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Chauvin trial: cashier felt guilt over George Floyd’s death for reporting possible fake bill

March 31, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The cashier who served George Floyd in a Minneapolis store immediately before his arrest and death last May told a court on Wednesday of the “disbelief and guilt” he felt for allowing Floyd to pay with a suspected fake $20 bill when he later saw the police kneeling on him.

Testimony on the third day of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial continued on Wednesday in an atmosphere of tense emotions and harrowing evidence about Floyd’s death.

The cashier, Christopher Martin, 19, said Floyd appeared to be high on drugs but was not threatening and was “very approachable, talkative”.

Martin said he noticed Floyd because “he was a big man” and that they had a long conversation about sport.

He did tell the court in Minneapolis, however, that he noticed the 46-year-old Black man’s speech was laboured.

“It would appear that he was high,” he said.

Martin worked at Cup Foods in south Minneapolis, where Floyd is alleged to have tried to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, which led to his detention by Chauvin, who was later fired from his job and arrested.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, has denied charges of second – and third – degree murder, and manslaughter, after he pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on 25 May 2020, the Memorial Day holiday.

He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

Floyd’s official autopsy showed that he had opioids and methamphetamine in his system when he died.

Chauvin’s defence contends that the officer’s use of force was reasonable because Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his detention. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, has also told the trial that the drugs contributed to Floyd’s death.

The prosecution acknowledges the use of drugs but has said that it neither justified Chauvin continuing to press his knee into Floyd’s neck as the prone man repeatedly said he cannot breathe nor was a cause of his death.

Witness Christopher Martin answers questions at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Photograph: AP

The trial was shown video of Floyd in the shop. He can be seen wandering around for several minutes, appearing to stagger at times, before making his way to the tobacco counter where Martin was serving. Floyd buys cigarettes and pays with a $20 bill.

Martin said that he was immediately suspicious of the note because it had an unusual pigment but accepted it anyway even though he knew it would be deducted from his pay.

“I thought George didn’t really know it was a fake bill so I was doing him a favour,” he said.

But Martin had a change of heart and showed the note to a manager who said to go after Floyd and bring him back in to the store.

Throughout the video, Floyd does not appear threatening. Although there is no audio, at times he appears to be joking with other customers.

“He seemed very friendly, approachable, talkative,” said Martin. “But he did seem high.”

The trial was then shown footage of Martin and a co-worker approaching Floyd as he sits in his vehicle and telling him he needed to come back to the store and speak to the manager about counterfeit money.

When Floyd twice refuses, the police are called. Martin went back to work but returned outside after noticing a crowd gathering on the street.

“I saw people yelling and screaming. I saw Derek [Chauvin] with his knee on Floyd’s neck,” he said. “George was motionless. Chauvin seemed like he was in a resting state, meaning he was resting his knee on his neck.”

Later in the footage, Martin is seen watching events with his hands on his head. The prosecutor asked what he was thinking.

“Disbelief and guilt,” he said. “If I would have just not taken the [counterfeit] bill, this could have been avoided.”

Martin said that not long afterwards he quit his job at Cup Foods because he “did not feel safe”.

A courtroom sketch shows store surveillance video of George Floyd counting money at Cup Foods.
A courtroom sketch shows store surveillance video of George Floyd counting money at Cup Foods. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Earlier, the defence continued its cross examination of Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter who was prevented by the police from offering medical assistance to Floyd as he was dying, after coming across the scene while she was off duty and seeing Chauvin and two other police officers pinning Floyd to the street.

Hansen acknowledged that she did not show identification proving the she was a firefighter with medical training as she pleaded with Chauvin and other police officers to let her treat Floyd because she thought his life was in danger.

Earlier, Nelson put it to Hansen that she “got louder and more frustrated and upset” as Chauvin continued to press his knee into Floyd’s neck.

The firefighter responded that she did not become angry until Floyd was already dead “and there was no point in trying to reason with them any more because they had just killed somebody”.

When the defence pressed Hansen to agree that other people in the crowd were “upset or angry”, Hansen shot back: “I don’t know if you’ve seen anybody be killed, but it’s quite upsetting”.

The prosecution is building a picture of a group of police officers, led by Chauvin, who were indifferent to Floyd’s suffering and the danger he was in over an agonizing period of time and that his restraint was not a result of split-second decision-making.

A succession of prosecution witnesses has told the court that the alarm and anger of bystanders was not a threat to the police but a demand for action to help Floyd as he begged for his life and called out for his dead mother with waning pleas.

The jury were shown several videos recorded by people at the scene in which members of the public can be heard loudly remonstrating with Chauvin to get off Floyd’s neck. But the video did not show any threats made to the safety of officers.

Three other officers involved in Floyd’s death are scheduled to be tried together later this year on charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: George Floyd, Law (US), US crime, US news, US policing

Atlanta spa shootings: Georgia hate crimes law could see first big test

March 20, 2021 by Staff Reporter

A hate crimes law passed in Georgia amid outrage over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery could get its first major test as part of the murder case against a white man charged with shooting and killing six women of Asian descent at Atlanta-area massage businesses this week.

Prosecutors in Georgia who will decide whether to pursue a hate crimes enhancement have declined to comment. But one said she was “acutely aware of the feelings of terror being experienced in the Asian American community”.

Until last year, Georgia was one of four states without a hate crimes law. But lawmakers moved quickly to pass stalled legislation in June, during national protests over racial violence against Black Americans including the killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was pursued by several white men and fatally shot while out running in February 2020.

The new law allows an additional penalty for certain crimes if they are motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or mental or physical disability.

Governor Brian Kemp called the new legislation “a powerful step forward”, adding when signing it into law: “Georgians protested to demand action and state lawmakers … rose to the occasion.”

The killings of eight people in Georgia this week have prompted national mourning and a reckoning with racism and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The attack also focused attention on the interplay of racism and misogyny, including hyper-sexualized portrayals of Asian women in US culture.

sex addiction.

