Atlanta Shootings
2021-03-17 21:36:04.928644+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
So last night a preacher's son went to several different Asian-owned businesses in and around Atlanta and shot people. No need for a picture, given that description, you know exactly what he looked like.
His church, Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Georgia, has, predictably, scrubbed their social media accounts, which means they know they were complicit.
The Daily Beast reported on a 2018 video of Long talking about his Christian experience, which was previously posted to the church's Facebook.
Four of the victims have been identified, Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Yan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44.
Baker said the Long "understood the gravity of [his crime]. And he was pretty much fed up, had been kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did."
The spokesperson said that Long was blamed "sex addiction" and temptation for his rampage and told police the attack was not racially motivated. It was not clear if Long ever went to the spas where the shootings occurred, and other officials said it was too early to determine a motive.
This is a good time for a reminder that "sex addiction" and other shaming people for their desires and libido kills women. That institutions that traffic in that sort of evil are culpable in these deaths. That police will happily take tens of thousands of dollars from sex workers under laws which don't affect rich white guys.
And we should get angry about the institutions that raised, radicalized, and supported the ideas that drove this terrorist.
Addendum: Georgia Sheriff Spokesman Posted Racist COVID Shirts on Facebook
In a Facebook page associated with Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office, several photos show the law enforcer was promoting T-shirts with the slogan “COVID-19 imported virus from CHY-NA.” “Place your order while they last,” Baker wrote with a smiley face on another March 30 photo that included the racist T-shirts.
And The Onion nails the headline: Sympathetic Police Know What It’s Like To Have A Bad Day And Kill 8 People
Twitter thread of Korean media coverage: https://twitter.com/JeongPark52/status/1372226344788979714
Further Addendum: Those evil fuckers at Crabapple Baptist Church have doubled down on their awfulness: Washington Post's updates point to their non-apology on their web site (that I'm not gonna link) which says "He alone is responsible for his evil actions and desires." Emphasis mine. Yeah, if those unredeemable scumbags had acknowledged that his desires were probably kinda normal for a young man, and there are outlets, but no. There are times when I wished I believed in hell so that people like these assholes could burn in it.
Asian American Journalists Association: AAJA Encourages Newsrooms to Empower AAPI Journalists and Their Expertise talks about why the English coverage of this event has been so shitty:
Since the shootings, we have heard some deeply concerning problems in newsrooms across the country, including in Atlanta.
“Are you sure your bias won’t show if you cover the Atlanta shootings?”
“You might be too emotionally invested to cover this story.”
We have heard from broadcast members — and from members across newsrooms who volunteered to cover the Atlanta shooting — who have expertise, language skills, and the cultural competency in the community, but were not assigned. AAJA urges newsrooms to offer coverage opportunities to AAPI journalists who are uniquely positioned, sourced and skilled to cover the unfolding news — and who want to be a part of it.