Before I give my opinion on this tragedy, please check out the article about it on Wikipedia. (Yes, it's not the more credible website but it's volunteers did a great job with its information and keeping us informed with its updates.
It breaks my heart that, with each passing year, there's a mass shooting in this country that threatens or takes the lives of unfortunate people. There's always no definitive motive for them and the shooter largely gets away from it-- whether by suicide or by not getting the prison sentence they deserve. And because these predictable outcomes, we always get equally-predictable responses and aftermath. The police don't do much, there's a discussion on gun violence and restrictions, the government doesn't do shit about it, and we all fear and expect another one to happen in the future.
Reading about the man in articles, I thought that this man has major issues. And worse, I thought that his religious beliefs made him think the best way to quell those wants and desires is to not go to rehab (where a normal person with a range of addictions should go), but to kill people who give paying customers a way to release and control those wants and desires in an admittedly dicey but still legal way at a place where such things happen. I thought Jesus didn't condone such things in the Bible, and frowned upon people who would commit them. Some religious people (not all) love to subvert the readings and teachings of Christ to suit their own narratives in their lives to make them feel better than others; and that's a major reason why I myself am not as religious. I believe in God, but I'm not on the same path as those who follow the Holy Spirit too closely. And I'm glad I'm not, because in some universe, I could end up just like Long (except in that case I'd still end up dead because no matter what the universe the police are still not as observing to the true pillars of the law as they're supposed to). And back to his parents, why didn't they just secretly arrange to have their son sent to a rehab or some religious mental institution to have his sex addiction cured? It surely would've been much better to do that than kick him out and make him fend for himself, which (with his shitty logic) caused these shootings in the first place. My guess is they didn't want some scandal within the congregation and make their seemingly Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker-like image be forever tarnished. Well... mission failed. Son's in jail and will now receive no help with his sex addiction and probably no help for much of anything else.
Police revealed that Long was a patron of two of the spas and had frequented a website that let visitors review said locations. I can agree that the dude had a sex problem, but rehab and therapy would've helped him. Not... this. Seeing the idea of gunning down specific people tied to your problems as if they have the problem is fucking sociopathic and disgusting. And that is a problem with the overly-religious-minded: they think other people have a problem because they do and try to fix it as if Jesus say, when they need to mind their damn business and worry about their own problems. Robert Aaron Long is one.
The next day, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department held a press conference about the shooting, with Captain Jay Baker presiding and deciding to do the unusual task of showing sympathy and empathy for Long. Baker actually said that he isn't a racist (despite the fact that a survivor of one of the shootings said that they heard Long saying "kill all Asians" inside one of the spas) and that "he had a really bad day".
Really, motherfucker?? You really think this mass murderer and domestic terrorist who killed multiple people (the majority of them Asian and female) had a bad day?! How are you a cop? And why did you become one? Because you did not do your job here.
His deduction of the motive makes no damn sense.
-- "He had a really bad day"; everybody has had one bad day or several in their lifetimes (not counting abuse of any kind -- they are exponentially worse). That shouldn't give them the right to kill people they don't know.
--"He had a sex addiction". So that gave him a right to kill workers at a massage parlor?! I have an addiction to masturbation; does that give me the idea to kill the people I wank to? No. Cause the logic is nonexistent. (Plus those people are mostly cartoon characters.)
-- "He's not a racist"; again, a survivor of the shootings said that Long uttered "kill all Asisans". Doesn't it seem even a bit racist to you? It does to me. But (not) surprising, it was later revealed that he was the seller of anti-Asian merchandise tied to the origins of COVID-19 in China on a Facebook page.
Crows of a feather, they hate together.
Baker was later removed from his spokesperson position, with his wordings questioned by many on social media, and the department briefly discussing handing its role in the investigation to the Georgia Bureau of investigation.
Fuck him. This cop should be fired. Any police officer who does anything but their proper occupation and finds any sympathy to dig from the ground for a mass murderer and domestic terrorist is a black eye and embarrassment of the organization they work for and should have their badge forcibly removed and pension revoked. (But it won't surprise me either if they keep him and maybe give him a promotion -- making them look even worse, or he goes to an even worse law enforcement agency if he is fired.)
I am so done with police officers showing more care and protection to white criminals over minority criminals (or rather non-white people who didn't do any crimes but is seen as criminals because of their skin color).
This shooting is also why this country has a race and ethnicity problem. Especially with Asians.
Black and brown people have been targets of racial inequality for centuries. This is a problem indeed that also should be fixed yesterday. For decades, Asians have been treated as a joke and punching bag -- jokes about their looks, them being prostitution-prone, and speaking poor, broken English. While strides have been made to correct and improve dialogue and language involving African Americans, overweight people, women and the LGBTQ+ community in the recent decades since, Asians have not received a similar treatment. back in the 60s, Dr. Seuss had books negatively depicting African and Asian people with stereotypical and exaggerated facial features and behaviors; these books recently had their distribution and publications canceled (to the fake ire of conservatives whom then decided to stockpile buy all of the not-removef books of the not-ever-cancelled Dr. Seuss.) As late as the 2010's, there are still jokes about Asian accents and dialects, sexual prowess, and their eyes. (I honestly feel ashamed in myself for laughing at a few of them [not all of them; I found a majority of them disgusting and tasteless]). And it's not just the jokes against them. It's also the lies and threats against them for just being them. During his presidency, the 45th president (I'm never typing his name again here) accused all Asians of the unleashing of COVID-19 across the world just because the place of origin is Wuhan, China, and has given it such disparaging names as "Wuhan Flu", "Kung Flu", "Chinese Virus" and variations of them. Since then, many Asians throughout America have been unfortunately subjected to violent attacks and threats by shit excuses of human beings, with this shooting being the most notable and damning (he even still used an Asian slur during a Fox News interview after the shooting).
I was disgusted by these attacks and threats, and was reminded by my thought that the United States has some truly revolting, reprehensible and regressing stupid people who will listen to one of their own and - based on little evidence and weak connection commit crimes based on their hatred of people that aren't one of their own.
And after this, it still kept going. Some of the most prominent and clever (not) featured the phrase "lucky ending" -- as if being a sex worker is an easy ground to mock the deceased. (Hur-hur-hur, them Chinks are dead and there sex workers, too bad it wasnt a lucky endimg lololol) Fuck all of those people! And if you say "free speech" and "first amendment" like it's a shield, remember that I have to the free speech to criticize and mock you as the pathetic slackjaw doofus you are.
Robert Aaron Long deserves to go to prison for the rest of his life with the harshest stipulations. But thanks to pansy-ass police sympathizers like Jay Baker, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even get a preliminary court trial, let alone one where he gets off with a lenient sentence. This is why I hate American justice and legal systems; see the above Peter Perfect meme as to why.
It's times like this where we think we're on a better upswing in racial diversity in America but we realize we have not even reached the playground. Now it's time to fix the problems we have with Anti-Asian racism and bigotry in America. If we don't even try, we're all complicit to the worst, most ass-backward, racially-close-minded people in America. We're all not perfect people, but in an issue like this, if we don't call it out for what it is, we might as well put a sign on our necks stating this.
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