Asian American lawmakers, activists and scholars argued that the race and gender of the victims were central to the attack.

“To think that someone targeted three Asian-owned businesses that were staffed by Asian American women … and didn’t have race or gender in mind is just absurd,” said Grace Pai, director of organizing at Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago.

Elaine Kim, a professor emeritus in Asian American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “I think it’s likely that the killer not only had a sex addiction but also an addiction to fantasies about Asian women as sex objects.”

Such sentiments were echoed on Saturday as a diverse, hundreds-strong crowd gathered in a park across from the Georgia state capitol to demand justice for the victims of the shootings.

Speakers included the US senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and the Georgia state representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American in the Georgia House.

“I just wanted to drop by to say to my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you, and, more importantly, we are going to stand with you,” Warnock said to loud cheers. “We’re all in this thing together.”

The US senators Raphael Warnock, right, and Jon Ossoff participate in a march and rally in downtown Atlanta. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

Bernard Dong, a 24-year-old student from China at Georgia Tech, said he had come to the protest to demand rights not just for Asians but for all minorities.

“Many times Asian people are too silent, but times change,” he said, adding that he was “angry and disgusted” about the shootings and violence against Asians, minorities and women.

Otis Wilson, a 38-year-old photographer, said people needed to pay attention to discrimination against those of Asian descent.

“We went through this last year with the Black community, and we’re not the only ones who go through this,” he said.

The Cherokee county district attorney, Shannon Wallace, and Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, will decide whether to pursue the hate crime enhancement.

Wallace said she could not answer specific questions but said she was “acutely aware of the feelings of terror being experienced in the Asian-American community”. A representative for Willis did not respond to requests for comment.

The US Department of Justice could bring federal hate crime charges independently of state prosecutions. Federal investigators have not uncovered evidence to prove Long targeted the victims because of their race, two unnamed officials told the Associated Press.

A Georgia State University law professor, Tanya Washington, said it was important for the new hate crimes law to be used.

“Unless we test it with cases like this one, we won’t have a body of law around how do you prove bias motivated the behavior,” she said.

Surveillance footage shows Atlanta shooting suspect leaving massage parlour – video
Surveillance footage shows Atlanta shooting suspect leaving massage parlour – video

Given that someone convicted of multiple murders is unlikely to be released from prison, an argument could be made that it is not worth the effort, time and expense to pursue a hate crime designation that carries a relatively small additional penalty. But the Republican state representative Chuck Efstration, who sponsored the hate crimes bill, said it was not just about punishment.

“It is important that the law calls things what they are,” he said. “It’s important for victims and it’s important for society.”

The state senator Michelle Au, a Democrat, said the law needed to be used to give it teeth.

Au believes there has been resistance nationwide to charge attacks against Asian Americans as hate crimes because they are seen as “model minorities”, a stereotype that they are hard-working, educated and free of societal problems. She said she had heard from many constituents in the last year that Asian Americans – and people of Chinese descent in particular – were suffering from bias because the coronavirus emerged in China and Donald Trump used racial terms to describe it.

“People feel like they’re getting gaslighted because they see it happen every day,” she said. “They feel very clearly that it is racially motivated but it’s not pegged or labeled that way. And people feel frustrated by that lack of visibility and that aspect being ignored.”

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta, Atlanta spa shootings, Georgia, Gun crime, Protest, Race, US crime, US news, US politics, World news

Capitol attack: more than 60 Proud Boys used encrypted channel to plan, indictment says

March 20, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The neo-fascist Proud Boys deployed a large contingent in Washington on 6 January, the day of the US Capitol attack, with more than 60 “participating in” an encrypted messaging channel called “Boots on the Ground”, a federal indictment says.

The indictment, which includes conspiracy charges against four men described as leaders of the far-right group, presents fresh evidence of how officials believe members planned and carried out a coordinated attempt to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Donald Trump.

At least 19 leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the 6 January riot, which resulted in five deaths. More than 300 people have been charged in total. Trump was impeached for the inciting the insurrection but was acquitted after only seven Republican senators broke ranks to vote to convict him.

The indictment unsealed on Friday also suggests that the Proud Boys, whom Trump told to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate last year, were discussing what they would do after he left the White House.

“We need to start planning and we are starting planning for a Biden presidency,” one alleged leader wrote after the Capitol invasion, according to the indictment.

Just two days before the Capitol attack, the Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested in Washington, charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church, and ordered to stay out of the District of Columbia.

The Proud Boys reacted with alarm, one alleged leader warning that communications could be “compromised”, telling members they could be “looking at Gang charges” and suggesting they “stop everything immediately”, according to the indictment.

But they regrouped, creating fresh encrypted channels to communicate and advising members to meet at the Washington Monument at 10am on 6 January, according to the indictment. One alleged leader told members on 5 January to “avoid getting into any shit tonight. Tomorrow’s the day.” Proud Boys were repeatedly warned not to wear their typical black and yellow colors. “Cops are the primary threat,” one channel was warned on the night before the attack.

On 6 January, the Proud Boys marched to the Capitol before Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.

About two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys entered the Capitol after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.

A Wall Street Journal investigation of video footage found Proud Boys members were “key instigators”, at the “forefront” in many pivotal moments.

The messages in the indictment show the Proud Boys using military language before and during the attack, one asking if leaders should hold a “commander’s briefing” before gathering at the Washington Monument.

At 3.38pm, Charles Donohoe, an alleged leader of a chapter in North Carolina, announced on the Boots on the Ground channel that he and others were “regrouping with a second force” as some rioters began to leave the Capitol, according to the indictment.

Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the four defendants charged, were arrested several weeks ago on separate but related charges. A day before the riots, Biggs posted on the Boots on the Ground channel that the group had a “plan”, according to the new indictment, which also charges Donohoe and Zachary Rehl, described as leader of a chapter in Pennsylvania.

