{"product_id":"the-contested-murder-of-latasha-harlins-justice-gender-and-the-origins-of-the-la-riots-9780190231019","title":"The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots","description":"Helicopters patrolled low over the city, filming blocks of burning cars and buildings, mobs breaking into storefronts, and the vicious beating of truck driver Reginald Denny. For a week in April 1992, Los Angeles transformed into a cityscape of rage, purportedly due to the exoneration of four policemen who had beaten Rodney King. It should be no surprise that such intense anger erupted from something deeper than a single incident. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins\u003c\/em\u003e, Brenda Stevenson tells the dramatic story of an earlier trial, a turning point on the road to the 1992 riot. On March 16, 1991, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, an African American who lived locally, entered the Empire Liquor Market at 9172 South Figueroa Street in South Central Los Angeles. Behind the counter was a Korean woman named Soon Ja Du. Latasha walked to the refrigerator cases in the back, took a bottle of orange juice, put it in her backpack, and approached the cash register with two dollar bills in her hand-the price of the juice. Moments later she was face-down on the floor with a bullet hole in the back of her head, shot dead by Du. Joyce Karlin, a Jewish Superior Court judge appointed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson, presided over the resulting manslaughter trial. A jury convicted Du, but Karlin sentenced her only to probation, community service, and a $500 fine. The author meticulously reconstructs these events and their aftermath, showing how they set the stage for the explosion in 1992. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn accomplished historian at UCLA, Stevenson explores the lives of each of these three women-Harlins, Du, and Karlin-and their very different worlds in rich detail. Through the three women, she not only reveals the human reality and social repercussions of this triangular collision, she also provides a deep history of immigration, ethnicity, and gender in modern America. Massively researched, deftly written, \u003cem\u003eThe Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins\u003c\/em\u003e will reshape our understanding of race, ethnicity, gender, and-above all-justice in modern America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrenda Stevenson \u003c\/strong\u003eis Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her books include\u003cem\u003e The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke and Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South\u003c\/em\u003e, selected as an Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50513912332562,"sku":"9780190231019","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4a1651dc-9d6b-4300-b1a9-5f5bd9964786.jpg?v=1730968580","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-contested-murder-of-latasha-harlins-justice-gender-and-the-origins-of-the-la-riots-9780190231019","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}