Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

In my day, never was longer.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking: Eyewitness Reports Indicate the Atlanta Mass Shooter/Domestic Terrorist Was Specifically Targeting Asians, Contradict This Morning’s Law Enforcement Statements

Breaking: Eyewitness Reports Indicate the Atlanta Mass Shooter/Domestic Terrorist Was Specifically Targeting Asians, Contradict This Morning’s Law Enforcement Statements

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It did not take long for what everyone expected Robert Aaron Long’s motive was to be reported:

His social media feed lines up with what the eyewitnesses are telling the Korean language press. As always, take the reporting on the social media posts with a grain of salt:

It should not be a surprise to anyone that Long was lying when he told the police that he committed his act of domestic terrorism against Asian-Americans and Asians living in America because of a possible sex addiction. Which led Cherokee County, GA Sheriffs Captain Jay Baker to make this exceedingly stupid remark:

Apparently the police really dropped the ball, which, perhaps, explains Captain Baker’s stupid statement.

Hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans and Asians residing in or visiting the US went up by about 150% last year. Atlanta has a very, very large number of strip clubs, gentlemen’s clubs, massage parlors, sex shops and emporiums. That the only three places that the possible sex addict felt the need to target were the ones owned by Asians/Asian Americans and predominantly employing Asians/Asian Americans should have been what is known as a clue that this was specifically targeted at the Asian American community.

If someone broke into the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department and stole all the toilet seats, Captain Baker would likely tell the press that his investigators were stymied because they had nothing to go on…

Every time a Republican elected or appointed official or a conservative movement official or a conservative “news” personality – from the anchors on Fox News to the commenters – refers to COVID-19 with a derogatory slur instead of “COVID-19” or insinuates that immigrants – documented or undocumented – as well as those seeking asylum or refugee status are somehow bringing COVID-19 in and will make things worse, all they’re doing is feeding the fear, grievance, and victimization of their political base, their supporters, and their viewers. If you want to know where Long was radicalized, the answer is simple. Right here in the US, by Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, Kevin McCarthy, at least 2/3rds of McCarthy’s House Republican Caucus, at least 1/2 of the Senate Republican Caucus, by hundreds of elected and appointed Republican officials, by Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, Breitbart, Ben Shapiro and his execrable writers and commenters at the Daily Wire, by right wing talk radio, by right wing social and digital media.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  2. 2.

    Sparkedcat

    The real enemies of the United States are white domestic terrorists. January 6th proved that.

  3. 3.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    I’m so surprised :|

    Pretty much textbook stochastic terrorism, induced by those folks you list. They have blood on their hands.

  4. 4.

    Soprano2

    Wow, I am so shocked (not). I wonder if they took him to a fast food place to get a hamburger before they questioned him.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    Nobody’s surprised, right?

    If you are I have a great investment opportunity involving bridges, message me, k?

  6. 6.

    Josie

    I know this is a very shallow comment, but has anyone else noticed that almost these people – the politicians, the pundits, and the terrorists themselves are singularly unattractive people?

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    This epidemic of anti-Asian violence is a complete mystery. One would think that some irresponsible person came up with the term “Kung Flu” to characterize Covid-19. /s

  9. 9.

    columbusqueen

    I may be married to a good one, but damn, white men are really pissing me off right now.

  10. 10.

    The Moar You Know

     

    I know this is a very shallow comment, but has anyone else noticed that almost these people – the politicians, the pundits, and the terrorists themselves are singularly unattractive people?

    @Josie: hard not to.  I was also going to add that I hope the cops didn’t take this psychotic jackass to a drive-through as it looks like he’s had his year’s quota for burgers already and mine as well.

  11. 11.

    Brachiator

    It should not be a surprise to anyone that Long was lying when he told the police that he committed his act of domestic terrorism against Asian-Americans and Asians living in America because of a possible sex addiction. Which led Cherokee County, GA Sheriffs Captain Jay Baker to make this exceedingly stupid remark

    He may have been lying. He may have said something stupid.

    Good investigations take time. The Internet is always unforgiving of any errors or inconsistencies and demands instantaneous judgment.

    Sorry, this does not work.

  14. 14.

    raven

    @Soprano2: The cop that made the statement was from Cherokee County (not ATLANTA police chief as the stupid Fox clip shows) and he was arrested 200 miles south in Crisp County after they ran a pit maneuver on him.

  17. 17.

    laura

    So many guns and yet so many women still unsafe at home, in public or at work. So many men buying so many guns and so concerned that someone might come for their guns that they’re will to kill anyone who comes to their door even though no one ever comes to your door to take your guns.