“This was not simply a march,” the assistant US attorney Jason McCullough said in a recent hearing for Nordean’s case. “This was an incredible attack on our institutions of government.”

All four defendants are charged with conspiring to impede certification of the electoral college vote. Other charges include obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and disorderly conduct.

The defendants carried out their conspiracy in part by obtaining paramilitary gear and supplies, including tactical vests, protective equipment and radio equipment, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged to communicate using Baofeng radios, Chinese-made devices that can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making it difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.

A lawyer for Biggs declined to comment. Attorneys for the other three men didn’t immediately respond to messages.

In Nordean’s case, a federal judge accused prosecutors of backtracking on claims that he instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a “strategic plan” to breach the Capitol.

“That’s a far cry from what I heard at the hearing today,” the US district judge Beryl Howell said on 3 March.

Howell concluded that Nordean was extensively involved in “pre-planning” for the events of 6 January and that he and other Proud Boys “were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation”. However, she said evidence that Nordean directed other Proud Boys members to break into the building was “weak to say the least” and ordered him freed from jail before trial.

Proud Boys members describe themselves as “western chauvinists” and have engaged in street fights with antifascist activists. The Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it a hate group.

On Friday, Howell ordered the group member Christopher Worrell detained in federal custody pending trial on riot-related charges. Prosecutors say Worrell traveled to Washington and coordinated with Proud Boys leading up to the siege.

“Wearing tactical gear and armed with a canister of pepper spray gel marketed as 67 times more powerful than hot sauce, Worrell advanced, shielded himself behind a wooden platform and other protestors and discharged the gel at the line of officers,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

His defense attorney John Pierce argued his client wasn’t aiming at officers and was only there in the crowd to exercise his free speech rights.

“He’s a veteran,” Pierce said. “He loves his country.”

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: The far right, US Capitol breach, US crime, US news, US politics, World news

Atlanta shootings: why US hate crime data is so lacking | Mona Chalabi

March 20, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Of the eight people killed in Atlanta spas on Wednesday, six of them were Asian women. The police claim it is too soon to know if the suspect was motivated by racial hatred, focusing instead on the idea that the massage parlors were a “temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate”.

This, of course, ignores the possibility that someone might be motivated by racial hatred and sexism.

Unfortunately, most statistics make the same assumption. Hate crime data that is gathered by the FBI is often categorized according to a single motivation (such as religion, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, gender identity). Less than 3% of the hate crimes that were reported in 2019 recorded multiple biases.

Reality is obviously much more complex than these numbers capture. Many of the victims of Wednesday’s attack were Asian and women and possibly sex workers (police have long identified the spas as places where sex work and possible sexual exploitation regularly occurred). These facts can not be treated in isolation.

Things get even more complicated when you consider reporting rates. A person’s race and gender identity will affect the likelihood that they will report a hate crime to the police. This is particularly true of sex workers, whose work is is still largely criminalized across the United States.

So, what numbers are we left with? We could instead look to data on violent victimization that isn’t specifically motivated by hate. It’s imperfect since it includes robberies and assault data.

A study published earlier this year tried to use a different dataset – the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) – to take a closer look at anti-Asian hatred.

The authors found hate crimes against Asian Americans are more likely to be committed by non-white offenders than hate crimes against Black Americans or Hispanics. They attribute this to the “model minority” stereotype which inspires animosity from other people of color. They also found that hate crimes against Asians are more likely to take place at school and found the same explanation for this difference.

Lastly, we could look to data gathered by organizations that have a closer connection to the Asian community.

From March 2020 to February 2021, 3,795 incidents of anti-Asian hatred were reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit organization that tracks discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. They found that verbal harassment (68%) and shunning (21% – ie the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans) made up the two largest types of reported incidents. Reports showed that discrimination was happening in all kinds of contexts – businesses (35%), street/sidewalk (25%) and online (11%).

Anti-Asian hatred has been stoked by Donald Trump’s repeated insistence on referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus”. This language reappeared in many of the incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate – for instance a woman who was approached by two male neighbors that “approached me threateningly on the street, pulled down the corners of their eyes and said, ‘“Go back to Wuhan, bitch, and take the virus with you!’”

Another report from a woman in Brooklyn says: “A white man catcalled me, then aggressively followed me down the block, and got inches from my face and yelled “Ch*nk!” and “C*nt!” after realizing I was Asian. Lots of neighbors were standing outside their homes and no one intervened.”

These narratives make it clear that any attempts to separate sexism and racism are meaningless.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta spa shootings, US crime, US news, World news

Biden addresses Atlanta attacks: ‘words have consequences’ whatever the motivation – live

March 19, 2021 by Staff Reporter

That concluded our coverage for today. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:

  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris condemned the Atlanta attacks in remarks on Friday evening. They also condemned a rise in anti-Asian violence over the past year, with Biden saying “our silence is complicity”. Harris said that “Asian Americans have been attacked and scapegoated” over the past year.
  • More details of the victims’ lives have emerged today. The son of Hyun Jung Grant said his mother: “was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today” in a post on the GoFundMe website.
  • Police in cities across the country increased foot patrols in Asian neighborhoods amid fears of anti-Asian violence after the shooting.
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met earlier with Asian American community leaders. Biden is also calling for new hate crimes legislation to protect Asian Americans and others targeted by a “rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic.”

Biden, who has known his fair share of loss, offered a heartfelt tribute to the families of the Atlanta shooting as he concluded his speech.

“I know they feel like there’s a black hole in their chest […] and that things will never get better,” Biden said.

“Our prayers are with you, and I assure you, the one you lost will always be with you. And the day will come when their memory brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye, as unbelievable as that is now.

“It will take a while, but I promise you it will come. When it does, that’s the day you know you’re going to make it.”

Joe Biden speaks at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

Joe Biden has addressed the shootings in Atlanta, saying that “words have consequences” as he detailed the violence Asian Americans have faced over the past year.

