加利福尼亚州众议员朱蒂·朱(Judy Chu)表示，她“强烈”认为亚特兰大地区的温泉枪击案是美国广播公司周日《本周》节目中的仇恨犯罪。
“我坚信这是一起仇恨犯罪。这是一名21岁的白人男性，他选择了一家名为“青年亚洲按摩”的企业作为他的第一个受害者。然后他开车27英里去了另一个地方，在那里他又去了两个亚洲温泉。如果他唯一的问题是性瘾，那么他可以在他能去的任何地方的27英里范围内有他的选择，”楚告诉《本周》的联合主播玛莎·拉德达兹。
“但是，不，他专门去了那些亚洲温泉浴场，那里很明显在所有三个地方都会有很多亚洲女性。事实上，这些是他射杀的大多数人，”她补充道。
八个人——其中六个是亚裔妇女——被杀死周二晚上，一名枪手在亚特兰大地区的三个不同的温泉浴场开枪。当局周三表示，涉嫌杀害受害者的男子承认了谋杀，并指责他的“性成瘾”是动机。此后，他被指控犯有八项谋杀罪。
周二的枪击事件发生在袭击激增美国的亚裔社区。据报道，自新冠肺炎大流行开始以来，美国已有近3800起反亚洲仇恨事件数据来自停止AAPI仇恨联盟。在2021年的头两个月，报告了500多起事件。
尽管当局表示，他们没有找到具体的证据证明水疗中心和受害者是因为他们的种族而成为目标，但拉达茨问朱棣文——她也是国会亚太裔美国人核心小组的主席——她是否认为枪击事件应该作为仇恨犯罪受到起诉。
“法律门槛很高，因为他们必须找到听到他说当时有反亚洲言论的人。但我会说，看，这些地方的人说另一种语言。他们可能没有听到他的声音——他们可能已经死了，”朱棣文说。
“但在我和许多人的心目中，这是一种反亚洲的仇恨犯罪，”这位国会女议员补充道。
摄氏热单位证明周四，在众议院宪法、民权和公民自由司法小组委员会上，其他著名的亚裔美国议员、学者和倡导者对针对亚裔美国人的暴力和歧视的增加表示担忧。在她的证词中，朱棣文呼吁将3月26日定为反对亚洲仇恨的国庆节。
当拉德达孜问政府能做些什么来应对针对亚裔美国人的暴力行为时，朱棣文说，这项工作始于消除前总统支持的言论唐纳德·特朗普。
“我们已经努力了一年，试图对这些反亚洲的仇恨犯罪采取一些行动。但特朗普总统对“中国病毒”、“武汉病毒”甚至“功夫流感”的言辞更加激烈，”她说。
“直到拜登总统来发布行政备忘录，称亚裔社区应该能够与司法部会面，为这些反亚裔仇恨犯罪提供解决方案，我们才能够真正向前迈进。事实上，我们上周与司法部举行了会议。
这位国会女议员还确定了两项立法——禁止仇恨法案和新冠肺炎仇恨犯罪法案——以应对反亚洲暴力的上升。
“(新冠肺炎仇恨犯罪法案)将指示司法部任命专人跟踪这些犯罪，并确保他们通过该系统并被起诉，并就起诉这些类型的仇恨犯罪提供指导方针，”朱棣文告诉拉德达茨。
“禁止仇恨法案将解决我们国家非常有缺陷的仇恨犯罪体系...(和)将为执法部门提供资源，使他们能够将这样一个项目整合在一起，并实际接受如何处理仇恨犯罪的培训，并提供由美国司法部长进行的监督，司法部长将向国会报告。”
这两项法案都已提交国会，但尚未通过委员会。
I 'strongly believe' Atlanta shootings were hate crimes: Rep. Judy Chu
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said she "strongly" believes that Atlanta-areaspashootingswere hate crimes on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
"I do strongly believe that this is a hate crime. This is a 21-year-old white male who chose, as his first victim, a business that was called Young's Asian Massage. Then he drove for 27 miles to another spot where he hit two more Asian spas. If his only problem was sex addiction, then he could have had his choice in those 27 miles of any place that he could have gone to," Chu told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
"But, no, he specifically went to those Asian spas, where it was clear in all three places there would be many Asian women. And indeed, those were the majority of those that he shot and killed," she added.
Eight people -- six of whom were women of Asian descent -- werekilledafter a shooter opened fire at three different spas in the Atlanta area Tuesday evening. The man suspected of killing the victims admitted to the murders and blamed his "addiction to sex" as the motive, according to authorities Wednesday. He has since been charged with eight counts of murder.
Tuesday's shootings come amid asurge in assaultson the nation's Asian American community. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents reported in the U.S., according todatafrom the Stop AAPI Hate coalition. In the first two months of 2021, there were over 500 incidents reported.
Although authorities have said that they have not found concrete evidence that the spas and victims were targeted because of their ethnicity, Raddatz asked Chu -- who also serves as the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus -- if she believed the shootings should be prosecuted as a hate crime.
"The legal bar is high because they have to find somebody who heard him say that there was an anti-Asian slur expressed at the time. But I would say, look, these were places where people spoke another language. They may not have heard him -- they may be dead," Chu said.
"But in my mind and in the minds of many, this is an anti-Asian hate crime," the congresswoman added.
Chutestifiedbefore the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties along prominent other Asian American lawmakers, scholars and advocates Thursday about the rise in violence and discrimination against Asian Americans. During her testimony, Chu called for a national day to speak out against Asian hate on March 26.
When Raddatz asked what the government could do to confront the rise in violence towards Asian Americans, Chu said the work starts with undoing rhetoric espoused by former PresidentDonald Trump.
"We have been working for a year to try to get some action done against these anti-Asian hate crimes. But President Trump doubled down with his rhetoric about the 'China virus' and the 'Wuhan virus' and even 'Kung Flu,'" she said.
"It wasn't until President Biden came and issued that executive memorandum saying that the Asian community should be able to meet with the Department of Justice to provide solutions to these anti-Asian hate crimes that we were able to actually move forward. And in fact, we had that meeting with the Department of Justice last week," Chu added.
The congresswoman also identified two pieces of legislation -- the NO HATE Act and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act – to confront the rise in anti-Asian violence.
"(The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act) would direct the Department of Justice to have somebody appointed to track these crimes and to make sure that they are going through the system and being prosecuted, and providing guidelines on these types of hate crimes, in terms of their prosecution," Chu told Raddatz.
"The NO HATE Act would address our very flawed hate crimes system in this country ... (and) would provide resources for law enforcement to be able to put such a program together, and actually get training on how they deal with hate crimes, and provide oversight that would be done by the U.S. attorney general, who would report to Congress."
Both bills have been introduced in Congress, but have yet to pass through committee.
