The Guardian
‘Our community is bleeding’: Asian American lawmakers say violence has reached a ‘crisis point’
House legislators hold a hearing while Biden and Harris plan meetings with Atlanta leaders. A demonstration in Atlanta on Thursday against racism and sexism after the shootings on Tuesday. Photo: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters Asian American lawmakers and leaders have warned that violence and discrimination against their community has reached a “critical point” after the shootings in Atlanta this week that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent. The hearing, the first to examine anti-Asian discrimination in more than three decades, was scheduled weeks ago amid an outbreak of violence against the Asian community since the start of the pandemic. But it took on high urgency after the mass shooting that left Asian Americans in Atlanta and across the country shaken and scared. “What we do know is that that day was coming,” Judy Chu, president of Congressional Pacific American Caucus, told a subcommittee of the House’s judicial committee on Thursday. “The Asian-American community has reached a crisis point that cannot be ignored.” Judy Chu, president of Congressional Asia Pacific American Caucus. Photo: AP Grace Meng, a Democrat from New York, said: “Our community is bleeding. We are in pain. And last year, we have been screaming for help ”. Meanwhile, Atlanta police have revealed new details about the investigation. At a news conference, Charles Hampton, deputy chief of the Atlanta police, said “nothing was out of the question”, including whether the murders were motivated, at least in part, by race or gender. “We are analyzing everything to make sure we find out and determine what was the motive for our murders,” he said, adding that they were still determining whether the murders constituted a hate crime. The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been charged with eight counts of murder. Long, who is white, told the police that he had an adjective of sex and aimed at spas to eliminate the “temptation”, denying any racist motivation. Hampton said on Thursday that Long had “attended” two of the spas where four women of Asian descent were killed. Four more people were killed at the Youngs Asian Massage Parlor, just outside the city. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department announced on Thursday that Captain Jay Baker has been replaced as a spokesman for the investigation. Frank Reynolds, the sheriff, lamented amid widespread outrage over the comments Baker had made the day before. Baker was criticized for saying that Long had “a really bad day” and “that’s what he did”. Reynolds released a statement on Thursday acknowledging that some of Baker’s comments generated “a lot of debate and anger” and said the agency regrets any “headaches” caused by his words. “To the extent that his words were taken or interpreted as insensitive or inappropriate, they had no intention of disrespecting any of the victims, the seriousness of this tragedy or expressing empathy or sympathy for the suspect,” said Reynolds in a statement, adding that Baker ” he had a difficult task ahead of him, and this was one of the most difficult in his 28 years in law enforcement ”. In response to the shootings, the White House announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were canceling a political event in Atlanta on Friday as part of their Help is Here tour to promote the government’s $ 1.9 trillion aid package to the coronavirus. Instead, they will spend the visit meeting with local leaders and elected officials from the city’s Asian American and Pacific Island community. Biden on Thursday ordered the flags of the White House and all federal buildings to be flown by a half-team until Monday’s sunset to honor the eight victims of the Atlanta spa shootings. At the Capitol hearing, Meng was accompanied by experts and advocates who told the panel that the rising tide of anti-Asian prejudice was fueled in part by the rhetoric of Donald Trump and his allies, who referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus. ”“ Chinese plague ”and“ kung flu ”. A student holds a sign at the We Are Not Silent rally organized by the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Coalition Against Hate and Prejudice in Bellevue, Washington, on Thursday. Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images Nearly 3,800 hate incidents, spanning the spectrum from verbal harassment to physical assault, have been reported against Asian Americans across the country since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to Stop AAPI Hate. Asian-American women reported almost twice as many incidents as men, about 70%. During the hearing, subcommittee chairman Steve Cohen reported a series of brutal incidents that included a Filipino man being cut in the face with a stylus and an 89-year-old Asian American woman being set on fire. “All the pandemic has done is to exacerbate the underlying anti-Asian prejudices that have a long, long and terrible history in America,” he said. In a particularly passionate exchange, Meng confronted one of the Republican members of the panel, Texas Congressman Chip Roy, who said, after a long exhortation about how China handled the coronavirus, that he feared the audience was “policing” freedom of expression. “Your president, your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country you want,” said Meng through tears. “But you don’t have to do that by placing a target on the back of Asian Americans across the country, on our grandparents, on our children.” “This audience was to address the hurt and pain of our community, to find solutions – and we are not going to allow you to take our voice away from us,” she said. The Associated Press contributed to this report