On March sixteenth, a man named Robert Aaron Long, went to three different spas in Atlanta, Georgia and killed a total of eight people. Six of those people happened to be of Asian descent.
This is such an infuriating and sad situation. It is sad because innocent people lost their lives and infuriating because of the justification being given to the killer.
According to ABC News, Long admitted to the killings and blamed his “addiction to sex” as the motive behind the killings. The officers investigating the shootings claim that as of right now, it seems that the killings were not racially motivated.
Long supposedly said that race was not a factor when he killed those people, even though six of them were of Asian descent. I find it hard to believe that race was not a factor, since throughout the past year, the Asian community has faced a lot of hatred due to COVID.
Even though it is said that these killings were not racially motivated, I can’t help but feel as though they were.
What a coincidence it is that six of the people who died happened to be of Asian descent? Just because Long does not admit that his actions were racially motivated, does not mean he is saying the truth.
It is infuriating to see the way that the media portrays situations like these. If it had been a person of color that had committed these killings, they would have faced much more backlash and would not have been given any sympathy whatsoever. Oftentimes, when a white person commits a heinous crime like the one Long committed, the media says it is due to mental illness.
Long told the officers that he suffered from a sex addiction and that places like spas were temptations for him, and he wanted to eliminate those temptations. It is very upsetting to me because I do not want people to feel sympathy for Long.
My prayers are with the innocent people who were killed, not for the man with a sex addiction that decided to take out his frustrations by killing. It is so unfortunate that people can no longer go to school, the movie theatre, or even a spa without the fear of something like this happening.
I truly hope that Long gets what he deserves and that justice is served for all of the innocent lives lost. I do not feel bad for him at all and I hope he is punished to the fullest extent for his actions.
His sex addiction is not at all justification for his actions. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who died. We need to do better and show support for the Asian community.