No happy ending

[Gob]

At least eight people have been killed in a series of shootings at three Atlanta area massage parlours, with a number of the victims described by authorities as women of Asian descent.

A 21-year-old man, Robert Aaron Long, has been taken into custody following an hours-long manhunt as police told local media that he was the suspect in all three shootings. An alleged motive has not been described.

Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp praised police for their quick apprehension of a suspect – without incident on the I-75 highway, adding: “Our entire family is praying for the victims of these horrific acts of violence.”


Atlanta massage parlor shootings: what we know so far
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The shootings occurred shortly after one another on Tuesday afternoon. Four people were killed at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth in Cherokee county, Georgia, about 30 miles (50km) north-west of Atlanta.

Shortly after, at 5.47pm, Atlanta police officers responded to a reported robbery at Gold Spa in the city’s north-east where three women had been killed. Police were then alerted to another shooting across the street at the Aromatherapy Spa where the body of another woman was found.

Seven of the victims were women, and six were Asian, according to police. Another man was injured in the attacks.

Although police in Georgia have not described a motive, the NYPD counter terrorism bureau announced it had deployed officers from their Critical Response Command to Asian communities around New York City.

“While there is no known nexus to #NYC we will be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution,” the bureau said in a tweet.

[Crackpot]

It is being speculated that this is an anti Asian “they gave us Covid” kind of thing. Which is slightly less disturbing than my original thought of it being an “Asian women have rejected me” kind of thing. Any way it shakes out is probably going to really fucking depressing

[ex-khobar Andy]

It may be - and I am definitely speculating: I know no more than I have seen in a few news reports - just misogyny with no racial component. I understand from the Robert Kraft massage parlour investigation of a few months ago that these places are frequently staffed by East Asian women, many of them trafficked by gangs. And although we still see news reports about the US/Mexico border and what are we going to do about the disjointed bits of Trump's wall, the prime means of illegal immigration to the US remains airport and seaport entry and surreptitious passage through a controlled point. (For example in the back of a truck hidden by legitimate imports.) We've seen so-called 'incel' murders before and it may be more of the same.

[Sue U]

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

MILWAUKEE ATLANTA—In the hours following a violent rampage in Wisconsin Georgia in which a lone attacker killed five eight individuals, including himself, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Wednesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said South Dakota resident Jason Murphy, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

Source

[ex-khobar Andy]

What Sue said.

They are now saying that the suspect claims to have a sex addiction. Obviously that's a prelude to some sort of mental health excuse. Tiger Woods claimed sex addiction; and although I didn't buy it in the sense that I don't see it as a syndrome which excuses his (Tiger's) behavior, if someone has the means (i.e., $$$) to pursue sex whenever he feels like it, I can see that he might want to find some way to curb those instincts in order to avoid hurting those close to him. That seems like a rational decision.

But claiming sex addiction as some sort of justification for multiple murders should be dismissed on day one.

[Scooter]

"Yesterday was a really bad day for him," said one police captain explaining what led up to the shooting. Well golly gee, Gomer, I can think of several people lying on a slab at the morgue whose day couldn't have been any worse. To say nothing of their families.

Another white terrorist being given the kid glove treatment. Anyone see a pattern yet?

[Joe Guy]

He Had a Bad Day

[dales]

Put him down like the rabid dog he is.

Electrocution remained the primary method of execution until October 5th, 2001 when the Georgia Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment, after which Georgia converted to using lethal injection.

[ex-khobar Andy]

When I first heard the 'bad day' comment, I assumed that the cop was just clumsily trying to pass on what the suspect had said.

No. This cop Jay Baker had previously (March last year) shilled for a T-shirt company with designs as below. COVID-19 is in the style of Corona beer; and if you can't read the line below, it's 'IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA' which mimics the way Trump said it.

See Huff Post.

[Econoline]

If "sex addiction" makes you murder people -- I mean if that's literally a thing that happens -- then we need a federal law mandating strict sex addiction screening for every gun owner or potential owner.

— Jim Wright

[Burning Petard]

I am guessing the quote above came from Facebook. The low frequency of essays in his Stone Kettle site is frustrating. Almost (yes, only almost) enuff to get me to sign up for Facebook.

I miss the spin-offs we used to get here from CWO(R) Wright and from my favorite blind Marine.

snailgate

[Sue U]

And by the way, this murder spree was clearly about race. The shooter targeted specifically Asian massage parlors and the Asian women who worked there, who he apparently blamed for his "sex addiction" and were therefore worthy of death, because his personal problem was more important than their lives. Apart from the sexual fetishization of Asian women in white western culture, which is a whole ginormous thing on its own, taken at his word the shooter viewed these women as nothing more than objects for his own sexual gratification. This is plainly racism, whether the murderer acknowledges it or not.

