Rallies shed light on pain from racism

Wednesday marked one year since a gunman went on a rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area of Georgia and killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.

Over the past year, major cities across the United States also have seen an increase in reports of hate crimes directed at people of Asian background.

A large rally against anti-Asian racism and violence called "Break the Silence" was planned for Wednesday at the Georgia Capitol. Other cities, including Chicago, New York, Houston, San Francisco and Washington DC, were scheduled to hold rallies as well.

Events in the Atlanta area began on Saturday with a community remembrance day. About 200 mourners, family of the victims and community members gathered at a park in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven to memorialize the spa shooting victims. For security reasons, the service was not opened to the public.

Adding poignancy to the rally was a statue memorializing Asian "comfort women", those forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The event featured art, music and poetry to commemorate the somber week.

Those killed one year ago were: Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; Paul Michels, 54; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

Yong Ae Yue was born in South Korea and moved to the US 40 years ago.

Robert Peterson, 39, her youngest son, said not a day goes by that he doesn't think of his mother.

"My mom was more than her ethnicity. She was more than her job and she was more than the way she was killed," he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Our family not only grieves on March 16 but every day because of the continued trauma that we see on our televisions in the increasing violence against AAPI communities and hate."

Peterson was referring to a grouping that comprises Asian Americans and Pacific islanders.

After shooting five people at the Young Asian Massage in Cherokee County, investigators said Robert Aaron Long drove about 50 kilometers south to Atlanta, where he shot three women at Gold Spa and one woman across the street at Aromatherapy Spa.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and other charges in the shooting deaths of those in Cherokee County. He received four life sentences without parole and an additional 35 years.

Long now faces charges in Fulton County. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office said it plans to seek the death penalty, a sentence the victims' families support.

Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said during a previous hearing that investigators found no evidence of racial bias in his murderous actions. But the community said that regardless of intent, lives were lost, with ethnicity as a common thread.

Spike in hate crimes

The anniversary comes amid an increase in reported anti-Asian hate crimes nationally, including brutal attacks in New York and California.

On Monday, a man was charged with attempted murder as a hate crime in an assault on a 67-year-old Asian woman in a New York City suburb. The attack was captured on surveillance video, showing she was punched more than 125 times in the head and face and stomped on seven times.

The incident occurred on Friday night in Yonkers, some 27 kilometers north of Manhattan in Westchester County.

Tammel Esco, 42, was charged with one count of attempted murder as a hate crime and assault in the second degree involving a victim aged 65 or older. He is being held without bail at the Westchester County jail.