Last week, Robert Aaron Long, a white man drove to a local sporting goods store to get a gun. Passing the background test took a few minutes. He then took a short drive to "Young's Asian Massage" and shot and killed eight people - Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng and Paul Andre Michels - Six of them of Asian descent and seven of them women.
Since then, demonstrations have started across the country. Activists linking the massacre to a surge in violence against Asian-Americans, that have started since the beginning of the current pandemic. This event highlights the need for more strict gun regulation to fight gun-violence, since they make it too easy for people to act on their hate.
A year ago Georgia was one of the only four states with no hate crime legislation. In February of 2020, when a young Black man, Ahmaud Arbery was stopped, detained and then shot to death by white residents in a South Georgia suburban neighborhood Georgia passed their legislation. Aaron Long has been charged with eight counts of murder, but shouldn't hate crime be added to the list?
Law enforcement and other legal figures have not wanted to label the murders as a hate crime because of lack of evidence for motivation. However, with 6 of the victims being women of Asian decent it seems to be clear what the intent was. President Biden and Vice-President Harris travelled to Georgia and called for the U.S. to unite against hate and speak out against violence targeting Asian Americans in an address in Atlanta on Friday.
A spokesman for the Cherokee county, attributed Aaron Long's motivation to sex addiction and that he was having a "really bad day". Regardless of whether the attack was meant towards women or people of asian decent, both are protected under the hate crime legislation. The same spokesman was also seen with a shirt that called COVID-19 an "IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHYNA".
Hate crimes against Asian Americans have surged roughly 150% in 2020. This crime should be called what it was, a hate crime. Adding it to Long's charges could give up to lifetime in prison without right to parole and even a death sentence, which is still an option in Georgia. Also quoting Representative Sam Park, a Democratic member of the Georgia House and the state’s only Korean-American legislator: “Regardless of the motive of the perpetrator, we very much feel like this is an attack on our community. Condolences are good. Words of sympathy are great — but actions are necessary.”
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3 comments:
In my opioniion and in many others, this shooting clrealy presents itself as a racially-motivated hate crime against the Asian Community. While some will continue to deny that the Spa shootings ought to be categorized as one- few can deny that this was just a "really bad day" for the shooter. A "really bad day" should not leave eight people dead. This saddens me immensely to be writing this comment on the night of yet another shooting by a white male (or so some news outlets report, information is still scarce at the moment), this time in Boulder, CO. It is insane that shootings of any kind take place, let alone two leaving numerous people dead in one week. If these two tragic events do not show how necessary gun control and mental health background checks are, I don't know what will. In addition, with hate crimes against Asian-Americans surging and photos of people being attacked daily are spread across the news, the issues needs to be addressed. The government must take immediate action in the protection of Asian-Americans and towards serious gun control reform. These problems can no longer be denied.
As the nation mourns the tragedy that ensured last week I think that in order to these hate crimes to stop, we must first acknowledge that they were hate crimes to begin with. Adding onto Natalie, I think that the police chief in charge of the massacre's background and response to the attack is a great example of how many Americans see the event. He noted that the man was actually motivated by "sexual fantasies" rather than race, which is a clear motivator in this case, and that he was just having a bad day. Americans need to wake up and realize that the Anti-Asian violence in the US right now is growing exponentially and needs to be resolved, again by that first step of acknowledgment. Also, I think it is going to be interesting how the Biden admin reacts to these now two mass shootings this week (Boulder and Atlanta). Are we going to see gun restrictions or is nothing going to happen? It is going to definitely be something to watch out for.
I understand why legal officials are hesitant to label this a hate crime, and I don't think it's fair to say the intent of the crime was "clear" in this case. Yes, this tragic event is evidence of a spike in Asian violence, but there is a weak correlation between the ethnicity of the victims and what we can assume the killer's intent was. The suspect told the police that he had a sex addiction and carried out the shooting as a way to relieve his temptation. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this same person also spread racist and hateful information about Asians, but as it stands, I don't think simply having a majority of the victims be of Asian descent warrants this to be labeled a hate crime.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth
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