Atlanta Shooting May Be a Hate Crime
The Claim
The Atlanta shooting of eight people, six of which were Asian women, is not a hate crime nor racially motivated.
News posted on
Emerging story
Social media posts circulated a claim that the Atlanta shooter who killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, was not racially motivated. Posts say that it is not a hate crime, but a result of his sex addiction since the women all worked at massage parlors. Posts add that the murders do not fit the profile of a hate crime. Some users added that this is a media spin to use race as a “bait.”
Misbar’s Analysis
The Misbar investigation found this claim to be misleading. On Tuesday, the shooter, Robert Long, went on a rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent.
He had targeted massage parlors. After the first location, Young Asian Massage, the shooter traveled over 30 minutes to the second, Gold Massage Spa. The third location, Aromatherapy Spa, the three areas is pictured below from Google Maps. Indicating, he directly traveled to and targeted the massage parlors, which all employed Asian women. Furthermore, an employee of one of the parlors reported before fleeing that Long shouted, "I'm going to kill all Asians," as he opened fire.
The shooter told police that he is a “sex addict,” and his motive was to curb his temptation. Nonetheless, if the victims were killed because of their gender, it may also constitute a hate crime based on the definition. According to the Hate Crime Statistics Act, hate crimes defined as "crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity."
Moreover, some called COVID-19 a Chinese Flu or Kung Flu. Nearly 3800 reported hate crime incidents against Asians in the past year, make it more likely that this shooting spree may be related to hate crimes. All these factors reflect a growing trend of discrimination against Asian Americans during the pandemic. The surge in hate crimes and the recent mass murder has sparked a #StopAsianHate movement, calling for people to speak out and stand against discrimination.
The Misbar team finds that although the investigation is still in the early phase, given the surrounding context, it is a high possibility that the murders were hate crimes, therefore to rule it out is highly misleading.
