Rooftop Korean

In the spring of 1992, Los Angeles exploded into chaos.

As the city burned in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, Korean-American neighborhoods came under siege. While many fled, a group of residents climbed onto rooftops with rifles in hand — ready to defend their homes and businesses when the police could not, or would not.

Tony Moon was one of them.

A young Korean-American with a complicated past, Tony walked the streets of South Central and Koreatown during the riots, doing everything he could to head off trouble before it reached his community. What he experienced on those rooftops — and in the years that followed — changed him forever.

In this raw, unflinching memoir, Moon tells the true story of the “Rooftop Koreans”: ordinary people who refused to be victims. From the gang life of his youth to the front lines of the 1992 riots and the hard lessons learned since, this is a powerful account of identity, survival, self-reliance, and what it really means to protect your own.

When the system fails, you become your own defense.