A man named Robert Aaron Long has apparently confessed to carrying out a mass shooting in the Atlanta area Tuesday night. Eight people were killed at three different massage parlors, six of them Asian women.
The identity of the victims naturally led to speculation that there was a racial motivation for the murders. But in a press conference Wednesday, Cherokee County sheriff's captain Jay Baker tried to downplay that possibility. He repeated Long's claim that the murder spree "was not racially motivated," and instead that it was about his supposed sex addiction. He "sees these locations as … a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate," Baker said. Sounding almost like a defense attorney, Baker also said Long "understood the gravity of it … yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did."
Setting aside the bizarrely sympathetic comments about a confessed mass murderer, this argument is not plausible. Though we don't yet have all the facts here, there is an extensive literature on how racist prejudice can fuel unhealthy sexual fetishes and violence (by, for instance, instilling a belief that women of Asian descent are naturally submissive, possibly leading to violence when advances are rejected). Driving for dozens of miles to commit mass murder at three different specifically Asian massage parlors to somehow exact vengeance for a purported sex addiction is not evidence against a racist motive; it is evidence in favor of one.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Baker as an Atlanta Police captain. We regret the error.
-
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spinsSpeed Read Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’
-
Trump renews push to fire Cook before Fed meetingSpeed Read The push to remove Cook has ‘quickly become the defining battle in Trump’s effort to take control of the Fed’
-
September 15 editorial cartoonsCartoons Monday’s political cartoons include publisher advice for Kamala Harris, the radicalization pipeline, and flu season guidelines
-
Weinstein's appeal: a blow to #MeTooTalking Points Is 'shocking' reversal of symbolic conviction a sign of weakening movement?
-
The Clapham attack: a 'wake-up call'?Talking Point The shocking case may prove the British asylum system is broken but it has also been exploited for political purposes
-
The Epstein papers: what do they reveal?Talking Points Documents adding new detail to existing claims cause 'new furore'
-
Epstein files released: Prince Andrew back in the spotlightTalking Points Duke of York named in nearly 1,000 pages of newly released court files
-
Rape in the metaverse: a case for the real-life police?Talking Points Investigation launched into attack on girl in virtual reality game amid warnings that sexual offences 'rife' in online worlds
-
America's metastatic cancerTalking Point How rampant distrust is killing us
-
How the police's handling of the Uvalde shooting could inspire more people to arm themselvesTalking Point
-
Murder rates are spiking in medium-sized cities. Where's the outcry?Talking Point