“Whatever the motivation [for the shootings] we know this: too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying. Waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are stake. They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed,” Biden said.

“It’s been a year of living in fear for their lives just to walk down their street. Grandparents afraid to leave their homes. Small businesses attacked.”

Donald Trump and other Republican politicians repeatedly dubbed Covid-19 the “China virus”, and Biden said that language had contributed to a dramatic spike in anti-Asian violence over the past year.

“We’re learning again we’ve always known, words have consequences. It’s the coronavirus, full stop,” Biden said.

“Hate and violence often hide in plain sight,” Biden said, yet that hate and violence is “often met with silence”.

That has to change, Biden said, because “our silence is complicity”.

Kamala Harris has said the Atlanta shootings were a “heinous act of violence” in a speech in the city, and hinted at the impact of Donald Trump’s racist language.

“We were reminded yet again that the crises we face are many, that the foes we face are many,” Harris said.

“Whatever the killer’s motive these facts are clear,” Harris said: six out the eight people killed were of Asian descent, seven were women, and “the shootings took place in businesses owned by Asian Americans”.

Violence against Asian Americans has risen dramatically over past year, Harris said.

“Racism is real in America and it has always been,” and so has xenophoba and sexism, Harris said.

Over the past year, “Asian Americans have been attacked and scapegoated”, Harris said.

“We’ve had people in positions of incredible power scapegoating Asian Americans. People with the biggest pulpits spreading this kind of hate.”

We’re waiting to hear from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are scheduled to speak any time now at Emory university, in Atlanta.

United for the People (@people4kam)

President Biden and Vice President Harris are about to speak at Emory University in Atlanta. And a huge crowd is waiting for their arrival.
pic.twitter.com/1XNEtNOBRQ

March 19, 2021

CNN has a full list of the people Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are meeting with in Atlanta to discuss Asian American violence.

Among the state leaders and community leaders are Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms; Georgia state senator Dr Michelle Au; Georgia state senator Sheikh Rahman; Georgia state representative Marvin Lim; Georgia state representative Bee Nguyen and Georgia state representative Sam Park.

Greg Bluestein (@bluestein)

Georgia’s five AAPI state legislators await the arrival of Biden & Harris at Emory University, where they’ll share their concerns about the rise in violence and hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans. #gapolhttps://t.co/otSab9nh7U

March 19, 2021

The president and vice-president are also meeting Stephanie Cho, executive director of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and Victoria Huynh, vice president of the Center for Pan Asian Community Services.

Biden is expected to give an address at Emory university later today.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are set to meet Asian American Georgia state legislators and other community leaders in Atlanta at 3.35pm.

The president and vice-president are said to discuss the racist rhetoric and actions against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which have proliferated during the pandemic, after Covid-19 first emerged in China.

President Biden (@POTUS)

This afternoon, Vice President Harris and I are meeting with Asian American leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. We’re going to discuss the ongoing attacks against the community and how we move forward. It’s up to all of us to root out racism and give hate no safe harbor in America.

March 19, 2021

Biden and Harris had already been scheduled to visit Atlanta, as part of a tour designed to laud the recently passed $1.9tn Covid-19 relief bill, but the focus of the visit was changed in the wake of the shootings.

medical examiner’s office has updated the list of victims in the shootings who were named today. The eight who were killed on Tuesday:

• Soon Chung Park, age 74

• Hyun Jung Grant, age 51

• Suncha Kim, age 69

• Yong Yue, age 63

• Delaina Ashley Yaun, age 33

• Paul Andre Michels, age 54

• Xiaojie Tan, age 49

• Daoyou Feng, age 44

Hyun Jung Grant’s son, Randy Park, wrote that his mother: “was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today.”

Delaina Ashley Yaun’s friend, Rose Luce, told the Guardian: “I’ve never seen such love in a family the way I see the love Delaina had for hers.”

Paul Andre Michels’ brother, Paul, told the Guardian: “He was just a regular guy, very good-hearted, very soft-natured.”

Xiaojie Tan’s daughter, Jami Webb, told USA Today: “She did everything for me and for the family. She provided everything. She worked every day, 12 hours a day, so that me and our family would have a better life.”

Reporting for the Guardian from Atlanta, Mike Jordan spoke to people at Martin Luther King Jr National Historical Park about the shootings this week.

Kyra Kimber, a Black woman, said she wasn’t aware Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were visiting the city that day, but said she was happy they were visiting at this time.

“Being here in this place reminds me to remember Martin Luther King’s legacy and what he stood for,” Kimber said. “Also being here makes me think not only about what happened the other night, but to remember we are the next generation. We are the future. We need to take action and we need to take charge of our community.”

Kelly Beck, a white woman, said: “I feel both moved by the promise that Martin Luther King’s message held for us all, and also a little disheartened that 50 to 60 years later, not only are we feeling the repercussions of a society built on systemic injustice, but now I think, especially in these particular murders, that it is the intersection of race and gender,”

“So it’s white supremacy and the patriarchy that’s so deeply embedded in the culture and system that is America.” Beck said. “One man’s voice really isn’t enough. It was a shining beacon, but the work is collective work, and it hasn’t gone away.”

The suspected gunman in Tuesday’s shootings was an active member at Crabapple First Baptist Church, in Milton, Georgia, which has released a statement about the killings. “The shootings were a total repudiation of our faith and practice, and such actions are completely unacceptable and contrary to the gospel,” the church said.

The congregation held a members-only meeting on Wednesday night and took down its social media profiles after the shootings. The church said it had cooperated with law enforcement in the statement and said it blamed the suspect entirely for the shootings.

“No blame can be placed upon the victims,” the church said. “He alone is responsible for his evil actions and desires.”

The statement concluded: “we deeply regret the fear and pain Asian-Americans” were experiencing because of the shootings.

Raymond Chang, a Korean American who is head of the Asian American Christian Collaborative, told the Washington Post earlier this week that he was disappointed but not surprised to learn that the suspected gunman was a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) member.

