Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) on Sunday said the deadly shootings last week in Atlanta, which killed eight people, including six Asian women, were an anti-Asian hate crime.
“In my mind, and in the minds of many, this is an anti-Asian hate crime,” Chu told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”
“This is a 21-year-old white male, who chose as his first victim and business that was called Young’s Asian massage. Then he drove for 27 miles to another spot where he hit two more Asian spas,” Chu, who is the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said.
“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. 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,” Chu said.
Chu added, however, that she is aware that the legal bar is “high” for classifying the shooting in such a way.
President Biden on Friday called on lawmakers to quickly pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Biden said in a statement that the measure would “expedite the federal government’s response to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic, support state and local governments to improve hate crimes reporting, and ensure that hate crimes information is more accessible to Asian American communities.”
Chu is also pushing for the NO HATE Act to be passed by Congress.
Chu said that some members in Congress have been working since the pandemic began to pass legislation against anti-Asian hate crimes, but efforts were complicated when former President Trump “doubled down with his rhetoric about the China virus, and the Wuhan virus and even ‘kung flu.’”
She added that it wasn’t until Biden was in office and issued an executive memorandum saying that the Asian community should be permitted to meet with the Department of Justice to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes, that “we were able to actually move forward.”
While Atlanta police has not yet determined if the string of shootings constitutes a hate crime, authorities have said they are “looking at everything” in their investigation, including labeling the violence a hate crime, adding that “nothing is off the table.”