In Memory of Seho Park.

Seho Park died on Saturday. The young, caring Korean-American man was killed be gunfire while he was a bystander outside the Velvet Room Bar and Lounge, whose patrons had emptied into the parking lot at closing time when a fight errupted. It is a charming little nightclub serving mostly the local Asian community, across the parking lot from the biggest Korean grocery store in the region, with a short handwritten list of rules on the door that includes the rule "Love Each Other". Apparently, the spell of those rules and the proprietor's guidance lapsed when the patrons left.

Police haven't publicly announced any suspects, but I suspect that quite a few people who were there that evening have a good guess regarding who fired the shots and killed Seho Park. Whether anyone will be prosecuted (or perhaps die in a retributive act of violence that might kill another innocent bystander) will likely come down to whether trust in the police (thin at the best of times in any immigrant community, especially in light of sometimes arbitrary immigration enforcement), and outrage at the harm that was done, outweighs fear of the gang members who killed a young man on Saturday. I, for one, hope that justice prevails, so that the cycle of killing can end now and so that the perpetrators (or those seeking vegenance against them) won't kill again. We can all hope.