A spokesman for the Sherokee County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia was set on fire Wednesday afternoon for catching the deadly killer that left eight dead – including six Asian women – in a man’s “very bad day.” white for 21 years.
“Yesterday was a very bad day for him and that’s what he did,” Jay Baker told a joint news conference with the Atlanta Police Department about 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long.
But it seems that the same spokesman has distributed racist content online, including pointing the finger at China for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – the same vitriol supporters have fueled a horrific rise in violence against Asian Americans.
In a Facebook page associated with Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Captain Jay Baker, several photos show that law enforcement officers were promoting T-shirts with the slogan “COVID-19 imported virus from CHY-NA”.
“Place the order for as long as it takes,” Baker wrote with a smiling face on a March 30 photo of racist T-shirts.
“Love my shirt,” Baker wrote in another post in April 2020. “Take yours for as long as it takes.
The shirts appear to be printed by Deadline Appeal, owned by a former deputy sheriff of Cherokee County and sold for $ 22. The store, which promotes fully customizable equipment, also appears to print Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office honor roll shirts, a “ceremonial unit, all volunteers, representing not only the sheriff’s office but also the county when attending a variety of events.” “According to a post on Instagram from March 10.
Photos from Baker’s account were first seen by a Twitter user.
Several photos on the Facebook page show Baker in his uniform and participating in the sheriff’s department, including one with his name tag clearly visible. Baker did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his personal phone and at the Sherokee County sheriff’s office.
When contacted by The Daily Beast, Sheriff Frank Reynolds, who appears to be friends with Baker on Facebook, said he was unfamiliar with racist photos.
“I am not aware of that. I will have to contact him, but thank you for bringing this to my attention, ”Reynolds said.
The official page of Reynolds’ sheriff’s department lists as part of his previous experience an internship from 2005 to 2008 at the State Department described in full in abbreviations: WPPS HTP, IC BWUSA. This appears to represent Worldwide Personal Protective Services, a contract the federal government has awarded to independent contractor Blackwater USA. His campaign page alludes to working in Iraq without naming his employer. Blackwater became infamous after his private guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. There is currently no evidence linking Reynolds to the incident, and he did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The massacre in three Asian massage parlors takes place amid a shocking wave of anti-Asian violence in the United States. Authorities say Long, the suspect in the horrific crimes, insisted he did not intentionally target people of Asian descent. However, police officers – including Baker – said the investigation was ongoing and the crimes could still be classified as a hate crime.
The fact that Long targeted Asian massage parlors and killed half a dozen Asian women sparked an online riot among community leaders as well. Nearly 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hatred were reported between March 2020 and last month, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition documenting discrimination during the pandemic.
During a news conference Wednesday, Baker appeared to downplay Long’s alleged actions, telling reporters that the 21-year-old attributed the crimes to his “sexual addiction” problems. Baker said Long targeted spas to “eliminate this temptation.”
Baker’s adopted brother, Anthony Baker, is a Georgia Supreme Court judge – and, according to a profile published in January, was born in Vietnam to a woman there who had married an American soldier.
– with a report by Maxwell Tani and Blake Montgomery