White Officer Says Man Who Killed 6 Asian Women Was Having A 'Really Bad Day'

The same sheriff allegedly shared anti-Asian racist propaganda on Facebook during the pandemic

A Georgia sheriff is facing backlash for his incredibly dismissive and irresponsible comments regarding the mass shooting that targeted Asian women this week. Eight people were shot and killed — six of them Asian women — after Robert Aaron Long went on a mass murder spree at three separate massage parlors in the Atlanta area. And in an official statement from a local sheriff’s officer, he was just having “a really bad day.”

“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” was an actual thing that came from the mouth hole of Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker on Wednesday in regard to a probable hate crime that targeted female, Asian sex workers.

And, apparently, because it needs to be said: plenty of us have had plenty of bad days. The difference between most people and violent white men like Long is that we take out our bad days on a pint of ice cream and he chose to murder eight people.

Unsurprisingly, it took less than a couple of hours before Baker’s own bout of anti-Asian racism surfaced. In Facebook posts dating from last spring that apparently belong to Baker, he promoted a t-shirt with racist language about China and COVID-19.

Currently, officials investigating the shooting say the murder of mostly Asian women in massage parlors “did not appear” to be motivated by racism.

Anti-Asian racism has been on the rise since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, in no small part thanks to our 45th President and his constant references to the “China virus” and the “Kung Flu” for an entire year. Just as recently as last week, in a sad press release barely anyone read because no one cares what he has to say about anything anymore, Trump used a slur when describing the pandemic his own incompetence and racism singlehandedly amplified.

According to CBS News, a study released last week revealed that hate crimes against Asian Americans surged roughly 150% in 2020, disproportionately affecting women. Georgia officials, however, are trying to spin this mass shooting as a “sex addiction” issue and that Long targeted the spas to “take out that temptation.” Because this country will literally do backflips to justify a white man’s racist violence and humanize that violence.

“All of us have experienced bad days. But we don’t go to three Asian businesses and shoot up Asian employees,” California Representative Ted Lieu tweeted following Baker’s blood-boiling press conference. He urged the FBI to conduct an independent investigation.

There are two systems of justice when it comes to white men who commit heinous crimes and everyone else. And because of law enforcement officials like Jay Baker, of whom there is no shortage, it won’t be reformed anytime soon.