“One of the things that is difficult about white evangelical Christian churches and spaces is that they struggle to talk about race and racism in any meaningful way and create conditions in which racism and white supremacy can sadly flourish,” said Chang.

He said the SBC “need to wrestle with whether they had a part systemically in the long chain of discipleship in producing someone that could do something like this”.

  • More details of the victims’ lives have emerged today. The son of Hyun Jung Grant said his mother: “was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today” in a post on the GoFundMe website.
  • Family and friends of Xiaojie Tan told USA Today that she was: “a curious, hard-working and caring woman who was always filled with joy.”
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in Georgia and scheduled to meet with Asian American community leaders later this afternoon. The president and vice-president had previously scheduled a trip to the city on Friday to meet with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Biden also released a statement today expressing “grief and outrage” at the Atlanta attacks and calling for new hate crimes legislation to protect Asian Americans and others targeted by a “rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic.”

Flowers, candles and signs are arranged in a memorial outside Young’s Asian Massage
Flowers, candles and signs are arranged in a memorial outside Young’s Asian Massage Photograph: Robin Rayne/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Randy Park, the son of victim Hyun Jung Grant, created a GoFundMe to raise money for him and his brother, who he said are the only members of his family who live in the US.

On the fundraising website, he said that he was dealing with arranging the funeral, figuring out the brothers’ living situation and trying to pay for expenses like bills and food.

Park wrote of his mother:

She was one of my best friends and the strongest influence on who we are today. Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world. As much as I want to grieve and process the reality that she is gone, I have a younger brother to take care of and matters to resolve as a result of this tragedy.Frankly, I have no time to grieve for long.

As of Friday afternoon, more than $878,000 had been raised. In an update, Park wrote:

Thank you everyone and please share whatever care and kindness you have shown here to anyone you know that feels scared or unsure about the world we live in. I can’t help but feel selfish for all the attention this has garnered. Thank you everyone so much. This doesn’t represent even a fragment of how I feel. My mother can rest easy knowing I have the support of the world with me

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta spa shootings, Democrats, Georgia, Joe Biden, Race, Republicans, US crime, US news, US politics, World news

FBI under pressure to tackle anti-Asian hate crime in wake of Atlanta shootings

March 18, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Federal and local law enforcement agencies are under pressure to increase efforts to combat the rising tide of hate crimes against Asian Americans in the wake of the Atlanta, Georgia spa shootings that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent.

The FBI and other police forces are facing criticism for levels of reporting of hate crimes that remain abysmally low, despite several attempts by Congress to highlight the outrages.

Asian American community leaders expressed dismay on Wednesday, a day after the shootings at three massage parlors, that the discrimination and harassment historically faced by their communities continued to be downplayed.

“It’s taken six Asian American women dying in one day to get people to pay attention to this,” Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) told the Guardian. “Record keeping of hate crimes against Asian Americans is so low because they are not even willing to accept that we are discriminated against and harassed because of our race.”

In the latest statistics for hate crimes compiled by the FBI for 2019, a total of 4,930 victims were identified where race or ethnicity was the motive. Of those, 4.4% were victims of anti-Asian bias, compared with 48.5% of anti-black and 14.1% of anti-Hispanic bias.

The data is widely accepted to be a gross understatement of the hate crime problem in America today, including for Asian Americans. A federal law has been in place since 1990 requiring records to be kept on hate crimes, but it is largely ineffective as individual police forces are under no obligation to participate.

As a result, almost 90% of the law enforcement organizations involved in the 2019 hate crimes study reported no incidents at all – a blank filing that many civil rights advocates regard as frankly unbelievable. On top of that, a federal report released in February found that more than 40% of hate crimes are never reported to authorities.

“We don’t even have a clear picture of the true amount of hate crime in the US. The FBI can tell you how many bank robberies occurred last year, but they can’t tell you a real assessment of bias crimes,” said Michael German of the Brennan Center for Justice who worked in the 1990s as an undercover FBI agent infiltrating white supremacist groups.

German pointed out that between 2017 and 2018 there were 230,000 violent hate crimes, according to a Department of Justice survey of victims. Yet over the same period the DoJ only prosecuted 50 hate crime cases.

“That’s an indication of the lack of interest and priority that the federal government pays to this subject,” German said.

new report itemizing 3,795 incidents of verbal harassment, physical assault, workplace discrimination and other forms of bias that occurred during the pandemic.

The group said the incidents represented “only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination”.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice is another group that encourages self-reporting of hate and harassment through its hate tracker, StandAgainstHatred.org. Marita Etcubañez, the organization’s senior director of strategic initiatives, said that the chronic under-reporting of hate incidents had many causes, including individuals’ reluctance to engage with law enforcement and lack of language support.

“Many immigrants are distrustful of government and aren’t confident that they will get the help and support they need if they do report,” she said.

Women and older Asian Americans appear to have been especially targeted in the wave of incidents ranging from verbal assaults to brutal attacks. In January Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, was fatally attacked on the streets of San Francisco.

Choimorrow said that there had been a surge in hate incidents during the pandemic. Her group, NAPAWF, had conducted a soon-to-be-published survey that found that about 50% of Chinese American women in the sample had experienced racist slurs in public, rising to 64% of Korean American women.

She said that she could personally attest to that. “I have experienced racism directed at me around the pandemic just walking around my Chicago neighborhood. I’ve had a man chasing me and my daughter down the street yelling ‘Go back to China and take your virus with you!’”

The precise motivation of the male Atlanta spa shooter remains unclear, with some reports suggesting it may have been more of a sexual than a racial nature. But fears among Asian Americans have been elevated by the killings, coming as they do on top of the spike in hate incidents that followed the former US president Donald Trump’s xenophobic description of coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”.

Joe Biden addressed the shootings on Wednesday. “Whatever the motivation here, I know Asian Americans, they are very concerned, because as you know I have been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans, and it’s troubling,” he said.