    I’m sick to my stomach that I know so much about this workplace mass murderer – his thoughts, his feelings, his bad day, his ease in buying guns n ammo, his ease in murdering so many people in multiple locations. Sick of the cops and their misplaced empathy. Sick of the hatred of women. Sick of the immediate defensiveness of gun owners justifying the body count. Sick of this exceptional national sickness.

  22. 22.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Being a perv nut job and racist aren’t mutually exclusive. So Mr Chinbeard is blaming the working girls for him blowing his rent on full service massages.

  25. 25.

    The Moar You Know

    Why is his Facebook profile down?

    @rikyrah:  Sure he’s been planning this for a while. Also dead certainty all the good shit will be on Parler, probably also deleted, and I assume they won’t have to comply with subpoenas for the deleted data anymore since they’re now hosted in Russia. That will become a serious problem soon.  At the time I was stoked about forcing them off the internet, but on reflection that was always going to be temporary, and we have have cause to regret it sooner rather than later.

  27. 27.

    laura

    @rikyrah: because he is a white male who likely had his entire racist, misogynist, MAGA ass out there for the world to see in detail over a very long period of time such that if his profile hadn’t been shut down, it might take some effort to rehabilitate his reputation and salvage his future prospects. No surprise about this well trod path.

  28. 28.

    raven

    I suppose it will make everyone mad that the Atlanta news is showing the family of one of the white victims.

  30. 30.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    It seems to me there are no gentlemen in “gentlemen’s clubs”

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodingers_cat: As I mentioned in the downstairs thread, there’s a WaPo story about the Southern Baptist angle (the killer was a member of a local church, his family was active in it, etc.). It’s not a bad article overall, but somehow, when the subject was white evangelicals, misogyny and anti-Asian racism, the story managed to not mention The Former Guy even once. I mean, come on! 

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    “Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did” –

    Nothing in compared to the kind of day the eight people he killed had.   Good thing we have Fox News to humanize the murdering scum of our nation.

  37. 37.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker: The Beltway press  is a thinly veiled Republican PR operation. They are still shilling for the Orange one, the one who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power breaking an American tradition since its formation and being directly responsible for the death of half a million Americans. But according to these idiots he deserves credit for Biden’s vaccine response.

  38. 38.

    Falling Diphthong

    @The Moar You Know: I have read that Parler being hosted on Russian servers makes it easier for US law enforcement to poke about, since all the rules about not doing that in the US don’t apply.

    Everything about Parler seems to follow the “just how dumb do you think their desired clientele can be?” rule.

  39. 39.

    Catherine D.

    Sympathetic Police Know What It’s Like To Have A Bad Day And Kill 8 People

    That Onion headline is painfully apt.

  40. 40.

    misterpuff

    @The Moar You Know:  Well there is that archive of Parler captured by a heroic watchdog that was collected before it was shut down after the 1/6 sedition attempt on the Capitol.
    He’s probably in there somewhere…..

  42. 42.

    Starboard Tack

    @columbusqueen:

    …white men are really pissing me off right now.

    Me, too, and I’m one of them.

    We have met the enemy, and he is us. – Pogo Possum

  43. 43.

    Hellbastard

    Yea.. if his day was bad imagine how it was for the victims and their families. That cop should be fired.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    @Steve in the ATL:

    FYI Cherokee County is not a bastion of liberalism!

    If they are a bastion of unprofessionalism, everyone is screwed. We could bring in the feds for every case. Will that be better?

  47. 47.

    Frankensteinbeck

    The hate police have for sex workers is incredible.  I am sure a big part of that bizarre statement is that the cops involved think sex workers deserve any and all abuse they get, including murder, so why is everyone acting like this is important?

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    @The Moar You Know:

    Engender some sympathy for the victims amongst a bunch of locals that just may not be that used to seeing Asians. I could be totally wrong about that, but it’s been a long time since I spent any time in Atlanta. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong. Y’all do anyway :)

    Significant numbers of Asians moving to Atlanta and other cities. Devindra Hardawar, a tech writer and film critic, has had podcast conversations about finding blue communities since relocating. And he is an East Indian who I think was born in some South American country. A new, diverse, mix.

  52. 52.

    Starboard Tack

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We are assuming that all the dead women were sex workers.

    I think that is the speculation, since it appears to be the shooter’s intent, but it doesn’t matter if they were, or not.

