Yo, believe me when I tell you: WHITE PEOPLE ARE FUCKING AMAZING.
For those of you who have been working all day and may just be getting caught up, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, allegedly went on a shooting spree in the Atlanta area that left a total of eight people dead—six of them Asian women.
Long reportedly sought his targets out at massage parlors where they worked, and when law enforcement caught up with him, of course he was brought in alive and without incident, because he’s fucking white.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jay Baker appeared to sympathize with the alleged shooter, telling reporters that Long told authorities “a sex addiction” was the reason he picked the targets that he did, not because of their race.
Baker went on to say that Long was just having a “bad day.”
Let me pause right here and say I had an entire week of bad days last week because I was on my period, and at no point in time during those bad days did I grab a gun and go on a shooting spree, but hey, maybe I’m just different.
Of course, many took issue with the way Baker framed the narrative of Long’s alleged shooting spree.
That may be why one astute Twitter user, who goes by the handle @RichPhelps, went digging into what appears to be Baker’s personal social media and found evidence on his Facebook page that he has actually supported anti-Asian sentiments before.
In a series of screenshots Phelps shared in his Tweet, Baker is shown praising a purchase he made at a local company called Signs & Shirts. The shirt Baker was most proud of? A screen-printed one with lettering stylized to resemble the all-too familiar Corona beer logo. In large letters, “Covid 19” appear with a small banner underneath that reads “Imported Virus From Chy-Na,” which appears to be a nod toward the way Donald Trump repeatedly pronounced the name of the country as he blamed them for the current global pandemic that is still claiming lives.
In a post dated March 30, 2020, Baker says “Place your order while they last” and included what appears to be a screenshot from Instagram showing the shirts.
In a subsequent post on April 2, 2020, Baker tags the apparent creator of the shirts and says “Love my shirt William Rownd! Get yours while they last” with a link to a company called Deadline Apparel (I’m not linking it here, because fuck that shit).
Baker’s alleged Facebook page appears to have disappeared, but a search for William Rownd only brought up one result, and oh, looky here: He is a former deputy with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
Bitch.
The Root reached out to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office for comment. As it turns out, Jay Baker is the director of communications and community relations for the department. We have left a message and sent an email, and we will update this story if there is a reply.
In any case, if this is in fact his page, I hope Capt. Baker is fired and has many bad days after this.
Hopefully his racist white ass won’t go shooting up people in response.