In his first week in office, the president signed an executive order designed to combat racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It condemned “inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric” without mentioning Trump by name.

The order also instructed the US attorney general, since confirmed as the former federal judge Merrick Garland, to “expand collection of data and public reporting regarding hate incidents”.

German said that in the wake of the Atlanta shootings the justice department would now be in the spotlight.

“Garland will be under pressure to do more. The public is concerned about hate crimes and the significant uptick in violence against Asian Americans,” he said.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta, Atlanta spa shootings, Georgia, Race, US crime, US news, World news

Atlanta spa shootings: suspect may have planned to carry out additional attacks, police say

March 17, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The suspect behind shooting attacks that killed eight in Atlanta “may have frequented” the three massage parlors that he targeted and had a potential sex addiction problem, authorities said on Wednesday.

Police and city leaders also indicated they believe Robert Aaron Long, 21, who did not resist arrest when he was apprehended, was on his way to Florida after Tuesday evening’s attack, where they suspect he may have planned to “carry out additional shootings”.

They said it was too early to determine whether the attacks, in which six of the victims were women of Asian descent, was a racially motivated hate crime.

Long was charged with eight counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault and kept in custody. He was expected to make his first court appearance on Thursday.

Suspect arrested after shootings at three Atlanta massage parlors leave eight dead – video
Suspect arrested after shootings at three Atlanta massage parlors leave eight dead – video

Frank Reynolds, the Cherokee county sheriff, said: “We were able to interview him with the Atlanta police department and the FBI. He made indicators that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past.”

Jay Baker, Cherokee county sheriff’s captain, said the parlors were a “temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate”, indicating a clash with his strong Christian faith.

Police said the suspect, who is understood to have acted alone, admitted to the shootings, and a 9mm firearm was found in his vehicle. His image had been captured on security cameras at the premises where he went on the shooting spree.

Authorities on Wednesday afternoon released some of the names of the victims.

Frank Reynolds speaks at a press conference on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Frank Reynolds speaks at a press conference on Wednesday in Atlanta. Photograph: Megan Varner/Getty Images

The Cherokee county sheriff’s office identified the victims who died there, in the first shooting, at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth, as: 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.

That shooting was reported at about 5pm local time.

Then, at 5.37pm, police responded to a robbery at Gold Spa and found the bodies of three women with gunshot wounds. They then received a report of shots fired across the street at Aromatherapy Spa where they found another woman’s body.

Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, who is white, was arrested after a manhunt about 150 miles south of Atlanta in Crisp county after police released surveillance footage from outside one of the massage parlors that was identified by his family. He was then tracked on his mobile phone.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta’s mayor, said: “As tragic as this was … this could have been a significantly worse.”

She praised police coordination, saying if the suspect had not been quickly apprehended “it is very likely that there would have been more victims”.

Police did not provide a motive for the shootings and declined to comment on whether the attack was racially driven following widespread fears that it was.

A police officer uses a flashlight to look in a shed outside a massage parlor where three people were shot and killed on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia.
A police officer uses a flashlight to look in a shed outside a massage parlor where three people were shot and killed on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

Rodney Bryant, Atlanta’s police chief, said investigators were not ready to say whether the shootings were a hate crime, saying: “We are still early in this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at this moment.”

Regardless of motivation, Bottoms said: “We know that many of the victims, the majority of the victims, were Asian. We also know that this is an issue that’s happening across the country. It is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it has to stop.”

Joe Biden said on Wednesday that violence against Asian Americans was “very, very troubling” but that he was “making no connection at this moment of the motivation of the killer”.

The president added: “I am waiting for an answer from, as the investigation proceeds, from the FBI and from the justice department. So I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”

Biden has asked Susan Rice, domestic policy adviser, and Cedric Richmond, public engagement director and senior adviser, to put on community listening sessions following the shooting to “determine how that should impact policies moving forward”, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said.

Kamala Harris condemned the “tragic” shooting, which she said “speaks to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country”.

Addressing Asian Americans, the vice-president said: “We stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people. But knowing the increasing level of hate crime against our Asian American brothers and sisters, we also want to speak out in solidarity with them and acknowledge that none of us should ever be silent in the face of any form of hate.”

Barack Obama said the incident is a “tragic reminder” that America has neglected the “epidemic of gun violence”. Although the shooter’s motive is not yet clear, the identity of the victims underscores an alarming rise in anti-Asian violence that must end,” the former president tweeted.

The first lady, Jill Biden, addressed the victims’ families during a visit to a school in Concord, New Hampshire, saying: “My heart is with you. And I hope that all Americans will join me in praying for everyone touched by this senseless tragedy.”

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta spa shootings, Georgia, Race, US crime, US news, US policing

Atlanta spa shootings: suspect charged with murder after eight people killed – latest updates

March 17, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The man suspected of killing eight people at a series of Atlanta-area spas has been charged with an additional four counts of murder.

The Atlanta police department said its homicide unit has charged Robert Aaron Long, 21. Three people were killed at Gold Spa and one person at the Aromatherapy Spa on Tuesday.

Long was earlier charged with four counts of murder and one count of assault in relation to shootings in Cherokee county. Four people were killed, and one injured, at Young’s Asian Massage in the county.

Investigators believe the suspect in the Atlanta spa shootings bought the gun used in the attack this week, CNN reports.

According to the news channel, law enforcement sources said nothing in Robert Aaron Long’s background would have prevented that purchase.

CNN has uncovered a lot of new information regarding Long, who has so far been charged with four counts of murder and one count of assault:


A law enforcement source said the suspect was recently kicked out of the house by his family due to his sexual addiction, which, the source said, included frequently spending hours on end watching pornography online.

According to an incident report from CCSO, a 911 caller said the suspect could possibly be his son and “does have a tracker on his phone.” Another anonymous caller to 911 told dispatch the suspect was “kicked out of his parents’ house last night,” adding that he “was emotional,” the incident report says.

