, Wan Joon Kim, David Joo and others are continuing to be distorted, misrepresented, and maligned by toxic social media “Rooftop Korean” memes… including an irresponsible and inflammatory post by Donald John Trump, Jr., whose father is the current President of the United States.

On June 8, 2025, Donald Trump Jr.’s father, President Trump, deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles during a swell of protests over recent excessive immigration enforcement and workplace immigration raids conducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), even though California Governor Gavin Newsom did not give his consent. Governor Newsom condemned Trump’s deployment of not just the National Guard but also the Marines as a “brazen abuse of power.” 

Just a few hours later, President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. posted an inaccurate and racist five-year-old meme on his X (formerly Twitter) account showing a Korean American man cleaning his rifle on the rooftop of a Korean-owned store in Los Angeles during the 1992 L.A. uprising with the caption, “Everybody rioting until the roof starts speaking Korean.”

Above this meme, Donald Trump Jr. wrote these words for his X post: “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!”

Within 48 hours, his X post received over 6 million views and counting.

Hyungwon Kang, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his photos of Koreatown under siege during the 1992 L.A. uprising, immediately replied on X to Donald Trump Jr.’s post: “Excuse me. That’s my picture that you’re using without my permission. You’re using the photo out of context. Please take it down.”

This wasn’t the first time the infamous hashtag phrase #RooftopKoreans had been used out of context in order to benefit white supremacy and systemic racism.

Here is an excerpt from my book, RISING FROM THE ASHES:

#######

“THE ROOFTOP KOREANS”

Excerpt from Rising from the Ashes by Paula Yoo

In 1992, Los Angeles Times photographer Hyungwon Kang’s powerful images of Korean American store owners perched on store rooftops, armed with guns to protect their property, won the Pulitzer Prize.

Twenty­eight years later, on May 25, 2020, Kang’s photos reemerged after a live video aired on Facebook of a Black man named George Floyd being arrested by four police officers, one of whom knelt on his neck despite Floyd’s repeated pleas of “I can’t breathe.” He died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to neck compression. As Black Lives Matter protests galvanized by Floyd’s death erupted across the country that summer, Kang’s same photos of armed Korean American store owners were reduced to a pop culture meme known as the “#RooftopKoreans.”

Alt­right and pro-gun “Right to Bear Arms” advocates co-opted this joke meme to criticize the #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations and other similar movements.

“Bring back the #RooftopKorean and the looting will stop,” one person posted on Twitter (rebranded as X three years later). Similar posts included “Roof top Koreans getting ready to hunt!” and “Don’t mess with ‘Roof Top Koreans.’”

This racist reduction of what Korean immigrant store owners suffered during the 1992 L.A. uprising disturbed UC Riverside professor Edward Taehan Chang. “What we see here are white supremacists using ‘Rooftop Koreans’ images and video to justify their own position,” Chang said. “This has potentially very damaging consequences to incite racial division and hatred between Korean Americans and other communities of color, particularly African American communities. It speaks to a common divide and control strategy perpetuated by white supremacists.”

Hyungwon Kang believes people should not lose sight of the tragic aftermath for many of these store owners, several of whom he witnessed waving toy guns in fear and desperation. “They were merely trying to protect what was rightfully their own. When their stores went up in flames, they lost life savings; they lost everything.”

#######

For Soo Myung Koh, Wan Joon Kim, David Joo, and other Korean immigrant storeowners, the last thing they wanted was to arm themselves during the 1992 Los Angeles uprising from April 29 to May 6, 1992. 

Because South Korea had established a mandatory conscription draft in 1957 requiring all male citizens ages 18-35 to serve in its army, navy, or air force, Mr. Koh, Mr. Kim, and Mr. Joo, along with many Korean immigrant storeowners from 1992, had served honorably in the military. They all had proper arms training and were very conscious of gun safety during the 1992 L.A. uprising. 

In fact, David Joo later testified before Congress during a 1995 House subcommittee hearing on gun laws.

But in 1992, Mr. Joo was terrified. “When I arrived, it was like a war zone,” he said when I was researching my book. “I was terrified. Bang! Bang! Bullets were coming from everywhere.”

