Eight people were shot dead at a mass shooting across three massage parlours in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday evening by an armed man. Authorities reported that the suspect, who is connected to all three shootings, has been identified as a 21-year-old white man called Robert Aaron Long. Long is a resident of Woodstock, Georgia, and was captured after a manhunt in Crisp County, which lies about 150 miles south of Atlanta.
Police reported that four people were killed at a massage parlour in Acworth, a suburb north of Atlanta, and four more were killed at two other spas in the city. While two of the victims were white, six of the eight people shot fatally were of Asian descent. South Korea has also confirmed that four of the eight victims were of Korean descent.
Although the motive of the shooting remains unknown, the ethnic background of those majorly targeted has hinted that the crime was racially motivated. If the motive is confirmed to be rooted in xenophobia, the latest shooting will be another in a series of violent incidents against Asian Americans. Fear and hate have spread widely against the community against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is popularly believed to have originated in China.
An American rights group called STOP AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) HATE called the attacks “an unspeakable tragedy” for the victims’ families and the Asian-American community at large, which has “been reeling from high levels of racist attacks” since the onset of the pandemic in December 2019. It further said that Tuesday’s shooting “will only exacerbate the fear and pain that the Asian-American community continues to endure.” According to the group, since last March, there have been nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents targeting Asian-Americans in the United States (US).
In response to the shooting, the Police Department of Seattle said on Tuesday night that it will increase patrolling and outreach to provide support and security to the city’s Asian-American community. Similarly, the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) counterterrorism bureau said on Twitter that it will “be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution.”
Crime figures released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), show that hate crimes against Asian Americans prior to the pandemic had been constantly decreasing since 2003, with Asian Americans suffering far fewer hate crimes than any other race in the US. However, Statecraft editor Chaarvi Modi found that, according to NYPD data, racially motivated hate crimes against the Asian American community have jumped by 1,900% in 2020. In 2019, only one incident of such nature was reported, compared to 20 in only the first half of last year. In 2017, less than one anti-Asian hate crime was reported per 100,000 Asian Americans, compared with more than five per 100,000 black Americans, eight per 100,000 Muslim Americans, and 17 per 100,000 Jewish Americans. However, the FBI had previously warned that this could change with the COVID-19 pandemic. This foreshadowing proved true, with Asian Americans accounting for 15.6% of all victims of hate crime committed in the US last year.
The latest shooting hints that sentiments against the Asian community related to the origin of the pandemic still run strong and threaten the safety of the community the world over.
Racism Against Asian Americans Mooted as Motive in Atlanta Massage Parlour Shootings
In yet another hate crime against the Asian American community during the ongoing pandemic, an armed man killed 8 people, mostly of Asian descent, across 3 massage parlours in Atlanta, GA on Tuesday.
March 17, 2021
21-year-old Robert Aaron Long. SOURCE: NEWS NATION