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New York Post
8 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
A 'Rooftop Korean' reveals what it was really like during the '92 riots
LOS ANGELES — It's been more than three decades since Yongsik Lee grabbed a shotgun and climbed to the top of his furniture store during the 1992 Los Angeles riots — becoming one of the infamous era's 'Rooftop Koreans.' After protesters once again squared off with cops on LA's streets — this time over federal raids targeting migrants — the armed vigilantes who defended the city's Koreatown are back in vogue. The 'rooftop Koreans' became a viral punchline and meme for anyone who worried LA was descending into violence, and thought Mayor Karen Bass wasn't doing enough to crack down. 8 Armed Korean immigrants guard their street during the LA riots in 1992. Wikipedia Advertisement Donald Trump Jr. posted an image to X of an armed man on a roof during the latest rioting in LA along with the caption: 'Everybody rioting until the roof starts speaking Korean.' Lee says the memes sling-shotting around the internet don't do justice for how scary the times were — and how different the recent round of LA protests and riots are from 1992. A Korean organization in LA blasted Donald Trump Jr. for a post allegedly making light of the 'Roof Koreans' during the city's latest riots. 'All of the Korean people, we were just focused on protecting our property. And we were also trying to protect the pride and spirit of our Korean community,' said Lee, who immigrated in 1981 and served in both the Korean and American armed forces. 'We didn't want to [fight.] We wanted peace,' he said. Advertisement Now-historic photos at the time captured Korean men with rifles perched atop buildings as rioters moved through the city in May 1992. The mobs looted businesses and set storefronts ablaze after four white police officers were acquitted of the savage beating of Rodney King, a black man. Sixty-three people died, and property damage neared $1 billion in the chaos. Amid the riots, the police more or less abandoned Koreatown, instead focusing on wealthy, white neighborhoods, Lee said. Advertisement 'The police were not responsive. They were using Koreatown as a bumper,' Lee said. 'I was watching the TV, and I saw things burning down in the south side, and [rioters] were coming up here.' 8 'Roof Korean' vigilantes watch over a market in Koreatown in Los Angeles during the 1990s chaos. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images 8 Korean-American men with rifles on the roof of a grocery store during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. AP Lee said that's when he decided to take matters into his own hands: He picked up his two kids from school, went by Home Depot to buy as many fire extinguishers as he could fit in his car, grabbed a shotgun he had for hunting and joined two neighbors on his roof. Advertisement From there, Lee could see other shop owners with guns on nearly every building on his block. All of them had done mandatory military service back in Korea. 8 Present-day protesters jump on a car amidst smoke and flames in LA on June 8, 2025. Toby Canham for NY Post 8 Riot police in full gear face a crowd of recent protesters. Toby Canham for NY Post None of them wanted violence, he insisted. 'We didn't want anybody to get hurt. It was peaceful. We were protecting our property, but we wanted to do it as peacefully as possible,' Lee recalled. 'It wasn't a matter of protecting my money or my property. It was about my foundation. If I lost those things, I'd lose everything. My whole life in America.' 8 The anti-ICE protests in LA have resulted in looting and property damage, but not at the scale of the 1992 riots. Toby Canham for NY Post Advertisement By the end of the riots, more than 1,800 Korean-owned businesses were still looted or destroyed, according to the Washington Post. The media would later cast the 'Roof Koreans' as allies of law enforcement. Kyung Hee Lee, who immigrated in the '80s and saw her tire shop ransacked during the riots, said that narrative is insulting. 'We did what we did because we had no choice,' she said, speaking in Korean. Advertisement 8 A looter steals from a gas station in Compton earlier this month. Getty Images 'We were desperate to survive because the police were not helping the Korean community. The police abandoned the Korean community so the protesters would have something to destroy,' she said. Many Korean-Americans are supportive of the anti-ICE protests that overtook LA — though they disagree with the rioters. When Don Jr. posted about the rooftop Koreans, the Korean American Freedom Federation swiftly condemned him, saying the meme 'demonstrated poor judgment by mocking the current situation and invoking painful memories,' in a statement to the Korea Times. Advertisement 8 Riot police in riot gear make their way toward protesters on June 9, 2025. AFP via Getty Images Wonil Kim, who was toiling as a construction worker during the 1992 riots, said, 'What's being posted online brings up really painful memories.' 'We are proud of the people who were protecting our community, but those days were really brutal and cruel,' he said. And things are different now: Koreatown still doesn't get enough cops, residents say. But in 1992, the Korean community was a poor, fledgling minority; it has since grown and thrived. 'Nowadays nobody will go to the rooftops because we have insurance,' Kim said jokingly. Advertisement 'Roof Korean' Tony Moon has criticized the protests on social media. But at least one 'Rooftop Korean' has embraced his legend. Tony Moon was 19 when he says he grabbed a gun and joined his dad on the roof in 1992. He has since become a right-wing, Second Amendment advocate, dubbing himself an 'OG Roof Korean' on social media. After the latest protests broke out, he re-posted a meme showing his face shining over Gotham City in place of the Bat Signal, and he has blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass for their handling of the crisis. As for Yongsik Lee, he said he is on the side of the protesters, whom he sees as mostly peaceful, at least when compared to the chaos of the Rodney King riots. In fact, he finds common ground between the Koreans of the '90s and present-day Latino migrants, both of whom he sees as scapegoats for the party in power. But he acknowledged that after three decades, the 'Rooftop Koreans' ' place in the history of Los Angeles depends on who you ask. 'There's a lot of different Koreans,' Lee said. 'When you're up on the roof, every Korean thinks differently.'