However, these iconic images, many of them shot by Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Hyungwon Kang, were often taken out of context. These Korean American storeowners were portrayed as the aggressors and “crazed vigilantes” when they were simply trying to defend their property… and their lives.

David Joo has spoken to many media outlets and appeared in several award-winning documentaries about the 1992 L.A. uprising. The original KABC-TV local news footage showing live video of armed storeowners David Joo and Richard Park defending their stores at the Rodeo Galleria mall can still be seen today on Youtube. But these videos are now being taken out of context, promoting Joo and other storeowners as “Rooftop Koreans.” What is missing is the key information that both Joo and Park were forced to defend their stores after two women employees were shot in the crossfire and nearly killed. 

David Joo studied psychology in college in Korea before moving to Colorado in 1985. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1988 and became an American citizen in 1991. As a child, his favorite memory was watching American western movies like High Noon and A Fistful of Dollars with his father. When he was young, Mr. Joo thought actor John Wayne was Korean because these movies were dubbed in Korean! He felt at home in California, which “… reminded me of a big ole Western with its big fields and the desert,” he said fondly.

David Joo became an avid collector of antique guns. “I consider them works of art,” he said. As a hobby, he trained for years at shooting galleries, had a license, and was very conscientious of gun safety. As a result, Richard Park hired him to manage his gun store, which was just around the corner from Park’s jewelry store in the Rodeo Galleria.

On April 30, 1992, David Joo’s life would change forever. His American Dream became a nightmare as he was forced to arm himself at the Rodeo Galleria, trying to survive a gun battle which eerily reminded him of the Westerns he had watched as a child about the standoff at the O.K. Corral.

I interviewed David Joo for my book. Here’s what he had to say… 

#######

“AMERICAN PIONEERS”

Excerpt from Rising from the Ashes by Paula Yoo

“When I arrived, it was like a war zone,” Joo said. “I was terrified. Bang! Bang! Bullets were coming from everywhere.”

Although Joo was wearing a bulletproof vest, he couldn’t help but raise his hands over his head. “I could literally see bullets flying by me,” he said. “I thought I might get shot. I never thought we would have this big incident together, to have to fight a thousand shooters.”

Meanwhile, the police, who were outnumbered, drove off. Joo and [storeowner Richard] Park were now on their own.

As Joo and Park shot back, a KABC-TV Eyewitness News van pulled into the parking lot. The cameras rolled as a reporter… described the scene. “Just a few minutes ago, some of the Korean shop owners here…  started pulling out weapons. These are all loaded guns. Koreans are starting to shoot at some of the people here.”

But many Korean Americans questioned how the events were reported. “The mainstream media depicted Koreans as aggressive people shooting at everyone,” said Peter Pak, editor of the Korean-language Korea Times newspaper. “When the police officers left us, we had no choice but to defend ourselves…. The mainstream media misunderstood the intention of Korean Americans, which was self-defense.”

“They were standing up for their own survival,” agreed Los Angeles Times photojournalist Hyungwon Kang, whose photos of the events in Koreatown would later win a Pulitzer Prize. 

… For the next several days, TV news stations constantly re-aired close­ups of Joo and Park aiming their guns and shooting [as if they were the aggressors]. But the cameras didn’t show what the two Korean American men saw on the other side—an angry crowd of two hundred demonstrators, many of them armed.

So Joo participated in as many interviews as he could, wanting to tell his side of the story.

“I want to make it clear that we didn’t open fire first,” he told the New York Times. “At that time, four police cars were there. Somebody started to shoot at us. The LAPD ran away in half a second. I never saw such a fast escape. I was pretty disappointed.”

During the gunfire, friends were able to drive Richard Park’s sister and sister-in­law to the hospital. Both women survived.

Despite the two hundred rounds fired, no one had been killed. Police later investigated the store and found over eighty bullet holes in the front wall of Park’s jewelry store. They determined that Joo and Park had shot in self-defense, and no charges were filed.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the aftermath, trauma and PTSD symptoms haunted many Korean American storeowners, residents, and their families. Hundreds of Korean Americans flooded local mental health clinics, seeking therapy and counseling for the first time. David Joo was one of them.]

