A hate crime law passed in Georgia amid outrage over the death of Ahmaud Arbery could have its first major test as part of the murder case against a white man accused of shooting and killing six women of Asian descent in massage companies in India. Atlanta area this week.
Prosecutors in Georgia who will decide whether to pursue the increase in hate crimes have declined to comment. But one said she was “perfectly aware of the feelings of terror that are occurring in the Asian-American community.”
Until last year, Georgia was one of four states without a hate crime law. But lawmakers moved quickly to pass legislation stalled in June during national protests over racial violence against black Americans, including the murder of Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was chased by several white men and shot to death while running in February. 2020.
The new law allows an additional penalty for certain crimes if they are motivated by the victim’s race, color, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender or mental or physical disability.
Governor Brian Kemp called the new legislation “a powerful step forward”, adding when he signed it: “Georgians protested to demand action and state lawmakers … seized the occasion.”
The death of eight people in Georgia this week sparked national mourning and reckoning with racism and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The attack also drew attention to the interplay of racism and misogyny, including hyper-sexualized portraits of Asian women in the culture of the United States.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, was charged with the murder of six women of Asian descent and two others. He told police that the attacks on two spas in Atlanta and a massage shop near the Woodstock suburb were not racially motivated. He claimed to have an addiction to sex.
Asian-American lawmakers, activists and academics argued that the victims’ race and gender were central to the attack.
“To think that someone targeted three Asian-owned companies that were operated by Asian American women … and had no race or gender in mind is just absurd,” said Grace Pai, organization director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago.
Elaine Kim, professor emeritus in Asian American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “I think it is likely that the killer was not only addicted to sex, but also an addiction to fantasies about Asian women as sexual objects.”
Those sentiments echoed on Saturday when a diverse crowd of hundreds gathered in a park across from the state capital of Georgia to demand justice for the victims of the shootings.
Speakers included US senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and Georgia state representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American in the Georgia House.
“I just wanted to come by to tell my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you and, most importantly, we will be with you,” said Warnock to applause. “We are all in this thing together.”
Bernard Dong, a 24-year-old Chinese student at Georgia Tech, said he attended the protest to demand rights not only for Asians, but for all minorities.
“Asians are often very quiet, but times change,” he said, adding that he was “angry and disgusted” with the shootings and violence against Asians, minorities and women.
Otis Wilson, a 38-year-old photographer, said people need to pay attention to discrimination against Asian descendants.
“We went through this last year with the black community, and we are not the only ones who went through this,” he said.
Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will decide whether to pursue an increase in hate crimes.
Wallace said he could not answer specific questions, but said he was “perfectly aware of the feelings of terror that are occurring in the Asian American community”. A Willis representative did not respond to requests for comment.
The United States Department of Justice could file federal charges of hate crimes regardless of state lawsuits. Federal investigators have found no evidence to prove that Long was targeting victims because of his race, two unidentified officials told the Associated Press.
A Georgia State University law professor, Tanya Washington, said it is important that the new hate crime law be used.
“Unless we test with cases like this, we will not have a set of laws about how you prove that prejudice motivated behavior,” she said.
Given that it is unlikely that someone convicted of multiple murders will be released from prison, it can be argued that it is not worth the effort, time and expense to pursue a hate crime designation that carries a relatively small additional penalty. But Republican state deputy Chuck Efstration, who sponsored the hate crime bill, said it was not just a punishment.
“It is important for the law to call things what they are,” he said. “It is important for victims and it is important for society.”
State Sen. Michelle Au, a Democrat, said the law needed to be used to give it strength.
Au believes that there has been resistance across the country to accuse the attacks against Asian Americans as hate crimes because they are seen as “model minorities”, a stereotype that they are hardworking, educated and free from social problems. She said she heard from many constituents last year that Asian Americans – and people of Chinese descent in particular – were suffering from prejudice because the coronavirus emerged in China and Donald Trump used racial terms to describe it.
“People feel that they are being harmed because they see it happen every day,” she said. “They feel very clearly that they are racially motivated, but they are not marked or labeled that way. And people are frustrated with the lack of visibility and with this aspect being ignored. “