There’s No Evidence Yet That Atlanta Spa Killings Were About Race, So Why Is That The Narrative?
FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show An Anti-China Facebook Post By The Suspected Atlanta Spa Shooter?
Georgia mass killer said shooting had nothing to do with race. Trevor Noah says it does — but the suspect just doesn't realize it yet.
Comedy Central host Trevor Noah said this week that Georgia's spa mass murder was motivated by race — despite the accused Georgia mass killer himself reportedly saying that he targeted the spas over his sex addiction and not the race of their workers.
On Wednesday, Blaze Media reported that 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long — the suspect in a mass killing that took the lives of at least eight people at Atlanta-area spas — said, according to authorities, that he carried out the murders because of his "addiction to sex."
What are the details?
On Wednesday's episode of "The Daily Show," Noah said that it's obvious to him that someone who murders six Asian women is racist.
"What's been sad about the story is not just the loss of life but all the auxiliary things that have been happening around the story," Noah began. "Like, one of the first things that's been the most frustrating for me is seeing the shooter say, 'Oh, it wasn't racism, it was sex addiction.' First of all, f*** you, man. You killed six Asian people. Specifically. You went there. If there's anyone who's racist, it's a motherf***er who kills six Asian women. Your murders speak louder than your words."
Noah continued and insisted that anti-Asian sentiment is behind this and other attacks against members of the American-Asian community since COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China.
“Six Asian women were killed!" he continued. “And you know, in a way, what makes it even more painful is that we saw it coming. We see these things happening. People have been warning. People in the Asian community have been tweeting, saying, 'Please, help us. We're getting punched in the streets, we're getting slurs written on our doors, we're getting people coming up to us saying thanks for COVID, thanks for spoiling the world.' We've seen this happening. And while we're fighting for it, there are many people who have been like, 'Oh, stop being so woke and so dramatic. Kung flu, hahaha. It's just a joke.' Yeah, it's a joke that has come at one of the most tense times in human history. You knew that something like this could happen."
'Who could have predicted this tragedy?'
He noted that the deadly attack wasn't all that surprising.
Noah added, "This guy didn't go and kill these women by mistake. He knew what he was doing. And it's so frustrating to see this keep happening in America over and over again. America sees things coming, it knows something is gonna happen, but it does nothing to stop it. But then it's all-in on saying, 'Oh, it's so tragic, who could have predicted this tragedy?' Anyone who was looking at it could. Why are people so invested in solving the symptoms instead of the cause? America does this time and time again — a country that wants to fight the symptoms and not the underlying conditions that cause those symptoms to take effect. Racism, misogyny, gun violence, and mental illness — and honestly, this incident might have been all of those things combined."
He concluded, "Whatever you do, please, don't tell me that this thing had nothing to do with race. Even if the shooter says that — he thinks it has to do with his sex addiction — you can't disconnect his violence from the racial stereotypes that people attach to Asian women. This guy blamed a specific race of people for his problems and then murdered them because of it. If that's not racism then the word has no meaning."
Why We Should've Seen The Atlanta Shootings Coming | The Daily Social Distancing Showwww.youtube.com
Suspect in mass-killing at Georgia spas reportedly blames murders on his 'addiction to sex' — and not race
Police say that accused mass killer Robert Aaron Long reportedly murdered at least eight people because of his "sex addiction" — and not because some of the victims were of Asian descent.
What's a brief history here?
Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, reportedly opened fire on Tuesday night at three different spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people.
Six of those people were identified as Asian women, and authorities said they were not ruling out the possibility of a hate crime at that time.
Authorities took Long into custody Tuesday night on murder charges following the rampage.
Following the killings, #StopAsianHate began trending across social media platforms and politicians and celebrities alike called for an end to race-based violence.
What are the details?
On Wednesday, ABC News reported that Long blamed his "addiction to sex" as to the motive behind the slayings.
In a statement, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said, "Long confessed to the shootings in Cherokee County and Atlanta."
"Long told investigators that he blames the massage parlors for providing an outlet for his addiction to sex," the sheriff's office said in a statement, places he may have "frequented" in the past.
"Long told investigators the crimes were not racially motivated," the statement added.
During a news conference, Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department added, "The suspect did take responsibility for the shooting."
"It's a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate," Baker noted.
What else?
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) said that Long was reportedly trying to flee to Florida, where the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said that there was "some type of porn industry in that state" and that Long purportedly "wanted to do some similar act in that location."
Long remains in custody at the time of this reporting.
Robert Aaron Long | What we know about the Atlanta spa shootings suspect www.youtube.com
The Atlanta Shootings: Let's Get the Facts Before We Jump to the Hyperbole | Ep 237