Meanwhile, David Joo had trouble sleeping. Severe tinnitus and a burst eardrum from the loud gunfire caused a constantnringing in his head, requiring medical attention. But even worse, he had also come down with a case of what Koreans call 화병 hwabyung, or “fire disease,” which the American Psychiatric Association later classified as “suppressed anger syndrome.”

“Hatred,” he said. “I had hatred for everyone. I was angry about what happened. We had no reason to be the victim of the riots. There was no reason to be looting the Korean people and Koreatown.”

But Joo eventually found his happiness again. His 화 hwa faded, and his faith in America returned. Three years later, in March 1995, Joo testified before Congress during a House subcommittee hearing on gun laws. “When law and order breaks down, citizens have a right to protect themselves,” he said. “It’s our most basic right, and I think it’s the most important freedom we have as Americans.”

Asked what makes him still love America, Joo said without hesitation, “Freedom.”

“You can have anything you want. America reminds me of a Western. Wild fields, big desert. Opportunities.” He smiled. “We have to appreciate the American pioneers.”

#######

After seeing Donald Trump Jr.’s X post about the “Rooftop Koreans,” I immediately reached out to Hyungwon Kang for his reaction. Hyungwon also gave me his permission to publish his photo for this blog. You can also check out his gallery of photos located on the main page of my website to see more of his award-winning work here. (Hyungwon Kang’s website is also here: https://www.kang.org)

“I was offended by the use of my 1992 L.A. Riots news photo out of context of a man-made calamity of LAPD evacuating themselves out of L.A. Koreatown on the Rodney King verdict day on April 29, 1992 resulting in widespread arson and looting,” Kang told me. “Back then Korean Americans had to pick up arms to defend themselves from a lawless situation caused by the absence of law enforcement protection. The current situation of people expressing a widespread disagreement about an excessive and aggressive enforcement by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while LAPD is present and keeping the city in order is not even remotely similar to the dire situation for Korean Americans of those dark hours during the 1992 L.A. Riots.”

The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles also criticized Donald Trump Jr.’s “reckless” post in this statement to Reuters: “While the unrest has not yet subsided, Donald J. Trump Jr. … showed the recklessness of posting a post on X on Sunday, June 8, mocking the current unrest by mentioning the ‘Rooftop Korean’ from the LA riots 33 years ago. As the eldest son of the current president and an influencer with approximately 15 million followers, his actions could pose a huge risk in these icy times, and we strongly urge the past trauma of the Korean people be never, ever exploited for any purpose.”

Donald Trump Jr. did not ask for Hyungwon Kang’s permission to use his copyrighted photo. Kang was especially offended that the President’s son posted his photo on social media out of context. 

“The correct caption for my photo is: ‘A Korean American man cleaning a rifle on top of a rooftop of the California Market in Koreatown after spending the previous night guarding the market from looters in Los Angeles, California, May 1, 1992, on the third day of the L.A. 4.29 Riots,’” Kang explained. This photo was part of Kang’s 1992 L.A. uprising coverage for The Los Angeles Times and which would earn Kang his first of two Pulitzer Prizes.

“Misrepresenting my historically accurate image to create an alternative, non-existent narrative about race conflicts and the second amendment rights to bear arms goes against the principles of factual visual storytelling in photojournalism,” Kang said. 

The outrage was also felt on a much more intimate and personal level, especially by the storeowners’ families. Karen Koh, the daughter of Compton storeowner Soo Myung Koh, was horrified to see her father’s legacy maligned on social media in light of the ICE protests in Los Angeles.

Mr. Koh opened his first men’s dress store at the Compton swap meet, soon followed by more stores in Slauson and Inglewood and downtown Los Angeles. He later created a men’s clothing line and purchased a factory where the clothes were manufactured in Los Angeles. He hired local Black and Latino residents, as well as many immigrants, to work at his businesses.

“I am disgusted by Donald Trump Jr’s post,” Karen Koh told me. “Of course it’s in line with the Trump administration’s blatantly racist policies. My dad would absolutely be disappointed in how Koreans are portrayed in those memes. It infuriates me how their legacy is being distorted because my dad would want to help the most vulnerable as he employed local Black residents and immigrants who played a huge role in helping to run his businesses. Los Angeles is filled with hardworking immigrants and I fully support protecting them in our city as ripping families apart does not make any country great. My mom and I just had a conversation about that repulsive post, and we know my dad would feel the same way, too.”

