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VIDEO: Looters Destroy Family's Dream: Their Downtown Pine Ave. Jewelry Business, Owner Says LBPD Watched It Happen Didn't Try To Stop It

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(June 12, 2020, 5:20 p.m.) -- LBREPORT.com embeds (with permission) the video, photos and text webposted on Facebook by Joseph Duong, who parents operated LB's Beach Jewelry Center. a 30 year Long Beach business at 121 N. Pine Ave..

Mr. Duong webposted the video, photos and text on Beach Jewelry Center's Facebook page. They speak for themselves:

To view VIDEO of looting, click here

We invite readers to view the final photo in the Facebook series (in the box displaying "+6.") It shows a young man boarding up what appears to be the looted jewelry store with two hand-made signs attached to the plywood. "Nothing Left," the signs say

In the lower right corner of the photo, an older man is seated, hanging his head in sorrow..

[Scroll down for further.]



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Mr. Duong's Facebook text follows:

My parents are the hardest working people I know. They work 6 days a week without ever complaining, and rarely do they ever take a vacation. All they ever wanted was to provide for me and my sister without asking for anything in return.

My dad first started working as a jewelry repair man in a pawn shop and saved up until he was able to open up his own shop as Anthony’s Jeweler back in the 80’s at the late Long Beach Mall. We eventually settled on 3rd and Pine for our current home of 17 years under Beach Jewelry Center.

This was the American Dream, and on May 31st, 2020, it became a nightmare. 30 years worth of blood, sweat, and tears were put into organically nourishing this third child of theirs, only to see it perish within the 2 hrs it took to loot the place. I couldn’t bring myself to tell my parents after being first on the scene. Eventually, I drew up the courage to tell my dad and saw that his hand was shaking uncontrollably while he’s trying to fully process the information. The news was going to break my mom. It was safe to say, neither of us slept that night.

I used to always hate going to the shop every summer. I felt like I wasn’t able to have a fulfilling summer like other kids as I’m always there helping set up and closing the shop. Now I wish I was able to help out more often, or once in a while ask how their day was when they came home.

I’m sure this wasn’t how they pictured going into retirement. They were looking forward to reopening after being closed since March due to Covid-19. Insurance will not even come close to relieve the physical, mental, or monetary strain this will unfortunate event will have caused. They deserved a better ending. However, it’s time for my sis and I to step up and hold it down. Don’t worry mom and dad, we got this.

I just want to thank everyone (friends, family, strangers) from the bottom of my heart who supported us during these troubling times. I will thank everyone personally when I see you.

If you would like to support or share, all donations will directly benefit my parents for the current relief of this situation. In a world currently so divided, we need to subtract the hate, add the love, multiply with kindness, then maybe it'll equal equality. Thank you.

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KTLA/5's Rick Chambers covered the story this morning (June 12). In accompanying text, he writes in part that the "father and son said they were disappointed by the response they saw from the Long Beach Police Department during the looting. They arrived as the store was still being ransacked, but were told by officers nearby that there was nothing they could do to protect the business."

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That description of LBPD's response is consistent with the description of conditions by veteran journalist/columnist Doug Krikorian in June 2 a June Viewpoint piece (Special to LBREPORT.com at this link. Mr. Krikorian wrote in petinent part:

[Mr. Krikorian text] ...I felt a maddening mixture of bewilderment, shock, anger and, perhaps most of all, sadness as I watched early Sunday evening the rampant sacking of our downtown...

...At the corner of 1st and Pine, an iconic five-star Italian restaurant, the architecturally elegant L'Opera, was being cruelly eviscerated -- classic paintings torn to shreds, elaborate columns graffitied and hammered, beautiful mirrors with inlayed designs and pictures shattered, more than $40,000 in meats and fish for re-opening night this week stolen from the coolers, thousands of dollars of wine and liquor carted off, every glass broken, all the walls tagged, etc., etc., etc.

According to the owner, Terry Antonelli, his store had been boarded solidly up, and it took the looters several minutes as they loudly pounded their way in to his popular establishment that has been a Pine Ave. fixture since 1989.

Why weren't at least 10 or 15 of the Long Beach cops lolling around down the street sent scurrying to intervene at L'Opera?

,,,[Police Chief] Luna did belatedly call for mutual aid from other police departments and the Long Beach mayor Robert (Ol' Blood And Guts) Garcia later called in the National Guard, but, alas, this turned out to be small consolation for those many businesses that were looted with nary a policeman in sight...

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Later that day (June 2), Councilwoman Stacy Mungo told KNX/1070 Newsradio that LB was lucky to have limited vandalism, damages and looting to about 170 businesses out of (by IRS tally) 43,000 citywide (LBREPORT.com coverage here.

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LBREPORT.com added our additional viewopoint in this piece: Perspective: When The Looting Began, LB Ran Out Of Police Officers. By The Numbers: Details On LB's Thin Police Level....And The Legacy Of LB Mayor/Council Actions That Have Left L.A. County's Second Largest City With Significantly Fewer Cops Per Capita Than L.A.


Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.


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