The kid who works down at my local Korean liquor store has become more and more open with me. His family took over the store eight months ago, and they are experiencing severe difficulties. Among other things that they are losing the store for lack of receipts. Apparently no one is buying beer and cigarettes there - besides myself. Some afternoons when I drop in the store he is very despondent. He won't look up at me. He just says that things are going shit.
I found out yesterday his father is sick with Pneumonia. He's been hospitalized for a month. So the kid can't go to school. He has to stay at the store with his mom. And it's pretty obvious she can't watch the store alone. I've hung out and kicked it with him a few times; for twenty or so minutes. Standing out in the parking lot with the dogs. You get a feel for what it's like to run a store on that block. It's pretty random who will walk up on Fountain street, or turn into the parking lot. Fountain is not anybody's local street. It's carrying fast-moving, random L.A. fools. Going from one dicey deed to another.
Yesterday he went out to the family mini-van and got a bracelet he wanted to show me. It was white plastic, three inches wide and it had his photo, his name, and a bar-code on it. It was from the California Youth Authority. He wore it the whole time he was in a maximum security lock-up in Sylmar - for two years. 23 hours a day in lock-down.
He's telling me all this. Waiting for me to ask why; who; where; when. I just held his look and listened. Neither encouraging nor discouraging him from going on.
He was incarcerated at the facility in Sylmar for shooting three guys when he was 15. That's what got him two years in juvi-max. He's dying to tell someone what he did and what happened to him for it.
In my earlier visits to the liquor-mart, he'd shared with me that his ambition was to join the LAPD and become a K-9 handler. I was considering this while he related to me the shooting incident. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he will NEVER work in law enforcement. Not with such a conviction as a triple shooting (three mexicans, all shot in the balls, all survived).
Crazy yes? He recounted to me the whole story about the night that it happened. On the corner of 26th street and Western where his family was living at the time. He says that he had guns pulled on him numerous times in that hood, before he started carrying his friends 38 cal. revolver.

I'm thinking about suggesting that he join the army next year. He could talk to a recruiter about dog-handling, and the military's avenues for that. My point was that he could get a $15,000 sign-up bonus, which would help his folks QUICK. And if he gets sent to the gulf, he'd get danger-pay. Probably send home $4000/month. In peacetime I'm sure the military would never take a guy with that on his youth record. But the military is experiencing extenuating circumstances. And he's brave. He's that guy. He'd always told me how much fire he's got. And there I thought he was only trying to impress me. He says he's not afraid of anybody. Apparently, least of all himself. That's part of his problem. The army could help that. A crime against society, such as he committed, even as a minor, perhaps could only be offset socially by an honorable military service. He may even have a chance to work in law enforcement afterwards, if he can garner a few medals. I think even then it's unlikely. But the private sector has a lot of openings in the for veterans in the security field. He has to turn his life around. I can see that so clearly. The way he is now I feel that there is no place for him in this society.
I don't think he's a psychopath. More of a sociopath. In the story he told me, the guys cornered him and pulled a knife. I believe it. I don't think he's a liar. He doesn't take drugs. He's no "G". Some kind of moral purist? Will not back down. Like a samurai. Very bad tact here in the western world. But certainly appealing to the philosphers. There are many cultures in which it is perfectly okay to shoot someone who corners you in the street at night. Can you imagine Pakistan? Honor still exists and plays out in deadly contests all over the world. And right here in L.A. for some young men. Crazy. Maybe we're all crazy.
He didn't need to shoot anybody. That's what comes to my mind. Of course I wasn't there. I'm not there in his head. I don't live in West Adams. But once he pulled the gun, he probably could have *cooled* the situation just by pulling the hammer back. No, wait a minute... That would heat it up. Pulling back the hammer would cool those guys who had confronted him, but it would heat up the situation. There's a big difference there. A street confrontation is never cool.
But it's doubtful he needed to plug all three of his assailants. A shot fired into the sidewalk would set anybody to scrambling over fences, praying aloud to the very Madre de Dios.
But they'd be back. Guys like that always come back. Otherwise they can't show their faces on the street. They'd come back in a car. With a gun. And they would pop a cap into his Korean ass.

I fear for this kid. And I fear for his family. And I fear for his future adversaries. He's extremely frustrated. And he's so smart. He reads constantly. More than any 17 year old I've ever met. He's learned everything about dogs. Workdogs generally. Protection dogs - specifically. That was his dramatic realization about his life. He told me this. That he discovered what he loved in life, while he was in youth lock-up. He wants to train dogs and become a K-9 handler for the LAPD swat team.
Today I am going to ask him if I may give his mother some flowers from my garden. Honorably of course. I can't have this kid thinking that I'm pimping on his old lady. I empathize most with her. Her husband is very sick. Her son is a convicted violent youth offender. He's unable to attend school because he's stuck in store until midnight every day. And he has to deal with a steady stream of drunks, vatos and assholes. And he's still too hot. It's like the net is closing around them.