I had interviewed Mr. Koh and his daughter for my book. Here’s an excerpt:

######

미국 MIGUK: BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

Excerpt from Rising from the Ashes by Paula Yoo

It was Soo Myung Koh’s turn to stay awake. The forty-eight-year-old owned a stall at the Compton Swap Meet [where he] sold business suits at his four-hundred-square-foot stall with his small but dedicated staff of Mexican American and Black employees.

On the night of April 29, Soo Myung Koh was one of the few stall owners who remained, guarding the Compton Fashion Center in shifts, armed with handguns and rifles.

Like most Korean men, Koh knew how to use a gun. After the Korean War ended in 1953, the Korean government had made it mandatory for all men ages eighteen to twenty-eight to join the military for a three-year conscription. So when the protests turned violent, many male Korean store owners used their military training to arm themselves.

“I was ready for this,” he said. “We had to protect ourselves.”

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I interviewed Mr. Koh, he talked about how excited he was to move to America.]

… His favorite song back then was John Denver’s “Country Roads,” whose lyrics painted a romantic picture of America: “Almost heaven, West Virginia / Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River / Life is old there, older than the trees / Younger than the mountains.”

Koh moved to San Diego in September 1978 and opened his own stall at the Compton Swap Meet in 1985. He made only twenty dollars on his first day there. But he did not give up, expanding into selling business suits. He woke up around 5:00 a.m. every morning to drive his wares over. His stall was open every day from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Koh was proud of owning his own business to support his family. “One thing,” he said in English. “First generation, me and the older people, very much they were struggle and settle down to United States. Very, very hard to work and we were thinking only for family. I want to bring my family over here. So first generation is great! We did it!” He smiled.

When Koh first moved to America in 1972, he had taken a cross-country Greyhound Bus tour, from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming all the way to Key West, Florida. There, he had gasped at the unexpected sight of dolphins and turtles swimming in the ocean as his bus drove over the 113-mile Overseas Highway of the Florida Keys.

Growing up, Koh knew Koreans had named America 미국 Miguk, which meant “beautiful country.” As he gazed in wonder through the window at the magnificent vista of blue ocean that seemed to stretch out forever, he finally understood why Koreans called this country beautiful. “This is paradise,” he marveled. “After I finished my trip, I decided I gonna stay here. I’m not gonna go back to Korea.”

And now here he was, twenty years later, clutching a shotgun outside the Compton Swap Meet, as fires burned in the distance.

“I am disappointed in America,” Soo Myung Koh thought, his heart breaking. “America has let me down.”

#######

During my research for RISING FROM THE ASHES, although there were tensions between the Korean American and Black communities back then for many complex and nuanced reasons that I explore in my book, there were also incredible examples of solidarity and compassion. 

One such example was storeowner Wan Joon Kim, who became known as the “Korean Godfather of Gangsta Rap” for his popular Cycadelic Records store located in the Compton Swap Meet during the 1980s and 1990s. His family had escaped North Korea during the Korean War, and as a result, although he initially preferred Beethoven over Biggie Smalls, Wan Joon Kim was soon drawn to the hard-hitting lyrics infused with social commentary about racism, poverty, and police brutality in this new genre of “gangsta rap” that had emerged during that era. 

Here is an excerpt from my book, RISING FROM THE ASHES, about Wan Joon Kim and his contribution to rap and hip hop:

#######

THE KOREAN GODFATHER OF GANGSTA RAP

Excerpt from Rising from the Ashes by Paula Yoo

Wan Joon Kim ran the popular Cycadelic Records in Compton. It wasn’t a brick-and-mortar store. Instead, it was Stall Number Z-7, closest to the main entrance of the Compton Swap Meet. It cost $500 a month to rent the space. In 1983, several Korean American vendors leased an abandoned Sears building in Compton and renamed it the Compton Fashion Center. It became one of the largest Korean-owned indoor swap meets in L.A. County, with more than three hundred vendors.

Wan Joon and his wife, Boo Ja Kim, originally sold barrettes and hair accessories at a local outdoor flea market. He noticed a nearby vendor selling hip hop and rap CDs. The line for his booth stretched down the parking lot.

