California Korean grocery group sues Andrew Young over remarks

ap on Riverside Press Enterprise ^ | 8/30/06 | AP - Los Angeles

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES

A Korean grocers' group sued former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young for libel for claiming that they and other market owners "ripped off" blacks.

The suit, filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, also names the Wal-Mart store chain and seeks at least $7.5 million in damages.

The former Atlanta mayor resigned as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group on Aug. 18 amid controversy over comments he made to the weekly, black-owned Los Angeles Sentinel.

In an interview, Young said that Wal-Mart competition had forced smaller, "mom-and-pop" stores out of his neighborhood.

"But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables," Young said. "And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

He apologized later.

The libel suit was filed by the California Korean American Grocery Retailer Association.

"Most members are very upset," said Gene Park, the association's secretary and owner of a liquor store in Los Angeles. "There is no evidence that members sold those kinds of spoiled items. ... If people think we charge higher prices or sell bad food, they won't come in anymore."

"Until we can finish studying the complaint, it wouldn't be right to comment on it," Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said.

[Albert Barr]

I love that room. It always smells so nice. Not like the rest of the store.

I love the local gas station owned by the Indian folk. They are nice. The locally owned gas station employees are just blah. Indian people have a certain spice.
I guess they're citizens, I never asked. I'll do that when I fill up in the 'morn.

[bert]

Black peole could open their own grocery stores if the wanted.....



.

[Smogger]

Please.

The riots stopped when, the rioters got tired, and Daryl Gates got off his ass and ordered a full deployment and curfew.

[bert]

.....all those guys had semi-automatic weapons......

I listened to just such a first hand report from a French Quarter Katrina evacuee. The Asians protectected their stores from black looters just as you have described.

He was more or less forced to leave but left a dry apartment and the Asian stores were still occupied on day 11 when he flew to Tennessee.

[churchillbuff]

With their filing of a lawsuit because they are racially offended, Korean-American grocers become fully assimilated at last.""""

LOL - or am I crying? Either way, you've spoken truth.

[churchillbuff]

ROTFLMAO ~ then there was the day the Rodney King riot took place, and when the bad boys of LA decided to attack Koreatown they discovered all those guys had semi-automatic weapons, and maybe some automatics as well, and whatever it was, they had a lot of them, were organized in military style small unit formations, and were ready to take out tens of thousands of rioting latinos and blacks."""

True - and impressive. But before they could organize, the rioters had done a lot of damage to Korean businesses. It was like an anti-Korean pogram.

[radiohead]

I wonder how many countless legal immigrants have died in convenience store/gas station robberies at the hands of those who complain about the price and quality of the products that they provide?

A lot. I lived in Philly from 85-97. It was common for a Korean or Vietnamese store owner to be shot or killed by a black robber. I recall one sad case of a young girl, engaged to be married, who was killed. No one ever talks about the black on Asian crime in big cities, but it's certainly there. I'm glad I'm out of that hell hole, and I'm a colored gal myself.

[churchillbuff]

The LA riots were stopped by the Koreans with weapons and the US Post Office by forcing the rioters to line up at the post offices to collect their welfare checks."""

Where is this claim reported? Never heard it before.

[Smogger]

After two years of working 16 hours a day, living 4 to one room on beans and rice, they finally had saved enough money to make a down payment on a gas station.

That's a nice story, but gas stations run between 300K (not including inventory or a lease) to several million dollars. It seems unlikely that they would be able to afford the downpayment (a considerably higher percentage then a home) or be extended credit by a bank since they supposedly never purchased anything and therefore had no credit.

When you see Arabs, Koreans, Chinese, and what have you coming to a America and buying these types of businesses it's genrally because they were middle class to upper middle class business owners in their own countries. They sold everything, came here and bought something.

The poor do not escape from China, Iran, Iraq, Korea, etc.

[kenavi]

This, of course, is the point. I expect Wal-Mart will pay them off.

It is very smart on the Koreans' part. Why settle for a phony apology?

[lapsus calami]

 

Oh yeah - and what was also heartening, that other folk had the same ideas too.

 

A friend of mine who was an Army Ranger when he was in the service worked at an auto parts warehouse over there, and during that time rode to work each morning with a loaded riot shotgun - nobody was going to pull him out of his car and beat him with a brick or anything. Other employees, who most all showed up for work each day, had the same sort of idea and would come to work armed also. They went about their job duties, but also had some people keeping watch, the plan being that if any freaks started gathering around and threatening, the staff would "snarl" at'em, and if attacked would "fire for effect". Fortunately things went quietly and no confrontations happened, though the rioting and burning stopped an uncomfortably close 2 blocks away. Some time after that he and the wife and kid picked up and moved to Kentucky to do farming and raise horses. I don't think he'll be bothered by the threat of any armed mobs around there - not unless some hillbillies start a feud or something.

 

 

 

[ncountylee]

Where is this claim reported? Never heard it before.

I live in Orange County, soulth of LA, and witnessed the riots and the coverage.

[muawiyah]

It was, in fact, an anti-Korean pogrom.

[muawiyah]

We know of some moderately "liberal", never owned a gun Jewish people who decided that now was the time to learn about guns. The Koreans provided a good example for all the decent people in LA.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

I hear you on that, for sure

 

 

 

[staytrue]

Probably no truth to it ~ but almost all welfare "checks" all over the country have been on "direct deposit" for quite some time.

fyi, the "rodney king" riots were in 1992, probably before direct deposit gained wide acceptance. In 1992, I was using a intel 386 with a 40 megabyte hard drive.

[muawiyah]

I had direct deposit of my paycheck going since the early 1980s.

Along the way one of the little USPS projects I worked on concerned making USPS safer for its employees ~ and that was to get state welfare agencies to use direct deposit.

By 1996 when Move Update was implemented, the Fast Forward (and other systems) were readily used by those same agencies to REMOVE all the phoney welfare recipients from the systems. (I've explained that before ~ real simple ~ Depression Era rule said if a welfare recipient changed her address she had to see a case worker or her welfare/relief would be discontinued. So, when Fast Forward said there was a change of address on a welfare/relief recipient in the state files, then no checks or deposit slips pertaining to direct deposit would/could be mailed to that person. This eliminated half the welfare recipients in the country.

Congress later implemented Welfare Reform.

[staytrue]

After two years of working 16 hours a day, living 4 to one room

At 10 dollars an hour/5 days a week for four people that amounts to 3200 dollars a week or 160,000 a year with 2 weeks off or 320,000 over 2 years. Expenses might be 10k per person per year or 80,000 and taxes at maybe 64,000 or a net saving of 200,000 which is plenty for a down payment on just about anything.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I suspect money is not the goal here. I would rather expect that it is to embarass Young and make him lose face. To humiliate him. And I agree with that goal.

Problem is with liberal racist like Young, he has no shame and so cannot be embarassed by his racist remarks. Which, BTW, were NOT casual or unintended. He believed and meant every word.

And if you look back at his record, he's essentially pro-arab, also. Which in light of the WOT makes him an anti-American, anti-semite in the real world. Not to cut it too fine, but this is a REAL war. As real as if we had panzers rolling across Europe today.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

"But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables," Young said. "And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

I've been to small mom and pop stores in poor neighborhoods and this is indeed true. However the race of the store owner has nothing whatsoever to do with it.