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
How an original Rooftop Korean got red-pilled: ‘These protests are not organic'
They became the stuff of Second Amendment lore — young men with firearms, patrolling the streets and positioned on rooftops in the Koreatown neighborhood during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Thirty years later, as the City of Angels again faces threats of anarchy, coupled with a defunded and demoralized police force, many people recall the group of men — later known as the Rooftop Koreans — who took it upon themselves to bulwark their community. 'Back then, I didn't really have any skin in the game, so to speak,' Tony Moon, now 53, tells The Post. Advertisement As the fires and looting crept north from South Central to Koreatown, Moon's father no longer had a business in the neighborhood. In fact, the family was living in nearby Hollywood. But a friend's brother asked for assistance protecting his stereo-equipment store on Hoover Street, and Moon, then 19, joined the militia of around 75 men to patrol the neighborhood from looters and vandals. 7 Meme @DonaldJTrumpJr/X Advertisement It worked. Bedlam gripped the city — the LAPD had stood down to the rioters — but Koreatown remained unscorched. The '92 riots erupted on a Wednesday after four LAPD officers were acquitted in a police brutality case in which they were caught on video beating suspect Rodney King, who was black, during an arrest after a high-speed chase for driving while intoxicated. The unrest lasted six days and would become the most destructive civil disruption in US history, leaving 63 people dead, thousands injured and a billion dollars in property damage.\ 7 Korean Americans guarded Koreatown during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Wikipedia Advertisement LA Koreans felt particularly vulnerable; tensions with the black community were at an all-time high. A Korean shop owner in South Central the previous year shot and killed 15-year-old Latasha Harlins following a struggle when the woman accused the girl of trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. The shopkeeper was found guilty but sentenced only to probation, enraging the black community. In response, that year rapper Ice Cube released 'Black Korea,' a track full of anti-Asian racial epithets and threats of violence against Korean shopkeepers. 'It was lawless. A lot of us wondered if this was going to be a full-on attack on the [Korean] community. You could have pretty much gotten away with anything,' Moon recalls. Advertisement 7 Tony Moon is now a suburban family man — with an edge. Courtesy of Tony Moon But with riots returning to Los Angeles in recent years — Black Lives Matter in summer 2020 following George Floyd's death and again to a lesser extent last week protesting federal immigration enforcement — Moon sees few, if any, similarities to 1992. 'When the Rodney King verdict came through, there was genuine anger and frustration from that community. And I felt it, too,' Moon tells The Post from his home outside Los Angeles. 'These are not organic. There's no groundswell support from the community. Having gone through the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots and seeing how those were organized, we know that these are all manufactured, and they need to pay these people to show up,' he says. He accuses 'dark-money NGOs' of bankrolling the unrest, pointing for instance to Neville Singham, a China-linked tech tycoon who's under House probe. 7 Moon was a Rooftop Korean at 19, trying to prove himself to his father. Courtesy of Tony Moon 'Another good example would be the Tesla protests that you saw not that long ago, where they would show up at a specific time and they're out of there a couple hours later. If you're really passionate about your cause you would probably stay from sunup to sundown, but you can tell these people were on the clock.' His experiences in 1990s LA, in part, led to Moon's early, enthusiastic support for Barack Obama — until the Democrat's presidential term wore on and Moon became disillusioned with the Washington establishment. Advertisement 'I have a heart for the black community because I grew up with that culture. My hope was, with Obama, that with the black community, there would be a real, genuine change. Because as a country, we're only as strong as our weakest link. And right now, those areas are, I consider, our weakest link. Because they are the least educated, have the most crime. But I didn't see that change with Obama. And I saw how everything was just business as usual. Obama was just a neocon elitist, like everyone else,' Moon says. 'That's what communism is, which most people don't understand. These kids that are pushing for socialism, communism think that the people on top are going to be generous and kind to them, but they're not. They're just being used as useful tools. It's a feudal system again.' 7 A Los Angeles Korean shopping mall burns on the second day of the 1992 riots. AP While he was born in West Germany and immigrated to America at age 5, Moon grew up with horror stories of life under the communist North Korean regime. Advertisement In one family tale, his grandfather — suspected of having ties to anti-revolutionaries — was marched into a field to be executed by North Korean soldiers. A chance flyover of American helicopters spooked the troops, and he escaped. That's when the family decided to leave, eventually landing in the United States. 