PHOENIX - On Tuesday, eight people died in a horrific shooting across three metro Atlanta massage parlors. While this attack's motive is not clear, this incident sheds light on the recent trend of hate-crimes against our Asian-American neighbors.

Pinny Sheoran of the MCDP AAPI Committee releases the following:

"The murders of six Asian-American women and two others in Atlanta massage parlors are an awful tragedy for our country. While the attack's motive isn't clear, this crime underscores a trend in anti-Asian hate crimes across America. 
 

The damaging and misleading rhetoric and examples set by the 45th president have allowed the normalization of violence against Asians and all non-white communities. This has had a devastating impact on the Asian communities across the country.

Maricopa County benefits greatly from the contribution of the fastest-growing minority AAPI community. However, treatment of members of the Asian community as 'perpetual foreigners' and the myth of AAPI being 'Model Minorities' have often resulted in these communities being invisible or seen as being 'ok' and assumed to escape targeting by racist hate crimes.

The March 4th fatal attack on a 74-year-old Asian man in Chris Town Mall, the senseless murders in Atlanta, requires that all Maricopa residents be aware of and speak out against the increase in senseless anti-Asian hate crimes. MCDP stands in solidarity with all of our AAPI communities now and always, condemning this rise of violence against each and every group within the community. We can no longer treat our Asian communities as invisible and must stand with them to fight the increase in Anti-Asian hate crimes. We call on all county residents to be vigilant and caring of AAPI neighbors and friends in their communities and speak out against these hate crimes at stopaapihate.org."

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The Maricopa County Democratic Party (MCDP) works to elect Democrats across Maricopa County. We recruit, train, and promote Democratic candidates to ensure Democratic values shape policy across the county and state. For more information, please visit www.maricopadems.org.