China News Service, March 17. The American Overseas Chinese News reported that for several months, Robert Peterson (Robert Peterson) has been trying to control himself not to recall the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting tragedy in the United States.
That day, his mother, Yong Ae Yue, and seven others, mostly Asian women, were tragically killed.
However, even if he wants to recover from the loss of a loved one, Peterson, 39, said he hopes American society will remember his family and the Asian-American community's characterization of the March 16 killing as a hate crime, CNN reported.
Peterson said that while the shooter may not have said anything racist during the crime, his actions "was a manifestation of misogyny and racism."
The gunman has pleaded guilty to four homicides in Cherokee County, Georgia, and was sentenced to life in prison since the Atlanta mass shooting.
However, another verdict in Fulton County, where the murderer committed the crime, has yet to be handed down on 19 other charges.
But local prosecutors said they would try to characterize the case as a hate crime against the victim's gender and race, and sentence the perpetrator to death.
Peterson said society's ignorance of the racial issues Asian Americans suffer and the long-standing objectification of Asian women has only exacerbated the trauma of his loss of his mother.
Since the spa shooting, the United States has sparked a debate about racism against Asian Americans.
However, since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the attacks and harassment of Asian Americans have continued unabated.
A year on, not much has changed for Asian Americans across the country, according to activists, survivors of the violence and their families.
The gunman in the Atlanta attack has yet to stand trial for hate crimes in state or federal courts, anti-Asian racism continues to spread, and prejudice against the Asian-American community persists.
First Test of Georgia Hate Crime Law
The shooter, Robert Aaron Long, 21, told law enforcement he was distracted by his sex addiction and carried out the shooting.
Robert Aaron Long's claims sparked debate over his motive for the attack, but many called for the case to be made a hate crime - a trend that continues to this day.
Against this backdrop, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office's sentencing of the killer has come into the spotlight, with a pretrial hearing in the case scheduled for April 19.
Not long ago, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American man, was chased and killed by three white men while jogging.
Affected by this incident, the Georgia State Legislature passed a hate crime bill.
The Yacheng spa shooting, which is about to go to trial, will be the first test of the law.
The law allows prosecutors to classify existing charges as hate crimes ahead of trial.
Prosecuting attorneys representing some of the shooting victims said whether Robert Aaron Long would be charged with a hate crime would not change the life sentence or death sentence he could face, but sending him to prison for a hate crime has important symbolic meanings .
“Why are these victims not with us today? We must speak and face the whole truth: Systemic racism, white supremacy, gender-based violence, the lasting effects of war still exist.” Asian American Center for Justice Advancement Atlanta said Phi Nguyen, the division's executive director.
The growing list of Asian victims
For nearly a year, violent attacks and harassment have terrified Asian Americans across the country, and some have been physically harmed.
On January 19 this year, Hoa Nguyen, a 68-year-old Vietnamese woman living in Brooklyn, New York, was beaten for no reason by a stranger on her way to the market.
Although Nguyen Hua was not seriously injured, she no longer felt as safe as she used to walk on the street, and she was terrified when taking the bus or subway to visit her daughter.
"We didn't have to worry about navigating the city before, but now, whenever I go out, I have to look around and look around," said Khanh Nguyen, 42, Nguyen's son.
Mercel Jackson, 51, was charged with assault, harassment and hate crimes after his arrest, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.
He said he "didn't like Chinese looks," according to court documents.
In 2021, there will be 131 incidents with anti-Asian bias criminal motives in New York alone, police data shows.
This is a significant increase from the 27 reported in 2020 and one reported in 2019.
Although the current national data on violence against Asian Americans is not clear, the data collected by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate after the start of the new crown epidemic shows that there have been more than 10,000 anti-Asian hate incidents in the United States. rise.
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