“My dad saw an opportunity,” said his son, Kirk Kyung Up Kim, now in his mid-forties. “He saw these big lines [and] said, ‘I’m gonna try this.’”

The classical music fan in Wan Joon Kim was confused at first when he listened to rap. “What are these guys talking about?” he asked his children. “Why are these guys so angry?”

“My father knew nothing about hip hop music,” Kirk said. “We listened to music together, and I helped translate the lyrics for him.”

“Oh, I like this,” Wan Joon Kim told his son. “This music I don’t like. But I understand where they come from. They’re speaking from their hearts and their minds. I understand that.”

Although Wan Joon Kim had grown up across the Pacific, the high poverty rates in Compton reminded him of life in North Korea, where his family had struggled to make ends meet. He identified with what these rappers were saying.

Wan Joon Kim was born in what would become the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in 1934. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the sixteen-year-old teenager and his family escaped in his father’s fishing boat to Seoul. By 1976, Wan Joon Kim, his wife, and their children moved to Los Angeles.

Wan Joon Kim immediately rented Stall Z-7 at the Compton Fashion Center. His children suggested he call his new record store Psychedelic Records, but their father spelled it as “Cycadelic.” They drove all over Los Angeles, looking for rap music to sell at the swap meet. As the radio blared, the children identified hit rap songs that their father should purchase in bulk.

As a kid, Kirk fell head over heels in love with hip hop and rap. “It spoke to me,” he said. “Oldies, hip hop, and funk. I’m this kid trapped in between this gangsta rap culture and my strict parents.” Bullied by racist students at school, Kirk found solace at his father’s stall. “I would just see people like running up and hugging my mom, my dad, and they’re so nice to me. Whereas when I go to school, everyone’s so mean to me.”

… So Wan Joon Kim filled that gap as one of the first distributors of early gangsta rap music. In addition to stocking albums by major label artists, he and another vendor also worked together to press and manufacture multiple copies of records, CDs, and cassette tapes by local independent musicians to sell at the stall. He became known as the “Korean godfather of gangsta rap.”

… Cycadelic Records’ reputation skyrocketed. More than a hundred customers stopped by every day, often dancing to the music playing out loud.

“Moms” Boo Ja Kim treated future rap stars like family. She occasionally chastised an aspiring local rapper named Eric Lynn Wright to “pull your pants up!” but always made sure to treat him with freshly baked cookies. Wright later became Eazy-E of N.W.A. Their debut album, Straight Outta Compton, sold one million copies on its release in 1988.

“My parents were always hugging customers and picking up little babies and stuff,” Kirk said. “Every time one of my dad’s VIP customers would come, then there was an ice cream shop right next door so he would always buy them ice cream. To this day, I have people messaging me saying, ‘My son just graduated high school or college and he was talking about your parents and how your dad used to take us to the ice cream shop.’”

And Wan Joon Kim lived up to his “Pops” nickname. Kirk never forgot the day a security guard brought over a twelve-year­old boy who had been caught shoplifting a CD.

“Why did you do it?” Wan Joon asked the young boy.

“I just wanted to have it,” he replied.

Wan Joon Kim remembered his own difficult childhood in Korea. He let the boy keep the CD and told the security guard to let him go. Instead of getting angry, Pops patted the boy gently on the back and said, “Next time, you can just tell me.”

“The American dream was most important to him,” Kirk said. “He was just chasing the American dream.”

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: In my book, I then explore what happened when the Compton Swap Meet was shut down during the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. Wan Joon Kim and his family were unable to protect their stall, so they stayed home during the first few days of civil unrest. Here’s what happened when they returned to the Compton Swap Meet…]

… Kirk and his family drove back to the Compton Fashion Center to find out if Stall No. Z-7 was still standing.

“It was unreal,” he remembered as they drove through Compton, which looked like a combined ghost town and war zone as the National Guard patrolled the empty streets.

Wan Joon was worried because his stall was located right by a large window. It would be so easy to break the glass and steal all their records.

But when they arrived, they saw a group of their loyal customers guarding the front entrance and the window next to Stall No. Z-7.

Cycadelic Records had survived the night.

“Yeah, Mr. Kim, ain’t no one gonna do shit to your store,” a customer said. “We were right here the whole time.”

