dagblog - Comments for "ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS"

On the pre-baked hate crime

artappraiser — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 18:03:02 +0000

In reply to ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS

On the dangerous pre-baked hate crime narrative mistake for mass shootings and the responsibility of the media:

Grateful for this. Would have been better to have called this out two weeks ago, when it might have made a small difference. https://t.co/xMEUbAfFNK
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) April 3, 2021

Two survivors of the Atlanta

artappraiser — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 05:28:18 +0000

In reply to ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS

Two survivors of the Atlanta massage parlor murders talk to https://t.co/XT8UeFKTub about what they witnessed.

"Both survivors said they did not hear the shooter say anti-Asian statements at their spa." https://t.co/VPMal1nfmD pic.twitter.com/lhgCrGvMN0
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) April 3, 2021

From a Go Fund Me for a

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 17:52:03 +0000

In reply to ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS

From a Go Fund Me for a worker at Gold Spa present during the shooting. (Cavaet: I have no idea how they verify, but notice the links.) Picture of her at link, I don't know how to copy it

ATL Shooting Survivor Unable To Work & Unemployed

Joyce Cheung is organizing this fundraiser.

Created 2 days ago

Rent, Food & Monthly Bills

Eun Ja Kang, that is my mother's name.

On March 16, 2021, my mother was working at Gold Spa. She was there on the day of the Atlanta Shooting. She was there at the scene where she witnessed her friend's tragedy. Some of you might have heard her being the voice behind the 911 call . Other may have read about her in some of the other family interviews where she is the survivor who texted in real time about the shooting occurring. To my mom's desire she wished to be anonymous. This is still my mother's desire, however, we are trying to this to a comfortable extent.

My mom is the sole money maker in my family of 3. For years, I would rarely see my mom as she slept and ate with her coworkers at her workplace. She would come home on some weekends. Sometimes her arrival home would be a surprise for us as we never really knew when she had a day off. Growing up this was difficult for me, but it was harder for my mother who was trying her best to provide us with everything we needed. While she was living there, she created a close relationship with her coworkers who became her dear friends. On the days I saw my mother, she would always bring groceries and take out food to bring back to her work. She worked side by side with her best friend of 14 years, and her death has greatly impacted my mom.

The emotional distress of being at the spa on the day of the shooting has given my mom a great deal of trauma. It breaks my heart to see my mom appear functional in the day, while break down crying at night. My mom is terrified of being alone and being in the dark. She has a hard time to sleep and relying on sleeping medications. When my mother grieves, she constantly ask why she is still alive. She is currently seeking out professional counseling for PTSD. As we don't have enough money to pay for our bills in the upcoming month or so. My mom is thinking about going back to work. Although she insist, I don't believe nor wish for her to go back to her job as it will worsen her condition.

My family never expect to be in a situation like this. My mother and I would appreciate any support we are able to get. We wish for the donations to help us cover our expenses and the counseling fees. We really do wish that these funds can help my mother fully recover.

Read more

Note it confirms a lot about the life that was in the NYTimes article, how they often stayed there 24/7 and how workers were close friends.

I should mention that I have

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 16:43:42 +0000

In reply to Taxi Driver?

I should mention that I have watched Taxi Driver quite a few times and I think you bringing up is quite apt, as far as Travis Bickle thinking of himself as a savior who is going to clean up all the filth and scum he sees around him everyday. But as far as the women thing, he is still commodifying either way, it's more a madonna/whore thing, the way he sees the blond angel campaign worker and how he ends up "rescuing" Jodi Lee Foster from the sleaze life and sends her back to her grateful parents in rural flyover.

Where I think the comparison is apt: people like Giuliani made it a point to clean up that "life", the filth and the grime and the scum that disgusts Travis (not realizing, of course, that nutso people like him are part of the whole thing, living in their little grubby SRO'S,) from Times Square and similar downtown areas across the country, to turn them into more Disneyland kinda places. And that whole sleazy scene just moved to the exits off the expressway. We have several areas of the Bronx, for example, where there's the "gentleman's club" on one corner and the massage parlors across the street, Romantic Depot sex toys store on another corner. There's a whole development of this type quite near Yankee Stadium, just off the Deegan, which I am sure that business travelers know how to find.