CNN reported that Long is on suicide watch and was “wearing a vest intended to protect him from self-harm” in the police mugshot released earlier.

Joe Biden said violence against Asian Americans is “very, very troubling” but that he is “making no connection at this moment of the motivation of the killer.”

“I am waiting for an answer from – as the investigation proceeds – from the FBI and from the Justice Department. So I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed,” Biden added, ahead of a virtual bilateral meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

CBS News
(@CBSNews)

Biden on shootings at Atlanta-area spas: “Whatever the motivation here, I know that Asian Americans are very concerned…I’ve been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans for the last couple of months, and I think it’s very, very troubling.” https://t.co/pxo6hYmpa5 pic.twitter.com/DefsE6SSB0

March 17, 2021

Just six days ago Biden called out the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Biden said Asian Americans have been “attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated”, and added: “They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It’s wrong, it’s un-American and it must stop”

The white gunman accused of killing eight people in Atlanta, six of them women of Asian descent, has been charged with several counts of murder.

Authorities in Cherokee county said Robert Aaron Long, 21, was charged Wednesday with four counts of murder and one count of assault. Four people were killed, and one injured, at Young’s Asian Massage in the county on Tuesday.

The New York Times reported that officials are yet to announce charges relating to the subsequent shootings at two other spas, in the city of Atlanta.

There has been a lot of criticism of how the Georgia shootings have been characterized, after police in Georgia said earlier today the shootings did not appear to be racially motivated. Six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

Here’s a sample of the points being made about racism and white supremacy:

Millie Tran
(@millie)

As if these things aren’t related and based on centuries of sexualized and submissive stereotypes of Asian women. White supremacy is rooted in misogyny and racism. https://t.co/C42KyqTGIP

March 17, 2021

Bee Nguyen 🐝
(@BeeForGeorgia)

On that note, just because a white man who targeted 3 Asian businesses and killed 6 Asian women said it’s not hate crime *does not* mean his acts were not a hate crime. #StopAAPIHate https://t.co/nx7mql00k6

March 17, 2021

Yuh-Line Niou
(@yuhline)

This made me want to just point out, the fetishization and hyper sexualization of Asian women is dangerous and reinforces harmful stereotypes. Stereotypes like these cause violence against Asian women to be overlooked, erased, and legitimized. https://t.co/OvoVWxJBIS

March 17, 2021

Mikki Kendall
(@Karnythia)

It was about misogyny & race. I don’t know why people think incels can’t also be enamored with white supremacy. A lot of them will show you their racism with no prompting… https://t.co/eTYB4eEPIJ

March 17, 2021

Many people have pointed to a statement by Captain Jay Baker, from Cherokee county sheriff’s office, earlier today, where Baker said of Robert Aaron Long: “Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.”

Aaron Rupar
(@atrupar)

“Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did” — a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long’s decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner pic.twitter.com/u0zFcqjbNK

March 17, 2021

Here’s the full quote from Baker:


Investigators, they interviewed him this morning and … they got that impression that yes he understood the gravity of it. 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.

There is a lot more news and reaction developing in the Atlanta shooting tragedy that unfolded yesterday evening. Guardian US will have it all for you, with live updates, so stay tuned.

Here are the main points so far about the event in which a male suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, is accused of shooting dead eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area last night.

  • Long’s parents reportedly assisted in the swift capture of their son as he was fleeing by car through southern Georgia.
  • The authorities have begun naming those killed and injured in the three shooting episodes last night.
  • While it’s unclear if this was a specifically an anti-Asian attack, it has stirred concerns in Asian American communities across the US, and drawn condemnation on hate crimes in general from leaders.
  • Kamala Harris said the shootings spoke to the larger issue of violence in our society.
  • Law enforcement figures indicated this morning at a press conference that Long, who has been described as a very observant Christian, frequented massage parlors, may suffer from sex addiction or some sort of similar obsession and may have been trying to “take out” sources of temptation.
  • Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, said that when he was caught, Long was on his way to Florida, and may have been planning more killings.

Here are some more details about what happened last night involving the suspect in the Atlanta shootings, also an observation from a friend.

The Associated Press writes from Crisp county in Georgia:


Crisp county sheriff Billy Hancock said in a video posted on Facebook that his deputies and state troopers were notified Tuesday night that a murder suspect out of north Georgia was headed their way. Deputies and troopers set up along the interstate and “made contact with the suspect”, he said.

A state trooper performed a PIT, or pursuit intervention technique, maneuver, “which caused the vehicle to spin out of control”, Hancock said. Long, of Woodstock, was then taken into custody “without incident”.

Crisp county sheriff’s spokeswoman, Haley Wade, said this morning that Long is no longer in their custody and that her office has turned over its information to the other Georgia agencies and the FBI.

Rita Barron, the store manager of a business neighboring the massage parlor that was targeted in Cherokee county, said that security footage of the parking lot outside the stores showed the gunman had been sitting outside in his car for about an hour just watching.

Nico Straughan, 21, who went to school with Long, described him as “super nice, super Christian, very quiet” and said that in high school Long brought a Bible to school every day and would walk around with it in his hands.

“He went from one of the nicest kids I ever knew in high school to being on the news yesterday,” Straughan said.


Nico Straughan, 21, poses for a photo on 17 March outside his family’s gun shop in Woodstock, Georgia. Photograph: Sudhin S Thanawala/AP

The suspect in the Atlanta shootings, Robert Aaron Long, 21, was tracked down by the authorities with his parents’ help, according to the latest report.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, poses in a jail booking photograph after he was taken into custody by the Crisp county sheriff’s office in Cordele, Georgia.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, poses in a jail booking photograph after he was taken into custody by the Crisp county sheriff’s office in Cordele, Georgia. Photograph: Crisp County Sheriff’S Office/Reuters

Cherokee county deputies were using a surveillance camera image of Long to hunt him last night.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper and website now reports the following:


Long’s parents contacted the Cherokee sheriff’s office to identify their son. They also informed deputies that a tracking device could lead authorities to his vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson. Cherokee sheriff’s spokesman Jay Baker said he didn’t know why Long was being tracked, or if he was aware of it.