“They protected our store for sure,” Kirk said. “My dad hugged everyone and kept saying thank you.”

#######

On March 13, 2013, Wan Joon “Pops” Kim died at the age of 79 from lung cancer. His wife Boo Ja “Moms” Kim died in 2016 at the age of 76.

When I interviewed their son Kirk Kim, who now works as an international music producer and concert promoter, he told me that a few days after his father died, a young man stopped by the Cycadelic Records booth at the Compton Swap Meet, asking to speak to “Pops.” He told Kirk that he never forgot Wan Joon Kim’s kindness to him when he was a child. It turned out this young man was the same 12-year-old who tried to shoplift a CD from the store, only to be protected by Mr. Kim and given a second chance. 

Unfortunately, Wan Joon Kim’s act of kindness was a rare moment in this young man’s life. He eventually went to prison and had just been released. “All he could think about that whole time was what my father did for him when he was a kid,” Kirk remembered. “As soon as he got out of prison, he came to our stall and wanted to thank him.”

Kirk told the man that his father had just died. The two men embraced and cried.

Wan Joon Kim would have turned 92 this past June 9, 2025. Just one day after his birthday, Donald Trump Jr. posted his “Rooftop Korean” X meme. I spoke with his son Kirk this week for his reaction.

“What a disgrace to dishonor Korean immigrants who not just protected their stores but also the community around them,” Kirk told me. “June 9 was my dad’s birthday. Imagine me seeing this shit on his birthday. The LA riots was the result of a huge miscarriage of justice, and to position Korean immigrants during that time alongside another huge miscarriage of justice in these ICE raids sickens me. I know that my father would be disgusted by the terrible actions of the Trump administration.”

######

Many social media posts and news outlets are comparing what is happening in June 2025 Los Angeles to the 1992 L.A. uprising. 

As of now, however, the differences could not be further apart. Since Saturday June 7, 2025, there have been 372 arrests for charges of failing to disperse, destruction of property, vandalism and looting, and there are no fatalities.

These numbers are far below what happened in 1992. The L.A. uprising would result in 63 deaths and over $1 billion in damage and over 3,600 fires and 2,300 businesses destroyed. Take a look at the front page of the Los Angeles Times just one day after the civil unrest began: “Looting and Fires Ravage L.A. 25 Dead, 572 Injured; 1,000 Blazes Reported.” 

Now let’s compare that to the front pages of the Los Angeles Times from the past few days:

“ICE raids across L.A. spur protests” (Los Angeles Times – June 8, 2025)

“Guard deployed despite state objections: Officials say Trump is stoking chaos as troops release tear gas on protesters decrying ICE raids” (Los Angeles Times – June 9, 2025)

On June 8, 2025, the same day Donald Trump Jr. wrote “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!” on X, former L.A. Police Commission president and businessman Rick Caruso posted this on X: “There is no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in Los Angeles. And absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the streets of this or any other Southern California City. Local law enforcement is capable of handling the situation and should arrest anyone causing violence in the streets. We must call for calm in the streets, and deployment of the National Guard may prompt just the opposite.” 

When the protests first began, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized the Trump administration’s immigration raids for causing tensions in Los Angeles, saying the “… federalization of the National Guard was completely unwarranted.” “This is not a citywide civil unrest,” she said on CNN.

“What was the reason that the president had to take the power from the governor and federalize the National Guard?” Mayor Bass asked. “The night before this action was taken, there was a protest that got a little unruly, late at night. It was 100 people. Twenty-seven people were arrested. There wasn’t a reason for this.”

But President Trump insisted he had a legal provision to deploy the current 4,100 National Guard troops and over 700 Marines to Los Angeles in light of “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” Both California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit and emergency motion to stop the deployment of federal troops from aiding the ICE immigration raids.

As of now, 330 immigrants have been detained in Southern California and Central Coast. Several concerts and museums in downtown L.A. have been forced to cancel or shut down due to vandalism and safety concerns. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had to issue a curfew for a one-square-mile area of downtown of Los Angeles, saying the violence had reached a “tipping point.” Similar protests overexcessive ICE raids are now happening across the country, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Milwaukee, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Denver, and Las Vegas. 

