Re: AACTLA Statement on 3.16.21 Atlanta Shooting
On March 16, 2021, eight people were shot and killed at three different spas in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Their names were Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. Six were Asian women.
This devastating loss of life brings unspeakable pain on us and our communities and come at a time when Asian Americans face horrific violence nationwide. However, violence against our community is not new, nor recent. In fact, violence against Asians goes back all the way to the 1800s and is intertwined in the fabric of our country. Throughout the years, Asian people have 
been killed, degraded, interned, and erased, often by the very institutions that are sworn to protect all people.
This longstanding history of institutional anti-Asian violence was underscored by Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Captain Jay Baker at a news conference on Wednesday, March 17. When asked if the shooter understood the gravity of his actions, Captain Baker said:
“When I spoke to the investigators, they interviewed him this morning and they got that impression, that, yes, he understood the gravity of it. And he was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. And yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.”
Captain Jay Baker’s additional comments exemplify the systematic racism and oppression facing communities of color, i.e., your existence is subject to whether we, the people in power, are having a bad day. This sentiment was given a platform on Wednesday and adds to the legacy of violence and racism against our nation’s communities.
We have relied too long upon police, prosecution, and prisons to protect us from racialized violence. These institutions are systematically biased, disproportionate, and dehumanizing. These institutions have failed in the last 170 years to remedy the root causes of violence and hate in our communities. Thus, we condemn any effort to use this moment to increase police presence in our communities, to expand our criminal punishment bureaucracy, or to push for more incarceration. These only further a racist system of mass criminalization and incarceration.
Instead, we call upon our leaders to invest in our communities and to prioritize support for mental health, treatment, restorative justice, and non-carceral responses to racialized violence. We stand in solidarity with AAPI advocates and the BIPOC advocates who have been fighting for transformational change. We cannot charge and punish our way out of this moment. We must work together to affirm a society where people can live and thrive as individuals and in community.
We must continue to fight against white supremacy and a system that propagates it.
We must continue to fight for all people and communities. We must continue to fight for justice for all.
Sincerely,
Jesse Hsieh President
Asian American Criminal Trial Lawyers Association
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Who should arrest, prosecute and incarcerate the perpetrator of these crimes – the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker?
Reports I’ve read is that the Asian community is split on this – older folk, often the victims of these crimes, usually calling for more policing – while younger folk more likely to call for less. I have no idea how that breaks down by numbers as that was not reported, and I’m sure is quite complex and nuanced.
We probably need to poke holes in this myth. Ultimately, it’s racist, divisive and harmful.
And from what I can tell, it’s mostly promoted by (some) “white” people, themselves. And more often than not, in a completely meaningless manner.
Said Little Red Riding Hood as she stuffed another porridge cookie in her mouth.