Chu "strongly believes" the shootings in Atlanta which killed eight, including six women of Asian descent. She's not at all convinced the shooter has a sex addiction problem; as she said
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. But, no, he specifically went to those Asian spas...
She spoke of the high legal bar - that investigators will have to find someone who's heard the shooter use an anti-Asian slur - but in her mind, "and in the minds of many, this is an anti-Asian hate crime." She also pointed out that some of the people who might have heard him say something could be among the victims.
Raddatz asked her to talk about two bills, the NO HATE Act and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would have the DOJ appoint someone to track anti-Asian hate crimes, make sure they're prosecuted, and provide prosecution guidelines. The NO HATE Act would tackle "our very flawed hate crimes system," including the undercounting that she says happens, give resources to law enforcement, and provide oversight.
How flawed is the reporting? Chu said "18 states don't even track such data. Three states don't even have a hate crime statute in the law."
Next, let's turn to Face the Nation and Margaret Brennan, who talked with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. She started with COVID and whether he's confident there's not another wave coming.
Oh, COVID makes you never confident, but hope really hangs on the horizon. I haven't felt this optimism in 12 months...
He said if LA was a state, they'd have the second-lowest positivity rate, and he thinks California has the third-lowest positivity rate. He believes the variants Brennan asked about may have "burned through Los Angeles" back in December. And they've been cautious reopening, "with the lessons learned," but
it's time to get things moving. It's time to get our economy started. It's time to start hugging our loved ones again. And certainly, that comes from getting a vaccine.
Garcetti disputed Brennan's comment that he said he "can't meet the president's target of May 1st opening up all vaccinations" because he's not getting enough supply.
What I've said is, you give us more and we have double the capacity today. So, I look forward to when those deliveries come in for us to be able to do that. And I think cities across our country, mayors have been very clear, are the right places to add more vaccines.. I'll keep saying that especially when cities are larger sometimes than most states. We're larger than 23 states. LA County is larger than 45 states. Give us more, we'll get them into arms.
He also said he's talked with Gov. Gavin Newsom about getting vaccines where the most vulnerable populations are; 40% are now targeted in those areas. They're using mobile teams, getting vaccines to people at home, and working with community organizations to get the vaccines into arms.
But I look forward to when the federal regulations release our handcuffs and allow us to target anybody in a hotspot. I think that is probably two or three weeks away... that'll allow us, if there is anything that comes up quickly, go into the geography of a neighborhood, knock it down before it spreads throughout a city.
Responding to Brennan's question about him having to send $150 million back to the police, money he had "reprogrammed" after Black Lives Matter protests last year, he said she was framing it wrong.
We know that things like hate crimes need both a police response and education, a reporting mechanism, civilians and community-based groups that can help be the eyes and ears. And we have no tolerance for this hate here in Los Angeles, a great city filled with folks of Asian-American and Pacific Islander descent.
He also said that they have "more patrols this year," and that they're "making investments in the human side of this to make sure community organizations are well-funded, too."
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) was also in Brennan's classroom. She was asked about FBI Director Chris Wray's comment that, so far anyway, it doesn't look like the shooting in Atlanta were racially motivated. Duckworth says she wants
a deeper investigation into whether or not these shootings and other similar crimes are racially motivated. It looks racially motivated to me, but I'm not, you know, I'm- I'm not a police officer. I'm not investigating the crimes.
She did send a letter to Wray and to AG Merrick Garland asking for that deeper investigation.
We know that crimes against Asian-Americans that have been categorized as hate crimes have increased by over 150% in our nation's major cities. That's over 3,800 additional crimes last year. But we also know that many of these crimes go underreported as hate crimes and are just classified as a mugging or harassment or vandalism when really, they were targeted at Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in particular.
Duckworth said these are often not reported as hate crimes "because people just don't see Asian-Americans as a minority group that gets attacked on a regular basis." She and her family know that's not the case - it does happen on a regular basis And she's concerned about the commoditization of Asian women, who "have this stereotype against them that they are weak and submissive, and they've become over-sexualized."
Finally, Duckworth said that they don't yet have any Republicans signing on to the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.
And it's astonishing to me. I mean, the House passed a bill that actually condemns - was a resolution against hate crimes against Asian-Americans tied to COVID. And, you know, we had actually Republicans who voted against it. And Mitch McConnell at the time, because Republicans were in charge, wouldn't even let us vote on it in the Senate. I mean, how- where can you be that you would not be willing to vote on a bill that would condemn violence against any group of Americans?
It's a great question - and the answer, sadly, is that we aren't willing to do that for the same reason that we have an All Lives Matter response to the Black Lives Matter movement. It's who we are, whether we like it or not.
See you around campus. And if you went to Florida for Spring Break, I sure hope you're quarantining before you come back into my classroom.
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