ers' statement by saying the divisions stem from inner city kids "being so susceptible to despair." The city is at war with its kids. "LA needs to put out the resources to at least reestablish a connection with the kids" (Smith). Too many children grow up to become gang members rather than professionals. Another problem that causes division in LA is that the city's minorities are engaged in racial warfare. Blacks and whites, and blacks and Koreans have drawn the largest battle lines. Divisions with whites rise out of the fact that Blacks in LA do not like the image that they are given through the media. Paula Weinstein sympathized with this emotion when she described a recent "media fest" in which they made white people scared of the African American community. Reginald Denny described problems between races in terms of the overall attitude of people in LA as "give me what I need and shove off." His hope is that "people just wake up" and "stop seeing color, and see people as people." Tensions between Koreans and blacks had been building for years before the King verdict until they finally exploded. There were countless acts of violence committed between Koreans and blacks that ranged not only from looting and burning of Korean stores but to gun battles and shootings. Walter Park, a well known Korean shop owner was shot "almost execution style" by a black man who came up to his car at a red light, broke his window, and shot him in the head just for being Korean (Smith). In response to the idea that blacks burned down their own neighborhoods, Paul Parker, chairperson for the Free the LA Four Plus defense committee stated, "No we didn't, we burned down these Koreans in this neighborhood" (Smith). About ninety-eight percent of the stores burned down were Korean. He also added, "You know, we got rid of all these little Korean liquor stores over here. We put them in check." This tension between blacks and Koreans comes from ...