And there's always areas like this outside major towns up the east coast. (Zoning involved, of course. Often there's a truck stop nearby.) These are the new areas a Travis Bickle would want to clean up now. That said, having these neighborhoods move to such lonely nabes, makes it less likely that American teen runaways would want to be there, stuck in the middle of nowhere and needing a car to have freedom of movement. So now it's much more an immigrant activity.

Sounds a little different so far in that Long sees himself more as a victim, not a savior? I.E., blame "the other" for turning your holy christian Disneyland country into a sleazy land of wicked evil tempations. And therein, the revenge thing, in there might be a little bit of the anti-Asian angle. We shall see.

Yes, it's the dehumanizing

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 16:39:00 +0000

In reply to I should mention that I have

Yes, it's the dehumanizing thing - she's fine til disagrees, then a bitch, and so on. He wants her for himself, not thoae other sleazes...

your discussion with PP made

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 16:05:00 +0000

In reply to Never watched Taxi Driver.

your discussion with PP made me remember this line from the NYTimes article I linked to below

A taxi driver who knew four of the victims said that they called him to shuttle them between home and work, and that their job locations changed over the years.

Overall, it also described similar to your AJC piece where the situation is that these places didn't have a lot of employees and not a huge amount of activity going on. Is almost like they are like free-lance agents (sort of like some hairdressers?) Massagers are licensed by the state, it's not the locations that are licensed, so they could possibly work at several different places from time to time.

Also NYT mentioned they tried to get someone to tell them how much they charged and made, they couldn't get that, one gal told them it's a “A secret of the trade,” said an employee at Top V Massage in Norcross, an Atlanta suburb, when asked what one could expect to earn.

Then there's that this places were not policed since 2015

Gold Spa had some history of trouble. In 2012, a security guard there was shot and killed when he went behind the building to investigate a suspicious person.

Atlanta police records show 11 prostitution arrests there between 2011 and 2013. Some of those arrested gave the spa as their home address. The vice squad that had conducted raids was disbanded in 2015 so that more resources could go toward addressing violent crime, the Atlanta Police said. The Georgia Department of Public Health said it does not inspect or regulate massage parlors, a job that falls to the Georgia Secretary of State. But that state office said it licenses individual massage therapists — not the businesses

The AJC piece plays the trafficking angle up some, but only one of them, the one with no picture in the NYTimes article, sounded like she could be a trafficking-type type case.. She was a recent immigrant who didn't speak much English and the Times couldn't get much from the Chinese consulate, not much is known about her. The rest of them, it doesn't sound very plausible, all had things like past backgrounds in the U.S., like previous jobs doing other things, husbands, families, kids planning to go to college, obviously took the job out of choice, or at least as much choice as someone struggling to make ends meet has in this country. Calling all of them "enslaved", as one person does in the AJC piece, is really stretching it, especially once you read the NYTimes piece.

That said, the owner of some/part/two? of the places, "Sue-ling Wang, chief executive of one of the companies that operates Gold Spa" sounds like if he invests in a place, he is a tough cookie who expects no trouble, just money. Sounds almost like the absentee landlord biz. They furnish a place for these gals to work, and it's up to them? Certainly sounds like some Asian immigrant cultural practices here in other businesses, like restaurants

So while these were pretty secretive situations, AJC constitution piece gives valuable info. that investigators will surely find some things here to use in questioning him

There is one way to get a sense of what may be happening within the walls of massage businesses. A website called RubMaps allows self-styled connoisseurs of purchasing sex — known as “mongers” — to write detailed reviews of their experiences at massage parlors and to rate them on a five-star scale, while describing women’s ethnicities, ages and breast sizes.

All three businesses targeted Tuesday have dozens of reviews on RubMaps, dating back years, where purported customers describe paying for sexual experiences with staff members. In many cases, the reviews described manual stimulation. But there are several recent reviews for Aromatherapy and Gold Spa claiming that full-on sex occurred.

“We jumped right into it after a fleeting massage,” one four-star review says, describing an encounter earlier this month at Aromatherapy with a Korean woman. The post says the customer paid $80 for the massage, plus a $100 tip.

Another RubMaps user claimed to have had sex with a Latina woman working at Gold Spa in February. The price was $60 to the house, with a $200 tip, the post says. “The massage was very blah, but everything else was just out of this world,” the four-star review says.

