Did anyone feel sorry for…….
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anders_biro — 14 years ago(August 05, 2011 10:03 AM)
I must say that it is indeed quite pathetic to accuse the shop owners of racism when it turned their suspicions about their character were right all along.
(Even more so as they were not only thieves but murderers as well). -
tawdry_hepburn — 17 years ago(April 11, 2008 03:32 AM)
No, it was clearly a racial slur. "You people" is a fairly problematic phrase. It's open to interpretation, I suppose. But, given the themes present in the film, it's almost certainly a slur.
,Said the Shotgun to the Head
Saul Williams -
bonzo2751 — 17 years ago(May 22, 2008 09:54 AM)
I too studied this case in my first year Criminal Law class in law school. It involved the slaying of Latasha Harlins, a 15 year old, black, HONOR STUDENT in Los Angeles, CA.
Latasha and a friend walked into a store owned by a Korean family by the name of Du. In prior months, the Du's had been victims of shoplifting and robberies by the local chapter of the Crips. Their son, who occasionally worked at the store, once ID'd a crip member in a line-up, and was thus targeted for retaliation by the crips.
Out of concern for his safety, the Du's reached out with a cash settlement offer to the crips in exchange for his safety. AND, Mr. Du bought a modified .38 caliber revolver.
NOTE: The gun had been modified so that it basically had a 'hair-trigger'. This means that a far less forceful squeeze was required to fire the gunthus making it ILLEGAL to own in CA.
BACK to Latasha:
Latasha was wearing a backpack. She walked to the cooler, grabbed a bottle of OJ, and stuck it in her backpack. NOTE: she had 2 one dollar bills clutched in her right hand the whole time.
Mrs. Du, who was working instead of her son, saw Latasha put the OJ in her backpack, walked up to her and demanded that Latasha give it backwhile Latasha was on her way up the aisle leading to the register no less. Latasha retorted angrily, "WHAT JUICE?!!?", and Du accused her of stealing.
Du started to scuffle with Latasha in an attempt to grab the OJ. Latasha punched Du in the face at least twice, knocking Du down each time. Du ran behind the counter and grabbed her ILLEGAL firearm. She pointed it at Latasha.
At this point, Latasha put down the OJ on the counter and started to walk outher 2 dollars still in her handDu raised the gun, pointing to the back of the girl's head, and blew away a bona-fide honor student-athlete over a bottle of OJ.
Du was sentenced (manslaughter) to 10 years, and the judge (a white woman) suspended the sentenceDu never served day one of her sentence.
Those are the facts of the case. You decide. The people of CA decidedthey lobbied and protested the sentence so much that the stupid judge was removed from the benchunfortunately the murderous Du went free.
MY PERSONAL OPINION: the problem with Middle-Eastern, Indian, Pakistani and Asian store owners is that they come from countries where social castes are not only acceptable, but are sometimes the law
When they arrive here, their friends and relatives who have been here a while tell them that blacks are the lowest man on the totem pole and aren't worth much. (NOTE: I DO NOT AGREE NOR CONDONE THIS BELIEF) ..but that's why tragedies-like the one that befell Latasha Harlins-occurhmmm.
"Nothing useless can truly be beautiful"