Businesses Shut Down in Protest of Violence

Dozens of Cambodian-owned businesses in the so-called Little Phnom Penh district of Long Beach shut their doors Thursday in protest of an escalating gang war between Cambodians and Latinos that authorities blame for nine deaths and more than 50 injuries since 1989. The owners posted signs indicating they had gone to protest at City Hall, where about 150 demonstrators gathered to demand an end of gang violence along the Anaheim Street corridor.

“We are here to let the city know that we are frightened, angered and dismayed,” said Than Pok, director of United Cambodian Community Inc., a social service agency.