7 More than 1,000 Korean Americans rallied at LA's Admiral Park in 1992 to call for healing between the Korean and African-American communities. AP But at 19 years old, when Moon found himself standing guard outside a shopping center on Olympic Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue carrying the Remington 870 shotgun he'd bought himself with his first paycheck, he wasn't thinking of any of that. Advertisement He always thought of himself as an Angeleno first — being Korean had little to do with it. At the time, 'I was kind of a screw up. I didn't finish high school. My dad was on to me,' Moon recalls. He got his act together and went to the University of Southern California, where he studied business. He began working as a mortgage lender and started a family; his kids are now 14 and 16. 'I became just a Joe Schmo citizen.' As COVID-19 restrictions intensified in 2020, Moon began to suspect the authorities were lying about the illness' severity. Then he started following bizarre behavior from vote-counting precincts on election night that year. 7 Moon became a meme again in 2001. @PplsCityCouncil/X Advertisement He joined Twitter to have a place to vent his political frustrations and was shocked to discovere he'd become a meme: The younger generation had stumbled upon 1992's 'Rooftop Koreans' (a term Moon had never heard before) and, from 2020 riots' ashes, had sent out the bat-signal beckoning their return. 'They understood the call went out. A lot of the Korean guys were saying, 'Yeah, I'll go out again,'' Moon remembers. (Turns out they weren't needed; Koreatown was left untouched in 2020, as if someone had already gotten the message.) By now the mild-mannered suburban father was rapidly becoming a full-on political activist. On Jan. 6, 2021, Moon showed up in Washington, DC, to express solidarity with election-integrity protesters — though he didn't go inside the Capitol that day. 'I would fight for anyone's right to protest and speak their mind regardless of whatever side of the issue you're on,' Moon says, taking a swig from an orange water bottle — the very same bottle that in July 2021 led him to become another meme. That month he joined a protest outside Wi Spa in LA's Koreatown in support of women who'd complained about a nude male in their changing room, clashing with pro-transgender activists. As Moon was giving an interview a woman approached and kicked him in the groin. He reacted by bonking her with the water bottle, a moment that went viral. With more anti-Trump protests being organized across the country, does Moon think we're in for a repeat of 1992? Or a sequel to 2020's 'Summer of Love'? Not really. 'You can't fool people a hundred percent of the time. You can't use the same playbook over and over again. People have a certain degree of pattern recognition,' he says, believing the unrest is more theater than heart. 'I think everyone's going through riot fatigue.' Maybe even the ones being paid for it.
Japan Times
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Korean Americans criticize Donald Trump Jr. for 'reckless' social media post
An association of Korean Americans in Los Angeles has criticized Donald Trump Jr., the son of the U.S. president, for "reckless" comments on social media and urged him not to exploit a riot that devastated their community 33 years ago. The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles also said an operation by the U.S. administration to round up suspected undocumented immigrants lacked "due legal procedures." Trump Jr. posted a photograph of a man with a rifle on a rooftop on social media platform X with a message, "Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!" referring to actions by the Korean American community during the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles. The federation in separate statements expressed concern over the developments in Los Angeles over the last week and said their businesses were seriously affected by the crackdown and arrests. "While the unrest has not yet subsided, Donald 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," it said in a statement on Monday. "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." In 1992, some members of the community, armed with firearms, took up positions on store rooftops and reportedly fired on looters, giving rise to the "Rooftop Koreans" folklore. They had taken their defense into their own hands after they felt official law enforcement was not protecting them from unrest following the police beating of a black motorist, Rodney King. Hyungwon Kang, a photojournalist who reported for the Los Angeles Times during the 1992 unrest, said on X, in a reply to Trump Jr.'s post, the picture had been taken by him and it was used without his permission. "You're using the photo out of context. Please take it down," Kang said. Kang said his photograph depicted a different situation when law enforcers were not providing adequate protection. "(The) current situation of people expressing a widespread disagreement about an excessive and aggressive enforcement by the U.S. 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," he said. Kang said he was consulting a lawyer after having no response to his request that Trump Jr. take down the post. No one from the Washington administration could immediately be reached for comment.
