More horrific anti- Asian American violence erupted overnight, this time in the Atlanta area:
A Georgia man who has been accused of killing eight people in an apparent attack targeting Asian women described himself as deeply religious in social media posts before the string of shootings.
Aaron Long, of Woodstock, was seen on surveillance video at the Atlanta-area massage parlors and was stopped by law enforcement on Interstate 75 two hours away, but social media posts and past acquaintances offered few clues for the apparently racist shooting spree, reported The Daily Beast.
"Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God," read the tagline in an Instagram account that appears to belong to the alleged shooter. "This pretty much sums up my life. It's a pretty good life." [snip]
"He was very innocent seeming and wouldn't even cuss," the classmate told The Daily Beast. "He was sort of nerdy and didn't seem violent from what I remember. He was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor. He was big into religion."
Other social media posts attest to Long's interest in religion, including a since-deleted video posted on the Facebook page for Crabapple First Baptist Church shows him discussing his baptism.
As we've noted here and here, there's been a spate of violence directed at Asian Americans in the past year, the data pointing to a 149% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the 16 largest U.S. cities at the same time that hate crimes overall declined by 7% in 2020. It would be irresponsible not to speculate that the former guy's talk of a "China virus" inspired at least some of that hate. And while Long has yet to be charged with hate crimes in addition to murder, it's pretty apparent who he was targeting.
In other respects, it's also reasonable to say he fits a certain profile -- one we saw multiplied many times over in the Trump/ incel/ gun humper/ lowIQAnon January 6 insurrection. We'll see what specifically influenced Long's murderous rampage coming out in the days and weeks ahead. But, we've got our bets down.
UPDATED: This bozo and some of his racist mooks need to go.
(Photo: Mugshot of Aaron Long / screenshot)