They do know that, without the GPS tracker, and his parents’ cooperation, Long, accused of fatally shooting eight people Tuesday at three metro Atlanta massage parlors, would not have been apprehended so quickly, Baker said.

Long was captured in Crisp county, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, en route to Florida, “perhaps to carry out additional shootings”, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a press conference earlier today.

In a statement provided to the Guardian, the Cherokee county police department shared the names of four people who died in the shooting. They also provided the name of one person who was injured: Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, Georgia.

Of the eight people killed, these are the four victims who have been named:

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth

Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw, Georgia

Daoyou Feng, 44, unknown address

Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: Atlanta, Atlanta spa shootings, Georgia, Gun crime, Race, US crime, US news, World news

Asian Americans reported 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic, report finds

March 16, 2021 by Staff Reporter

Asian Americans reported nearly 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic, a number that experts believe to be just a fraction of the true total.

From 19 March 2020 to 28 February 2021, Asian Americans from all 50 states experienced everything ranging from verbal abuse to physical assaults, from getting coughed on to getting denied services because of their ethnicity, according to a report released on Tuesday by Stop AAPI Hate, a not-for-profit coalition tracking incidents of violence, discrimination and harassment.

More than 68% of the abuse was verbal harassment or name-calling, while 11.1% was physical, the report found.

California. “Afterwards, he drove to where the remaining Asian protesters stood and was witnessed by multiple protesters aggressively driving onto the walkway where several protesters were gathered.”

The report come amid growing awareness of anti-Asian violence in the US following several recent attacks. In Oakland, California, a 75-year-old man from Hong Kong died after being robbed and assaulted by a man police said had a history of victimizing elderly Asian people. Earlier this year, an 84-year-old Thai man, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was killed in a seemingly unprovoked attack in San Francisco.

“The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face,” the report authors wrote.

The authors noted that before the surge of awareness around anti-Asian attacks, Stop AAPI Hate had documented 2,808 incidents in 2020 but had since received a number of other reports.

In addition to physical and verbal assaults, the report documented incidents of vandalism, online harassment, workplace discrimination, being barred from transportation or establishments, and avoidance or shunning – all because the victims were Asian.

“A [ride-hailing service] driver said to me after I got into his car, ‘Damn, another Asian riding with me today, I hope you don’t have any Covid’,” read one testimonial from the Las Vegas in the report. “After I told him, ‘Have a good day’, he replied back, ‘You shouldn’t be requesting anymore rides from anybody’.”

Women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. California and New York, the two states with the largest Asian American populations, had the most reported hate incidents, with 1,691 reported in California and 517 in New York.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: California, Coronavirus, Hate crime, New York, Race, US crime, US news

Chauvin lawyer seeks trial delay in wake of $27m George Floyd family settlement

March 15, 2021 by Staff Reporter

The defense attorney for the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with George Floyd’s murder, on Monday asked the judge to delay the trial now under way, saying the announcement by the city of a record $27m settlement for Floyd’s family could make a fair trial impossible.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson also raised the possibility of renewing his previously unsuccessful motion to move Chauvin’s trial to another city.

The settlement announced by the city of Minneapolis last Friday and the criminal trial of Chauvin are ostensibly completely unconnected. But the timing of the payout, coming while the trial is still going through jury selection, was surprising to some.

On Monday, Nelson said: “I am gravely concerned with the news that broke on Friday.” He said thought it “has incredible potential to taint the jury pool”.

There was tension in the Hennepin county court in downtown Minneapolis on Monday, where the building is surrounded by barriers and guards in what some observers see as an aggressive gesture of fortification, the court room itself is severely restricted because of the pandemic.

The judge, Peter Cahill, expressed frustration with the timing of last Friday’s settlement announcement, calling it “unfortunate”.

Cahill said he would recall seven jurors seated last week to ask if they had seen news of the settlement and whether it would affect their impartiality.

“I wish city officials would stop talking about this case so much,” the judge said, before resuming jury selection on Monday morning. “At the same time, I don’t find any evil intent that they are trying to tamper with the criminal case.”

Floyd’s family filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against Chauvin and the city of Minneapolis last year. The city called a news conference to announce the settlement, which included emotional comments by Floyd’s brothers and Mayor Jacob Frey.

Meanwhile, Nelson also noted that Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison’s son, Jeremiah, sits on the city council that unanimously approved the settlement, and questioned the timing, though he said he was not making accusations.

Keith Ellison heads the prosecution team and often has been present in the courtroom.

During a break in jury selection, Ellison stopped at Nelson’s table and said: “Is there anything else anyone would like to not accuse me of?”

Nelson looked at Ellison but did not reply.

Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, deferred questions about the timing of the settlement to city attorney Jim Rowader, who declined to comment.

Prosecutor Steve Schleicher said the state had no control over Frey and the city council.

Floyd family attorney Ben Crump called the $27m the largest pretrial settlement ever for a civil rights claim.

Cahill agreed to consider the request for a delay.

He has previously denied a request to move the trial, saying coverage of Floyd’s death was so pervasive it was “unlikely to cure the taint of potential prejudicial pretrial publicity”.

Floyd, a Black man, was declared dead on 25 May after Chauvin, who is white, kneeled against his neck for almost nine minutes, while Floyd begged for his life.

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter and denies the charges.

The first potential juror questioned Monday was quickly dismissed after volunteering that she’d heard about the settlement and presumed it meant the city didn’t feel it would win the civil case.

“When I heard that, I almost gasped at the amount,” she said, adding that she couldn’t promise she could disregard it.

Potential jurors questioned later didn’t mention hearing of the settlement, and neither attorneys nor the judge directly asked if they were aware of it.

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Filed Under: POLITICS, US Tagged With: George Floyd, Minneapolis, US crime, US news, World news

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