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @Frankensteinbeck: Kinda relatedly – DW.com – France: Ruling in Julie rape case could set legal precedent

    A woman has accused several firefighters of raping her multiple times over the span of two years, starting when she was 13 years old. The verdict could make legal history and lead to a change in France’s age of consent

    Just horrific. :-(

    Too many people with even a tiny bit of power think they’re entitled to use others – even children – any way they want.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    @MJS: Yeah, seriously. I mean, I’m a white guy whose dad was a college professor so my interactions with police have been mostly positive, but I’ve always understood that at least some of them are petty tyrants prone to bullying. But…a guy commits mass murder and an officer of the law is like “well boys will be boys he had a bad day what would you do if you had a bad day?” kind of half excuse for his behavior is not something I ever thought I’d see. I always thought the police thought murderers and other criminals were, like bad people, not just misunderstood folks who snapped because they had a bad day but are basically A-OK. That attitude seems recent.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    If someone broke into the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department and stole all the toilet seats, Captain Baker would likely tell the press that his investigators were stymied because they had nothing to go on…

    Oh, Adam. Did you really? Really??

  60. 60.

    JPL

    @laura:  GA law specifies crimes against females.    If he isn’t charged with federal crimes, the state can charge him with a hate crime.

  62. 62.

    Starboard Tack

    Grauniad reports:

    Dead: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Xiaojie Yan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44.
    The sheriff’s office identified an injured person as 30-year-old Elcias R Hernandez-Ortiz.

  63. 63.

    Starboard Tack

    From a random e-mail I got today:
    Today the U.S. House will vote to remove the time limit on ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

    Is true? How’s it going?

  64. 64.

    Feathers

    This reminds me of how police departments in America do a really shitty job of actually solving crimes. Their blind spots having to do with race and misogyny are practically disqualifying. All the “how serial killers got to be that way” stories, books, and documentaries assume what these murderers say about their mothers is true. Yeah, they probably had horrific childhoods, but if you are going to try to find patterns, you should try to find out what really happened. We really need to separate the crime solving police from the patrolling police.

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    In better news, Major out of dog house.

    US President Joe Biden has defended his dog Major after reports the dog bit someone earlier this month.

    Mr Biden said that Major, the younger of his two German Shepherds and the White House’s first ever rescue dog, was officially “out of the dog house”.

    “You turn the corner and there’s two people you don’t know at all and they move, and he moves to protect,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America. Major is now receiving training in Delaware, Mr Biden added.

    Previous reports in US media said Major had bitten a US Secret Service agent, and that he and Mr Biden’s other dog Champ were sent back to the president’s home state Delaware shortly afterwards.
    However Mr Biden has now said the move back to Delaware was not in response to the alleged biting incident, but was pre-planned to accommodate the First Lady’s schedule.

    “He was going home,” he told the show. “I didn’t banish him to home. Jill was going to be away for four days, I was going to be away for two, so we took him home.”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56424150

  66. 66.

    JPL

    Not incidental: Atlanta murder suspect’s SBC church belongs to Founders Ministries group that claims “white fragility is pro-racism,” calls critical race theory “godless and materialistic ideologies,” equates women preaching with abuse.      Robert P. Jones (@robertpjones) / Twitter

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat: 

    We are assuming that all the dead women were sex workers.

    There are a lot of people who assume that “massage” is a euphemism for sex work, quite likely including the police in this case. I don’t actually care. No one deserves to be killed, regardless of their line of work, and I think it says something bad about us as a society that we treat the question of whether the women he murdered were sex workers or not as relevant to the crime.

  69. 69.

    ET

    The problem with making early pronouncements is that the chances are prettt high that you will have to walk things back. And most people don’t have the skills to do that without looking like an idiot.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne: 

    If someone broke into the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department and stole all the toilet seats, Captain Baker would likely tell the press that his investigators were stymied because they had nothing to go on…

    Wow.

    And the evidence was tissue-thin.

  73. 73.

    Percysowner

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We are assuming that all the dead women were sex workers. We don’t know that yet.

    Well the sheriff that made the statement sure thought they were. He made a BIG deal in his statement that he really wasn’t trying to “victim shame”, which pretty well spelled out what they think. Frankly it doesn’t matter, they didn’t deserve to die no matter what they did for a living.

  75. 75.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I had a bad day today myself. Decided to have a beer instead of murdering a bunch of people. Blame my upbringing.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    No one deserves to be killed, regardless of their line of work,

    Agreed.

     

    and I think it says something bad about us as a society that we treat the question of whether the women he murdered were sex workers or not as relevant to the crime.

     

    It’s not relevant to the crime, but it’s also not good to portray the victims as sex workers if we don’t know that they are given societal mores about sex work (and simply as a matter of factual accuracy).

