China News Service, March 22, reported that the gun case at a massage parlor in Atlanta, the United States, triggered protests against Asian Americans in the United States.
On the 21st local time, people in many places held rallies, holding slogans such as "Stop Discrimination against Asians", calling for the eradication of white supremacy and systemic discrimination, and calling on all ethnic groups to unite and resist.
In addition, the police's conclusion that the motive of the case "seems" was not a racial factor was questioned by many parties, and many lawmakers called for a more in-depth investigation.
On March 18, local time, a federal building in Anchorage, Alaska, was lowered at half-mast to commemorate the victims of the Atlanta shooting.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan
[Non-hate crime? U.S. congressmen call for in-depth investigation of the cause of the case]
On the 16th, Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old man from Georgia, shot and killed many people in three massage parlors in Atlanta, killing eight people, including six Asian women.
Law enforcement officials said that the suspect suggested that his “sex addiction” was the cause of his violence. FBI Director Chris Ray also said that although the suspect’s motives are still being investigated, the racial factor “seems” it’s not him. The reason for the mass shooting.
However, this statement has been questioned a lot.
Many voices said that the shooting was at least partly triggered by anti-Asian sentiment.
U.S. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth said that although she is not a police officer or investigator of the case, to her, the case “seems to be racially motivated” and she hopes "A more in-depth investigation will be conducted on whether these shootings and other similar crimes were racially motivated."
Duckworth is one of only two Asian Americans in the U.S. Senate.
Duckworth said that she has written to Chris Ray and Attorney General Garland asking them to investigate "underestimated hate crimes."
She said many crimes are classified as robbery, harassment or vandalism when they target Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock also stated that he believes racial factors played a role in this case, "we can recognize hatred when we see it."
Like many states, Georgia does not have independent laws against hate crimes, but the bill passed in 2020 allows the courts to add hate crimes as an additional sentencing factor when sentencing for other crimes, with at least two years of imprisonment and a fine of up to 5,000. US dollars.
The Atlanta massage parlour shooting is regarded as the first test of whether this new bill can be implemented.
On March 19, local time, people in New York, the United States, gathered in Union Square in Manhattan to oppose discrimination against Asian ethnicity.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
["We are not a virus"! Anti-discrimination protests are held across the U.S.]
The gun case triggered widespread protests across the United States.
On the 20th and 21st, protests against racial discrimination were held in Atlanta, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
On the 21st, thousands of people gathered in Union Square in Manhattan, New York. People of all ethnicities poured into the park to condemn racial discrimination and hate crimes. They shouted "We can't bear it" and chanted the slogan "Against Asian hatred", denoting minorities. Only by joining together can the environment facing discrimination be improved.
The organizers stated that racial discrimination has existed in the United States for a long time, but hate crimes and racial discrimination against Asian communities have soared since the epidemic. Now communities need to unite and stand up against hatred.
It is understood that more than half of the people present that day participated in a similar demonstration for the first time.
Schumer, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, also came to help.
"Hate against one person is hatred against everyone," Schumer said at the rally.
"I urge our Justice Department to fully prosecute anyone who commits a hate crime."
In Washington, McPherson Square, north of the White House, also held a "Protection of Asian/Asia Pacific Communities" rally and parade, attracting hundreds of people of all ethnicities to participate. They held up slogans such as "Stop Discrimination Against Asians" and demanded Eradicate white supremacy and systemic discrimination, call on all ethnic groups to unite and resist, and start from actively reporting hate crimes, urging elected officials and other minor things around them to change the situation of Asians in the United States.
Hundreds of people also gathered outside the Georgia State Assembly building, holding up slogans such as "We are not a virus" and "Stop hating Asians" to protest against the hate crimes against Asians.
The Vietnamese State Representative Bi Nguyen of Georgia said that the target of the massage parlor shooting was aimed at Asian women and hoped that the Asian community would work together to fight for justice for the victims of the case and all victims injured by white supremacy. .
On March 21, more than a thousand New Yorkers rallied in Manhattan's Union Square to protest against racial discrimination and hate crimes against Asian Americans.
The picture shows people holding various slogans at the demonstration site.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Ma Delin
[Not only in the United States? Hate crimes against Asians in the West have increased significantly]
Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks reports of racial discrimination against Asians, said that since 2020, the organization has received at least 3,795 incident complaints against Asians. In the past two months alone, there have been more than 500 complaints.
At the same time, U.S. media reported that hate crimes against Asian Americans are not just a problem in the United States, but are increasing globally.
During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, hate crimes in the West against East and South Asians increased significantly.
In the United Kingdom, the London Police Department’s hate crime statistics show that compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019, hate crimes against Chinese, East Asians and Southeast Asians have increased by 300% in the first quarter of 2020.
According to data from the London Police Department, more than 200 hate crime incidents against East Asians occurred between June and September 2020, an increase of 96% compared to the same period last year.
A public opinion survey conducted in June found that three-quarters of Chinese-Americans in the UK had been abused with racial discrimination.
In France, the organization "Take care of everyone's safety", which represents more than 40 Asian groups across the country, estimates that in 2019, there will be an average of hate crimes against Asians every two days in Paris. In October last year, President Macron announced a new wave of epidemic prevention. After the lockdown measures, Asians were beaten to dislocate their shoulders at night.
A 2019 report by the Spanish government showed that 2.9% of Asians living in Spain are victims of hate crimes.
However, although such crimes against Spanish nationals have been documented, these figures are not broken down by race.
The government has not yet released data for 2020.
In Australia, a report released by the Lowe Institute for International Policy in March showed that in the past year, more than one-third of Chinese Americans had felt coldly treated or looked strange. Nearly 20% of Chinese Americans had been physically threatened or attacked because of their Chinese identity.
"Time" quoted the former Australian Anti-Race Discrimination Commissioner and current Professor of Social and Political Science at the University of Sydney, Tim Sof Marseille, as saying, "History tells us that ethnic minorities often do not live well during a pandemic. ""Minorities can easily become scapegoats. And epidemics may release potential hostility towards certain groups."