For Millennials. By Millennials.
Georgia Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker, who is in charge of the investigation of the Atlanta hate crime, has been revealed to be a racist. The police officer, who also empathized with the shooter of the Atlanta spa shootings and minimized his actions, which resulted in a lot of criticism, posted racist COVID-19 t-shirts on his Facebook profile. This gives evidence of police bias towards the racist killer.
Capt. Jay Baker, in-charge of the Atlanta hate crime investigation, is racist
Baker angered a lot of people with his comments empathizing with the Atlanta hate crime shooter. He downplayed the actions of the shooter Robert Aaron Long, saying during his press conference:
He was fed up, at the end of his rope…yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.
https://twitter.com/WUTangKids/status/1372220045544263681?s=20
This comment resulted in a lot of criticism from the Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms as well as critics online. Bottoms said that that the city does not engage in “victim shaming” and “victim-blaming”. Furthermore, many people said online that instead of empathizing with the shooter, the police should empathize with the families of the victims of the Atlanta hate crime. Moreover, people highlighted that no “bad day” can ever justify a mass murder that resulted from a conscious decision by the killer:
https://twitter.com/alex_abads/status/1372214138340999175?s=20
Dude made a conscious decision to go murder a bunch of people, mostly Asian Americans. That’s not a “bad day.” Locking my keys in my car is a bad day. This asshole is a Terrorist! Bottom line. https://t.co/hbIyYN1xji
— Hurricane Helms (@ShaneHelmsCom) March 17, 2021
However, more was to come from Baker’s racial police bias as it turns out that he held racist beliefs about the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier last year, Captain Baker shared a Facebook post of photos of racist COVID-19 t-shirts that said “imported virus from CHY-NA”. The Daily Beast first reported this, after which social media caught wind of the news. Multiple people started calling out Capt. Baker for his racial bias. As a result, Baker later deleted his post and then deleted his Facebook account. However, until then Buzzfeed had already published a story about it. And social media was quite vocal about Baker, calling for him to resign and not be involved in the investigation of the Atlanta hate crime:
Hey Captain Jay Baker with Cherokee Country Sheriff's Office… this you? pic.twitter.com/1pTlwSlYZQ
— Rich Phelps (@RichPhelps) March 17, 2021
I am calling on Capt. Jay Baker to resign. He tried to humanize the Atlanta killer & suggested the shooting was not a hate crime. Last year, he promoted racist shirts blaming China for the pandemic-saying that the coronavirus was imported from "CHY-NA." https://t.co/JvM37Kx4IN pic.twitter.com/5PrSvUMu74
— Po Murray (@po_murray) March 17, 2021
Baker has not commented on the criticism yet.
The Georgia spa shootings
The Atlanta hate crime took place on Tuesday when 3 shootings took place in Atlanta at Young’s Asian Massage, Aromatherapy Spa, and another massage center. It resulted in the deaths of 6 Asian-American women out of the total 8 victims. The 21-year-old shooter Long admitted the responsibility for the shooting. However, he denied having any racial motivation behind the killings. Instead, he admitted to doing the shootings to eliminate the “temptations” for his sex addiction. The police have not ruled out racism as a motive for the shooting and are still investigating the incident.
The notion that China is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was promoted by former President Donald Trump. He repeatedly referred to COVID as the “China virus” or the “Wuhan flu” which has thus far resulted in an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in 2020. This rhetoric fanned the flames of racism against Asian Americans and was likely the motivation for Capt. Baker. Whether Baker will continue to be a part of the investigation for this Atlanta hate crime is still unknown. However, his police bias is evident.