It was a hate crime. Period.
The mass murderer in Atlanta is a racist. Period.
The mass murderer in Atlanta is a racist. Period.
I don’t like the cowards who commit mass murder and then kill themselves. What I like even less are the spineless twats who pass off their actions by blaming someone/something else, like sex addiction.
I like sex, too—a LOT of sex.
I have other ways of addressing that than killing people.
I don’t like officers of the law describing the murder of eight people as someone being “at the end of their rope” and “having a bad day.”
I have some bad days, too.
It’s why I have ice cream and pets.
I don’t like media outlets dancing around the truth.
I shouldn’t be surprised, and yet …
The guy specifically targeted Asian Massage Parlors. Ergo, hate crime. Why the reticence in calling it what it is? There are many reasons to take issue with AMP’s, but those people did not deserve to die, whatever your thoughts are about them.
Period.
I was watching Karen Chee on Late Night with Seth Meyers speak about this the other day, and she mentioned the murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit back in 1983.
You might think that we’ve made progress from 1983. In many ways, yes. In far too many other ways, no.
I’m not going to write in detail about the murder of Vincent Chin. If you don’t want to click on the link above, I’ll condense it for you. Any emphasis I make will be highlighted in bold.
It is absolutely imperative we NOT let something like this happen in Atlanta. This jackass needs to be held to the FULL EXTENT of the law.
Take note of the murder of Vincent Chin from 1983:
Vincent Chin was a Chinese-American draftsman who was beaten to death by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz.
At the time, Metro Detroit was a powder keg of racial animosity toward Asian-Americans, specifically as the penetration of Japanese automotive imports in the U.S. domestic market hastened the decline of Detroit’s Big Three.
Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a strip club in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding in eight days.
Chin took umbrage at a remark that Ebens made to a stripper who had just finished dancing at Chin’s table.
According to an interview by Michael Moore [yes, that one] for the Detroit Free Press, Ebens told the stripper, “Don’t pay any attention to those little fuckers. They wouldn’t know a good dancer if they’d seen one.”
Ebens and Nitz apparently assumed Chin was of Japanese descent and [naturally] blamed him for Japan’s auto industry's success, although Chin was of Chinese descent.
Ebens claimed that Chin walked over to Ebens and Nitz and threw a punch at Ebens’ jaw without provocation. However, witnesses at the ensuing trial testified that Ebens also got up and said, “It’s because of you little motherfuckers that we’re out of work.”
The fight escalated as Nitz shoved Chin in defense of his stepfather, and Chin countered. At the end of the scuffle, both Ebens and Nitz were sprawled on the floor.
When Ebens and Nitz left the club, Chin and his friends still waited outside for another friend. Chin challenged Ebens and Nitz to continue the fight in the parking lot, at which point Ebens retrieved a baseball bat from Nitz’s car and chased Chin and Choi out of the parking lot.
Ebens and Nitz searched the neighborhood for 20 to 30 minutes and even paid another man 20 dollars to help look for Chin before finding him at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Chin tried to escape but was held by Nitz while Ebens repeatedly bludgeoned Chin with a baseball bat until Chin’s head cracked open. A policeman who witnessed the beating said Ebens was swinging the bat like he was swinging “for a home run.”
Chin was unconscious and taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where a nurse told his childhood friend that “he has no chance” and that “his brain was dead.” He died of his injuries four days later, on June 23, 1982.
Ebens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder but bargained the charges down to manslaughter and pleaded guilty in 1983.
They were ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years’ probation, with no jail time.
In a response letter to protests from American Citizens for Justice, Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman said:
“These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail… You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.”
In 1984, under section 245 of title 18 of the United States Code, Ebens and Nitz were charged with violating Chin’s civil rights.
The federal civil rights case against the men found Ebens guilty of the second count and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; Nitz was acquitted of both counts. After an appeal, Ebens’ conviction was overturned in 1986 — a federal appeals court found that an attorney had improperly coached prosecution witnesses.
After a retrial that was moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, due to the publicity the case had received in Detroit, a jury cleared Ebens of all charges in 1987.
Obviously, there is more to the Vincent Chine story, but not much more.
The takeaway is this: Two white guys murdered a man of Chinese descent and were fined $3,000 and served no jail time. Ever.
This racist who killed these people in Atlanta may have a sex addiction. He may have had a bad day. Join the fucking club.
It is INCUMBENT upon law officials, the legal system, and the media to call this exactly what it was — a hate crime. Period.
And if they won’t, we must.