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
'Rooftop Korean' issues chilling threat about LA's future 30 years after Rodney King riots
One of the 'rooftop Koreans' who took to LA's rooftops in 1992 during the Rodney King riots to defend their businesses is furious that history is repeating itself in modern day California. Tony Moon, one of the so-called 'Rooftop Koreans' who armed themselves in the race riots over three decades ago, has been sounding off on social media, lambasting Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrats for their response. In one response to Newsom, he fumed: 'Shut up and sit down. This is the last f*** up that'll seal you (sic) political career as a "has been"'. Moon is a vocal Second Amendment activist and critic of the Democrats. Since Friday's unrest exploded, he shared grave predictions for the city's future. Over 30 years after the 'rooftop Koreans' made headlines with their armed resistance to the 1992 Rodney King Riots, one of the members slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom over his handling of riots gripping Los Angeles this week 'This is how these ICE protests must end: strong police, kettling, arrests, ID'ing, then deport or criminal prosecution.' The famous images of the 'rooftop Koreans' re-emerged this week amid the riots in Los Angeles, over 30 years since they captured national attention and became a symbol of civilian action against destructive riots. When violent protests erupted following the police beating of King and subsequent acquittal of the officers involved, the overwhelmed LAPD set up defensive perimeters around certain parts of the city, but left much of Koreatown without direct protection. Business owners in the community rallied each other to protect their businesses and homes from looters. They used blanks and warning shots to scatter mobs, and no members were ever charged with shooting or harming protesters. In a recent interview, Moon, who was 19 at the time, reflected on the chaos. 'You had two different generations, the older generation - my dad and friends in his 40s. They had military training. 'Then you had the younger guys like myself. I was 19 when I was out there. There was no coordination. The only way to recognize who was who... was by how you looked and how you dressed as well. This week, in light of the modern day unrest, their faces have appeared again online. Donald Trump Jr. came under fire for posting a meme calling for America to 'Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!' Many saw it as an attempt to incite violence. Other conservatives, including influencer Tiffany Fong, have also shared posts referencing the Rooftop Koreans and their brave efforts. Moon's criticism of Newsom comes amid mounting scrutiny on the California Governor over his handling of the ongoing riots. As Los Angeles leaders struggle to contain the protests, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to bring peace back to the streets. The president defended his own decision to sent U.S. Marines as well as California National Guard to Los Angeles, and brushed off Newsom's claim that the deployment inflamed the situation. And he would not rule out use of an authority to deploy military forces under his control to put down disturbances if he sees fit. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see. But I can tell you, last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible,' Trump said. 'If we didn't send in the national guard quickly, right now, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground,' Trump told reporters in an impromptu Oval Office meeting with members of his team. The president also offered a warning, amid complaints from Trump critics that he is using the California standoff to flex authority in Democratic-run states. 'I can inform the rest of the country, when they do it, if they do it, they will be met with equal or greater force than we met here,' Trump said. 'This is the first perhaps of many or perhaps if we didn't attack this one very strongly, you would have them all over the country,' Trump said. He spoke as he is deploying another 2,000 National Guard troops, along with 700 Marines, to LA. He railed against people seen on video battling police during street protests that kicked off in opposition to ICE raids to pick up illegal immigrants. He repeatedly referred to 'bad, sick people' and 'agitators' he said were paid. 'There are certainly areas of Los Angeles you could have called It an insurrection,' Trump said.
The Guardian
10-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Korean Americans criticize Donald Trump Jr for ‘reckless' social media post
An association of Korean Americans in Los Angeles has criticised Donald Trump Jr, the son of the US president, for 'reckless' comments on social media and urged him not to exploit a riot that devastated their community 33 years ago. The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles also said an operation by the US administration to round up suspected undocumented immigrants lacked 'due legal procedures'. Donald Trump Jr posted a photograph of a man with a rifle on a rooftop on X with a message: 'Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!' referring to actions by the Korean American community during the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles. The federation in separate statements expressed concern over the developments in Los Angeles over the last week and said their businesses were seriously affected by the crackdown and arrests. 'While the unrest has not yet subsided, Donald 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,' it said in a statement on Monday. '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.' In 1992, some members of the community, armed with firearms, took up positions on store rooftops and reportedly fired on looters, giving rise to the 'Rooftop Koreans' folklore. They had taken their defence into their own hands after they felt official law enforcement was not protecting them from unrest following the police beating of a black motorist, Rodney King. Hyungwon Kang, a photojournalist who reported for the Los Angeles Times during the 1992 unrest, said on X, in a reply to Donald Trump Jr's post, the picture had been taken by him and it was used without his permission. 'You're using the photo out of context. Please take it down,' Kang said. Kang told Reuters by email his photograph depicted a different situation when law enforcers were not providing adequate 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 LA Riots,' he said. Kang said he was consulting a lawyer after having no response to his request that Trump Jr take down the post. No one from the Washington administration could immediately be reached for comment.
