due to their low social status and the language barrier with immigrants, korean americans received very little if any aid or protection from police authorities. david joo, a manager of the gun store, said, "i want to make it clear that we didn't open fire first. at that time, four police cars were there. somebody started to shoot at us. the lapd ran away in half a second. i never saw such a fast escape. i was pretty disappointed." carl rhyu, also a participant in the koreans' armed response, said, "if it was your own business and your own property, would you be willing to trust it to someone else? we are glad the national guard is here. they're good backup. but when our shops were burning we called the police every five minutes; no response."