SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Police officers are seen outside a massage parlor where three people were shot and killed on March 16, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)
'Unspeakable Tragedy': Anti-Asian Hate Crime Feared as Gunman Kills 8 in Georgia
"My heart is broken tonight after the tragic violence in Atlanta that took eight lives. Once again we see that hate is deadly," said Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Mar 17, 2021
This is a developing story... Check back for possible updates...
A 21-year-old white man was taken into custody Tuesday night as the primary suspect in three metro Atlanta massage parlor shootings that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.
While law enforcement officials have yet to officially determine suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long's motive, advocacy groups and lawmakers feared that the massacre was an anti-Asian hate crime given the establishments targeted and the victims, which also included a white man and woman.
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group formed to combat rising xenophobia and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tweeted that "the reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy--for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community--which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination."
"Few details have been released, including whether or not the shootings were related or motivated by hate," the group added. "But right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed."
This exact line has been used to justify prejudice and violence against Asian-Americans and their establishments for well over a century. https://t.co/pdyR2QTIdc
-- Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 17, 2021
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported late Tuesday, Long "was first identified as the suspect in the shooting at Young's Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County that left four people dead and one person injured... He is also a suspect in two more shootings at similar businesses in northeast Atlanta that resulted in four more deaths, according to a sheriff's office spokesman."
The deadly shooting spree came amid a backdrop of surging hate-related incidents targeting Asian Americans across the United States. Stop AAPI Hate said (pdf) ahead of Tuesday's shootings that it received nearly 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents between March 19 of last year and February 28, 2021.
"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur," the group stressed, "but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face."
Commentators have linked the recent spike in anti-Asian hate to the rhetoric of right-wing lawmakers and political figures including former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called Covid-19 the "China virus" and "kung flu."
In September, 164 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination and hate.
Following news of the shooting, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) tweeted, "My heart is broken tonight after the tragic violence in Atlanta that took eight lives."
"Once again we see that hate is deadly," the senator added. "Praying for the families of the victims and for peace for the community."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
This is a developing story... Check back for possible updates...
A 21-year-old white man was taken into custody Tuesday night as the primary suspect in three metro Atlanta massage parlor shootings that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.
While law enforcement officials have yet to officially determine suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long's motive, advocacy groups and lawmakers feared that the massacre was an anti-Asian hate crime given the establishments targeted and the victims, which also included a white man and woman.
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group formed to combat rising xenophobia and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tweeted that "the reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy--for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community--which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination."
"Few details have been released, including whether or not the shootings were related or motivated by hate," the group added. "But right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed."
This exact line has been used to justify prejudice and violence against Asian-Americans and their establishments for well over a century. https://t.co/pdyR2QTIdc
-- Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 17, 2021
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported late Tuesday, Long "was first identified as the suspect in the shooting at Young's Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County that left four people dead and one person injured... He is also a suspect in two more shootings at similar businesses in northeast Atlanta that resulted in four more deaths, according to a sheriff's office spokesman."
The deadly shooting spree came amid a backdrop of surging hate-related incidents targeting Asian Americans across the United States. Stop AAPI Hate said (pdf) ahead of Tuesday's shootings that it received nearly 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents between March 19 of last year and February 28, 2021.
"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur," the group stressed, "but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face."
Commentators have linked the recent spike in anti-Asian hate to the rhetoric of right-wing lawmakers and political figures including former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called Covid-19 the "China virus" and "kung flu."
In September, 164 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination and hate.
Following news of the shooting, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) tweeted, "My heart is broken tonight after the tragic violence in Atlanta that took eight lives."
"Once again we see that hate is deadly," the senator added. "Praying for the families of the victims and for peace for the community."
This is a developing story... Check back for possible updates...
A 21-year-old white man was taken into custody Tuesday night as the primary suspect in three metro Atlanta massage parlor shootings that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.
While law enforcement officials have yet to officially determine suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long's motive, advocacy groups and lawmakers feared that the massacre was an anti-Asian hate crime given the establishments targeted and the victims, which also included a white man and woman.
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group formed to combat rising xenophobia and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tweeted that "the reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy--for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community--which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination."
"Few details have been released, including whether or not the shootings were related or motivated by hate," the group added. "But right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed."
This exact line has been used to justify prejudice and violence against Asian-Americans and their establishments for well over a century. https://t.co/pdyR2QTIdc
-- Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 17, 2021
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported late Tuesday, Long "was first identified as the suspect in the shooting at Young's Asian Massage Parlor in Cherokee County that left four people dead and one person injured... He is also a suspect in two more shootings at similar businesses in northeast Atlanta that resulted in four more deaths, according to a sheriff's office spokesman."
The deadly shooting spree came amid a backdrop of surging hate-related incidents targeting Asian Americans across the United States. Stop AAPI Hate said (pdf) ahead of Tuesday's shootings that it received nearly 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents between March 19 of last year and February 28, 2021.
"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur," the group stressed, "but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face."
Commentators have linked the recent spike in anti-Asian hate to the rhetoric of right-wing lawmakers and political figures including former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called Covid-19 the "China virus" and "kung flu."
In September, 164 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination and hate.
Following news of the shooting, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) tweeted, "My heart is broken tonight after the tragic violence in Atlanta that took eight lives."
"Once again we see that hate is deadly," the senator added. "Praying for the families of the victims and for peace for the community."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.