[Big RR]

t than their lives. Apart from the sexual fetishization of Asian women in white western culture, which is a whole ginormous thing on its own, taken at his word the shooter viewed these women as nothing more than objects for his own sexual gratification. This is plainly racism, whether the murderer acknowledges it or not.

While racism is likely a factor, these places were happy ending spas; people go to them but pretty much solely for their own sexual gratification, not for other reasons. They are like the fast food places of bordellos, and people go in to get a quick sexual relief.

[Crackpot]

Do you know that or is that an assumption that any or all of the businesses provided those services?

[Big RR]

That is what I heard on CBS news when the story broke (well they didn't say "happy ending", more like the shops were part of the "sex trade"). Also, I heard the shooter said he did it because they made him a sex addict and tempted him too much. Have you heard different?

ETA: Also, if you google the story, you can find many accounts that say the same thing and discuss sexual services provided at the parlors.

[Crackpot]

I hadn’t heard either way. I just wonder how much the stereotype is reflected in reality. I wonder how many assumptions were/are being made on the behalf of the killer and or the media.
For all I know the killer went off because he wanted a handy and they wouldn’t give him one. Or they all could have been known full service brothels. Perhaps the first one was and the killer decided they all were. I do find it odd that someplace that advertised as being for aromatherapy would be a front for prostitution as that particular business doesn’t generally cater to men. I could be wrong.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I am concerned that the focus on the race of six of the victims has caused us to focus on this as a race motivated crime.

There are three issues and it does not serve anyone’s purposes to confuse them. One is that people who are identifiable as East Asian (facial features) are discriminated against in some quarters. I’m sure that’s true; I have some personal experience of it through a friend; and it may be that the perception - ‘They are smarter than us’ - (Tiger Mothers and all that) - feeds the concern among some that ‘they’ will eventually supplant ‘us’ as Top Race. (Remember "Jews will not replace us" from Charlottesville?) And the whole ‘COVID is due to Chinese people eating bats’ thing, with the flames being fanned and fueled by Trump, did not help.

Secondly, eight people were murdered in what seems to be at base a religiously motivated crime. The alleged perpetrator’s ex-roommate (and yes; this is not evidence - the roommate may be himself a fantasist and attention-seeker - we won’t know until the investigation and trial are complete) says that he was absorbed by his own ‘failure’ to live up to his Christian ‘ideal.’

Thirdly, and before racial as a motivation, I suspect plain vanilla misogyny. He’s unable to curtail his sexual urges so kills women? That they were Korean in origin is because they happened to work at the places he frequented. The reason Korean and other East Asian women are over-represented in massage parlors and the like, whether or not they offer sexual services, is because of the common Western perception that these women are somehow more submissive and/or because they are trafficked in order to satisfy and take commercial advantage of that perception. Trafficking of women, whether East Asian or Eastern European or wherever, is a crime which needs to be addressed.

I’m always a little ‘yes, but’ about the idea of hate crimes. This man (allegedly, we have to say) killed eight people. If there was a racial (hate) motivation which somehow makes it worse, does the absence of such a motivation somehow make it better? The motivation behind a killing should make a difference if and only if it was done in order to prevent some more ghastly crime. It could be a factor in learning how to prevent future murders of that type but it should play no role in determining guilt or innocence or appropriate punishment.

And that’s before we get onto the availability of guns . . .

[Sue U]

Coupla quick things before I have to run:

The racial motivation for these murders doesn't have to be "hate" as such. Here, it looks more like "I love East Asian women so much that they are an irresistible temptation to me, but unfortunately that corrupts my soul so therefore they must die."

Second, we use motivation to judge the level of culpability and punishment for crimes all the time, hence the distinctions between premeditated murder, murder in furtherance of terrorism, murder for hire, felony murder and manslaughter. Why is it any different for a racially-motivated "hate" crime?

[Big RR]

CP--here is the Armoatherapy Spa website; I do nto think it is targetted at women--look at the photos and the services (table showers...and much more. Shh it's secret),

https://www.atlaromatherapyspa.com/

I know there are legitimate massage and even aromatherapy businesses, but this does not appear to be one.

[Crackpot]

I’ll give you that one. As I said I haven’t done my research. But even with as clueless I can be about these things I would say that’s sketchy.