The story of these ICE protests in Los Angeles and across our country will continue to evolve long after I post this blog. Although I cannot predict what will happen next, I do know that our First Amendment protects we the people who have the right peaceably to assemble.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

######

As the protests in Los Angeles continue, I want to close with an exclusive and unpublished final excerpt from my book RISING FROM THE ASHES about storeowner Soo Myung Koh.

I began reporting this book during the early 2020-2022 years of the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdowns. I interviewed Soo Myung Koh in 2021 over Zoom, with Karen Koh, the oldest of his three children, serving as interpreter. 

On February 18, 2022, Soo Myung Koh died of complications from COVID-19. He was 77 years old.

When I’m not writing, I also play the violin on a professional freelance basis. Mr. Koh’s daughter Karen asked me to play my violin at his memorial service.

Here is an exclusive outtake from RISING FROM THE ASHES about what happened at Soo Myung Koh’s memorial service.

And here is personal note to Donald John Trump Jr.: Please take your “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!” X post down. Not only is it copyright infringement of Hyungwon Kang’s photography, but your careless, thoughtless, and dangerous rhetoric perpetuates a racist and false storyline that further inflames an already divided country. 

We are stronger together. Do not let us—and Mr. Koh—down again.

#######

MARCH 20, 2022: “TAKE ME HOME”

By Paula Yoo

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요…

“Arirang, arirang, arariyo…/You are going over Arirang hill./My love, if you abandon me/Your feet will be sore before you go ten miles./Just as there are many stars in the clear sky,/There are also many dreams in our heart./There, over there, that mountain is Baekdu Mountain,/Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.”

– “Arirang,” traditional Korean folk song

“Almost heaven, West Virginia/Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River./Life is old there, older than the trees/Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze./Country roads, take me home/To the place I belong/West Virginia, mountain mama/Take me home, country roads.”

– John Denver, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”

On February 18, 2022, Soo Myung Koh died of complications from COVID-19. He was 77 years old.

Thirty years earlier, Mr. Koh was the storeowner who stayed up all night at the Compton swap meet with a gun guarding his stall. 

His daughter, Karen Koh, asked me to play my violin at her father’s funeral on March 20, 2022. I have been playing the violin since kindergarten. When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1995, I taught violin part-time in a program called “Sweet Strings” started by my teacher and friend, Professor Chan Ho Yun at the Colburn School. We taught violin to in South Los Angeles. Although I am now a full-time writer, I still freelance professionally with many orchestras and music ensembles. One of my favorite groups is the Southeast Symphony, founded in 1948 as the country’s first all-Black orchestra because most professional major symphony orchestras were segregated back then. Today, our orchestra is a diverse and inclusive group that promotes Black composers and soloists.

Because Mr. Koh was immune compromised with a kidney transplant during the 2020-2021 pandemic lockdown, we met online via Zoom for our interviews. Although Mr. Koh spoke English, it was sometimes easier for him to speak in Korean, so his daughter Karen Koh would translate for him.

Mr. Koh told us how he had fallen head over heels in love with America when he first arrived in 1978. His daughter Karen teared up as she translated him saying how his heart broke during Sa I Gu. He was scared and angry. He did not want to be holding a gun, standing by the door, ready to defend himself against his own country.

But despite all the violence and heartache, he never fell out of love with his home. For the next 30 years, Mr. Koh raised three children and six grandchildren. He was an avid mountaineer and rock climber. As a former president and member of the Korean Alpine Federation in America organization, he went on many expeditions around the world, including climbing the Himalayas. He also used his mountaineering expertise to organize groups to find missing hikers in California.

“He was my hero,” Karen said at his funeral held at the SkyRose Chapel at the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. 

After Karen’s eulogy, I played Mr. Koh’s two favorite songs—the traditional Korean song “Arirang” and John Denver’s 1971 hit song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”—on my violin.

As I played, Mr. Koh’s family and friends sang along to the chorus of “Country Roads”: “Country roads, take me home/To the place I belong…”

Mr. Koh is home.

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EDITED JUNE 14, 2025 TO ADD: Here is a photo collage I posted after attending today’s #NoKingsDay national peaceful protest in Culver City, CA. #solidarity

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SOURCES

Personal interviews conducted by Paula Yoo with Hyungwon Kang, Karen Koh and Kirk Kim (June 8-11, 2025).

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