Weekly Review
Twenty-one-year-old Robert Aaron Long was arrested after he shot and killed eight people in three Asian spas in and around Atlanta, in what was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since August 4, 2019, when Connor Betts shot 26 people in 32 seconds in Dayton, Ohio.1 2 Long, who had also planned to drive to Florida to attack “some kind of porn industry,” told authorities that the massage parlors were “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”3 Crabapple First Baptist, the church that Long had attended since childhood, deleted all of its social-media accounts, which included photos of Long attending services and a video of the sermon its senior pastor, Jerry Dockery, gave on the Sunday before the shootings, arguing that Christ’s return was imminent and that he would lead a war “against all who rejected his name.”4 “I don’t recall any sermons dealing specifically with racism, but the general tenor was to welcome and to be as inclusive as possible,” said Long’s former youth pastor. On Monday, it was reported that Mario González, husband of victim Delaina Yaun, had been handcuffed and detained but was not informed of his wife’s death for hours, and 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa shot and killed 10 people in and around a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, using an assault rifle 10 days after a judge blocked enforcement of a ban on such weapons.5 6 7 Four people were shot and killed over the weekend in Chicago, as were five-year-old Mya Patel, by a stray bullet inside a motel in Shreveport, Louisiana; 28-year-old Alessia Mesquita, by the father of her one-year-old baby, in New Haven, Connecticut; 39-year-old Michael Anansingh, while waiting for his sister outside a bar he frequented, in Brooklyn, New York; 40-year-old Christopher Ray Martinez, who was targeted because he was romantically interested in the same woman as his shooter, in Austin, Texas; and 45-year-old street vendor Lorenzo Pérez, by someone pretending to be a customer, in Fresno, California.8 9 10 11 12 13 14 “I don’t apologize for thoughts or prayers!” Ted Cruz shouted during a speech in the Senate opposing new restrictions on firearms.15 “And the contempt of Democrats for prayers is an odd sociological thing!”
Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, released photographs of a Border Patrol detention center in Donna, Texas—the agency’s largest—because the Biden Administration has repeatedly refused access to reporters and external monitors.16 The Donna facility comprises a series of interconnected tents, and the thousands of minors being held there are rarely allowed outside and are forced to sleep on mats on the floor. “Children presenting at our border who are fleeing violence, or fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations, is not a crisis,” the White House press secretary said during a press conference before Cuellar’s photographs were made public.17 A fire at a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh displaced nearly 45,000 people; rescuers retrieved 15 corpses, and at least 400 people are still missing.18 “Can we call these peaceful protesters?” asked Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for Myanmar’s military junta, as he showed footage of factories burning during a press conference about government crackdowns against demonstrators; he added that he was “sorry for their losses, as they are also our citizens.”19 20 Narendra Modi sent a letter of goodwill to Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan; Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, who has blocked investigations into sexual misconduct by male parliamentary staffers, said that it was a “triumph of democracy” that rallies for women’s justice weren’t “met with bullets”; a Brazilian politician proposed spraying hand sanitizer over his town from helicopters and airplanes owned by “lots of businesspeople here”; and the screenwriter Jakub Żulczyk announced that he had been indicted for calling Polish president Andrzej Duda a “moron” on social media, and now faces up to three years in prison.21 22 23 24 25 The Kremlin announced that the identity of the COVID-19 vaccine administered to Vladimir Putin would remain a secret.26
The Naked Cowboy was arrested for panhandling during Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida.27 “I don’t need money—I’m already successful. I will never take their money again, I promise you,” said the entertainer, who regularly performs in Times Square. The first assistant district attorney of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was demoted after it was revealed that he had been delivering DoorDash orders while on the clock.28 After months of waiting, a Georgia man received his final paycheck from his ex-employer in the form of oil-covered pennies, which were dumped onto his driveway in the middle of the night.29 “He got paid, that’s all that matters,” said his former boss. In the United Kingdom, the Daily Telegraph announced plans to tie journalists’ pay to the number of page views their articles garnered, and the highest court decided that caregivers who work overnight shifts would be paid only for hours when they are awake and working.30 31 Joseph Amato, a captain of the Colombo crime family, who, along with 20 other criminal associates, was arrested after he put a GPS tracker on his girlfriend’s car, pleaded guilty to racketeering and interstate stalking.32 P&O Cruises announced that it will offer “cruises to nowhere” for vaccinated travelers.33—Violet Lucca
