By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, was arrested for killing 8 persons and wounding others at 3 massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia area that began Tuesday, March 15th, 2021. Long was arrested in Crisp County, GA as law enforcement staged along routes of escape after an alert about the murders. A state trooper spotted the suspect vehicle and performed an intervention maneuver that sent the suspect vehicle into a spin, after which Long was arrested with no further incident.
Long made statements that claimed his motive was not racial, even though most of his victims were of Asian descent. He stated that the massage parlors were a temptation to his sexual desires. He was reportedly headed to Florida to continue a mission to kill workers at massage parlors.
Despite Long’s statements denying that race played a role in his attacks, the crime has obvious racial overtones that were the focus of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ attention. Police spokespersons relaying information to the media accurately described their reluctance to label the event as motivated by anti-Asian hate based on the statements of the killer as being motivated by the reputed nature of the businesses.
When a reporter asked Bottoms about the sexual motive, Bottoms launched into a spring-loaded tirade denying that the businesses were a venue for sexual encounters and insisting that race was the motive. She decried the police accounts as questioning racism as a motive saying “We are not about to get into victim blaming, victim shaming, here,” Bottoms said at a Wednesday news conference, adding, “We don’t know additional information about what his motives were. We will not begin to blame victims, and as far as we know in Atlanta these are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar”, claiming that there was no evidence that anything inappropriate was happening at the businesses.
The mayor countered the depiction used by Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department for relating Robert Aaron Long’s assertion that “sexual addiction” rather than racism toward Asian Americans was behind his shooting rampage. Bottoms asserted “we are not about to get into victim blaming, victim shaming.”
Bottoms had imposed the typical reform era police constraints on the Atlanta Police Department after the notorious shooting of Rayshard Brooks. Brooks had escaped from police custody for drunk driving, then stole an officer’s TASER, using it to fire probes at the officer’s head. The officer shot the suspect. Bystander video ignited a storm of protest resulting in criminal charges against the officer as well as the resignation of the Chief of Police.
As with many urban mayors, Bottoms has spent more time pursuing the racism and police reform agenda that dealing with the city’s rising violent crime rate. While Bottoms related that the locations of Long’s shootings were not “on the radar” of the police, USA Today reported that at least one internet sex business review site mentioned two of the businesses as those where a customer could get “full service”.
Law enforcement is well aware of the vulnerability of sex workers to robbery, violence, and human trafficking. Due to the clandestine nature of the business, sometimes limited language skills, questionable immigration status, and fear of the police, workers in the massage parlor business are far less likely to report victimization. These are legitimate concerns beyond whether the businesses are properly licensed and operating within the law. Denying the reality of these workers’ backgrounds and what can go on behind the peephole in the door serves no one.
Bottoms, like many pandering politicians, seems to thrive on shaming, but not of victims, or even perpetrators, but police. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a statement saying “law enforcement at every level, along with social media companies, must work together to help intercept and combat this growing threat” of anti-Asian violence. It would seem that the troopers and deputies risking their life to intercept the fleeing murderer, the dedicated first responders who waded into bloody crime scenes and responded to shots fired calls were actively combating the threat. But we didn’t see that in print from the Mayor or the other conflict mongers feeding on this tragedy.