As a Japanese American, I frankly do not see the massage parlors that were attacked recently by a violent wacko as in any way representative of the Asian American community. I was a prosecutor for five years in the Air Force, including three years in Japan, and I roundly condemn murder of any human being. But trying to use that murderer’s actions as a reason to indict other Americans, to claim that he is somehow a thought leader for a movement of Americans who hate people of Asian descent, is disgusting and engenders hatred toward the vast number of honest and good Americans.
It is an argument that ordinary Americans are so insidiously evil that they cannot be trusted with firearms. That is an argument that displays irrational prejudice toward American citizens who are exercising their rights under the U.S. Constitution to keep and bear arms, a right that was being guarded by the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord when Britain began the Revolutionary War and the American movement for independence by using the British Army to try to disarm Americans.
Someone who wanted to specifically harm Asian Americans would go to places where Asian Americans work and gather, such as restaurants serving Asian cuisine, markets that sell Asian foods and distinctive material items such as clothing, and churches that are patronized by Asian Americans, including both Buddhist congregations and Christian church congregations with predominant Asian members, including Protestant, Catholic, and Latter-day Saint congregations. Muslim Jihadists in America, Europe and other countries have targeted Jews in such places where Jews gather. Killers who hated African Americans have attacked their churches. It is irrational to think that the murderer in this recent attack was trying to harm Asians as such.
Raymond Takashi Swenson
Lt. Colonel, USAF (Retired)
Attorney at Law (Utah, California and Washington)