All told, there are 108 RubMaps reviews for Gold Spa, 99 for Aromatherapy Spa and 39 for Young’s Asian Massage.

I think with that they can do a better job of questioning him, figuring out whether he is lying about motive.

Never watched Taxi Driver.

EmmaZahn — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 13:55:42 +0000

In reply to Taxi Driver?

Never watched Taxi Driver. The trailers and reviews were depressing enough. But based on what little I do know about it, it's a fair analogy.

Also, ftr, haven't watched any of the Law and Order franchise in over a decade. The sanctimony grew to be unbearable.

For sure, some women hypersexualize and commodify themselves -- AND other women. They have been doing it for millennia.

If Long was searching for a particular woman, it's an open question whether she is an innocent he wanted to rescue or a skilled prostitute who played him. The story can be written either way.

Taxi Driver?

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 12:37:11 +0000

In reply to Actually, the Atlanta Journal

Taxi Driver?

Georgia has failed to rein in certain illicit massage businesses that hypersexualize and commodify women

I remain confused - if you watch WAP video or whatever, some women hypersexualize and commodify themselves. We talk about rights of sex workers, & treating them with respect and benefits, but then at that point is it a business that's respectable enough, or is it just men who are always tainted, and women can be professionals, housewives or sex workers, it's all the same?
Of course there's then trafficking, which undoubtedly for transported immigrants should be condemned and banned, but how do they get here, what are the mechaniss, & are there any other classes of massage/sex workers that don't fit this profile?

Actually, the Atlanta Journal

EmmaZahn — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 11:15:53 +0000

In reply to I actually thought it too

Actually, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran this Vox-like explainer on March 20. An expose waiting for an opportunity to publish?

Atlanta spa shootings spotlight industry that commodifies Asian women

After reading it and about Long in other articles, I wondered whether I had already seen his story in an episode of Law & Order:SVU or some other procedural, or maybe a video game. His story reads like he was looking for one particular worker who, in his mind, was being kept from him by the 'madams' who manage the establishments. Maybe he did what he did for love, maybe for hate, maybe both, idk. If it hasn't already been on SVU, no doubt it soon will be.

Possible court tug-of-war

artappraiser — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 04:50:47 +0000

In reply to ATLANTA-AREA MASSAGE PARLOR SHOOTINGS

Possible court tug-of-war could be imminent for accused spa shooter

A legal expert explains how proceedings can play out when crimes are committed in two jurisdictions.

Author: Brittany Kleinpeter Updated: 7:40 PM EDT March 24, 2021

ATLANTA — As investigations continue in both Atlanta and Cherokee County, a possible tug-of-war in court could be on the horizon for the suspect in last week's spa shootings, Robert Aaron Long.

Just eight days ago, law enforcement accused Long of killing eight people at three different metro Atlanta spas. The shooting spree began in Cherokee and ended it in Midtown Atlanta in Fulton County. This means Long is expected to be tried in both counties.

Long's attorney waived his first court appearance in Cherokee County, and has yet to appear before a Fulton County judge.

Former federal prosecutor Bret Williams said whatever court system indicts Long first would get initial jurisdiction. Williams said [....]

Troopers, sheriff describes efforts to track down Robert Aaron Long

'It took him about 30 to 45 seconds after constantly giving him those verbal commands for him to react at which he put his hands up.'

Author: Donesha Aldridge (11Alive), Paola Suro (WXIA) Updated: 7:45 PM EDT March 25

ATLANTA — It took multiple agencies working together to track down a suspect accused of killing eight people last week in three separates shootings across metro Atlanta. Robert Aaron Long was captured in Crisp County on I-75 hours after the March 16 attacks, which deputies said started at Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County. Four people were killed there and a fifth person was hurt. In Atlanta, the other four victims were killed at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy on Piedmont Road.

Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said the sheriff in Cherokee County, Frank Reynolds, alerted him to be on the lookout for the suspect. Authorities were tracking his phone after Long's parents identified him as the suspect. They suspected he was traveling in a black Hyundai Tucson.

"I came up on my radio and asked for two extra deputies who were home to come out and third one to come out," he said.

They coordinated with Georgia State Patrol and made arrangements to be on the interstate.

"Sheriff Reynolds began to give me some live time information," Hancock said.

He explained how they strategically placed the troopers and the deputies on different points of the highway [....]