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @Starboard Tack:

    To make a narrow point, what matters in terms of motive is what the criminal believes, not what is actually true.  To take a slightly different example, there were a number of Sikhs murdered after 9/11 by idiots who assumed they were Arabs.  In those cases, it was still an anti-Arab hate crime even though the victims weren’t actually Arabs.  Similarly, these murders could have been motivated by the killer’s hatred of sex workers even if the victims weren’t involved in sex work.  The way so many people casually assume they were sex workers shows how easily the murderer could have done the same.

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    O/T. My life just got a little more complicated

    The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced today that the federal income tax filing due date for individuals for the 2020 tax year will be automatically extended from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021. The IRS will be providing formal guidance in the coming days.

    Also, for a lot of people who got unemployment compensation in 2020, the IRS has determined some of the new exclusion rules.

  83. 83.

    Starboard Tack

    @Roger Moore:

    Agreed, but in this case, it seems that the killer may have known some of them beforehand, and known if they were sex workers. He may well hate sex workers but legally he probably can’t be prosecuted for a hate crime if they aren’t a protected class.

  87. 87.

    JPL

    @Starboard Tack:  In the state of GA, females are a protected class.    According to Mayor Bottoms police have never been called to the massage parlors, and at this time there is no information that Long was a client there.

  89. 89.

    Starboard Tack

    @JPL:

    In the state of GA, females are a protected class.

    I don’t know Georgia law at all, but I believe Fed law makes murder of someone because of race/nationality a hate crime. Long may be open to a Fed charge on civil rights grounds.

  90. 90.

    JPL

    @Starboard Tack:   GA hate crimes list race and gender.     Gov. Kemp said that there was it was likely a hate crime, but wanted to wait until the investigation was finished.

    Baker from the Cherokee Sheriff dept who decided it wasn’t a hate crime, sells T-shirts calling the Covid the Chy-na virus.   Daily Beast has the story    link

  91. 91.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @Brachiator:

    Good investigations take time. 

    And good investigators don’t blurt out stupid statements like, it wasn’t about race, or he had a really bad day and this is what he did.

  94. 94.

    scav

    It’s getting really really clear just who Baker of the Cherokee Sheriff department and his badged cohorts are protecting and serving. (Offer not available to all.) See also the Metropolitan police in London.

  98. 98.

    Alison Rose

    Fucking racists gonna racist. Can we just send all white men to the moon or something.

    (Also, BTW…I wanted to share this post on FB and I guess it’s Adam’s default pic that comes up since there isn’t an image on the post, but it has like…two birds aiming guns at each other? Which is not okay for this kind of post. I removed the preview from my post and just left the URL, but maybe if that pic could be changed for something less uncomfortable…)

  101. 101.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Have we figured out yet if the shooter’s parents are criminals or do we reserve that level of scrutiny for “thugs” who don’t kill anyone?

  104. 104.

    Anotherlurker

    After  2 unsuccessful video production interactions with evangelical churches and the “indiscretions” of Youth Pastors, I view the positions with great suspicion.   Long story short.  We produced 2 videos featuring superstar Youth Ministers.   Because these pious assholes couldn’t keep their hands off of their “flock”, We got stiffed on both jobs.

    We were doing 2 simultaneous videos for the same church.

    I would rather live next to an ex-con than a fucking “christian” any day.

  107. 107.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    Wow. A “sex addict” who didn’t groom himself for sexual opportunities. No one could have seen that one coming!

  108. 108.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @ksmiami: 

    They are fucking losers that no woman wants unless they are paid…

    That loser could have shaved off his chin hair if he was serious about attracting a partner.

  110. 110.

    Jay

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    the little chin tag is greatly appreciated by female partners, if you use it right.

    I ain’t pretty, or handsome, or rugged, but have had a wonderful  “wild ride” with female partners over my life, simply by not being an asshole.

    It’s amazing how much of a low bar, other men create in their treatment of women, that you can get a pass for just not being an asshole.

  111. 111.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Jay: Sure, but with that ridiculous chin hair, you’ve gone from fishing in the ocean to fishing in a pond.

  113. 113.

    bluefish

    I think I pray for a critical mass in judgement moment. My lord. Sex addict? Peut etre. Supremacist? Prolly. Stupid killing kid off the street, please.

    • Would love to learn what is meant by a bad day. Plus where he got the gun.
  114. 114.

    Sloegin

    Yep, The Daily Beast is reporting that the skinhead police captain with the “bad day” comment at the presser was a fucking merc for Blackwater in Iraq.

    When they say something and you think “They really didn’t mean that did they?”, they really did.

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