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Deadly spa shootings and reports of crimes against Asian Americans nationwide led to calls for lawmakers to take action

Two months after the shootings at three spas in the Atlanta metro area, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.

ATLANTA — In March of 2021, Atlanta's Asian American community had the White House's attention. 

Three days after the deadly shootings at three Atlanta area spas, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Atlanta to meet with state lawmakers, several of them Asian Americans. 

The lawmakers discussed crimes against their community during the pandemic and also the shootings days earlier. 

"It was heart-wrenching to listen to," President Biden said after the closed-door meeting, where he heard about the impact of recent crimes.

Two months later Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.

RELATED: One year later | Families of victims in spa shootings reflect on how the past 365 days have changed them

According to information included in the law, from March 2020 to February 2021 there were 3,800 reported cases of discrimination and other incidents specifically targeting Asian Americans nationwide.

Georgia Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were two of the lawmakers that worked to see the act signed into law

Credit: AP Photo/Ben Gray, File

Warnock made sure the legislation included the names of the eight people killed during the shootings, seven of whom were women and six of whom were of Asian descent. The names appearing in the law are Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue. 

After the names, the following paragraph is included: "The people of the United States will always remember the victims of these shootings and stand in solidarity with those affected by this senseless tragedy and incidents of hate that have affected the Asian and Pacific Islander communities."

The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act gave the Department of Justice orders to expedite the review of hate crimes. 

Days after it was signed into law, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote a memo to his staff, directing them to go even further than the law required. 

Last week during a congressional hearing, Ossoff questioned Kristen Clarke about the topic of hate crimes, especially against Asian Americans. Clarke is the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. 

"Following that event, Congress united to pass legislation to empower the Department of Justice to strengthen its efforts to work with local law enforcement and prevent such hate crimes,” Ossoff said. “What progress has the Department made in implementing that law and in responding to the ongoing elevated level of threat targeting Asian Americans across the country?”

Clarkes said the DOJ has increased resources for such investigations and those investigations are now being fast-tracked. Language access is also being prioritized, so victims aren't discouraged from reporting a crime because of language barriers, she added. 

"We have doubled down on standing up to this threat, bringing more prosecutions to hold perpetrators accountable and to ensure that the rights of victims are vindicated," Clarke said.

A year after the shootings in the Atlanta area though, members of the Asian American community say more work is needed to address their concerns. 

"There is still a great deal of fear and that has certainly been my experience speaking to members of various parts of the community," State Rep. Marvin Lim said during a recent interview with 11Alive. 

Lim is a Democrat representing the Norcross area and he was seated at the table with Biden and Harris during their meeting in Atlanta one year ago.

During the meeting, he spoke about the need for the federal government to provide training to local law enforcement to better interact with minority communities, including in rural areas where governments have fewer resources. 

“Especially with all of this money dedicated to community policing, gun violence, that is really where some of that money could be most beneficial,” Lim said.  

Last year in the days after the shootings, Lim and his fellow Asian American lawmakers at the state capitol introduced several bills in response to the violence. 

The lawmakers involved were state Representatives Bee Nguyen (Atlanta), Sam Park (Lawrenceville), state Senators Michelle Au (Johns Creek) and Sheikh Rahman (Lawrenceville), and Lim, all of whom are Democrats. 

One bill called for a language translation system within the state's 911 communication center. Another bill called for a five-day waiting period when attempting to purchase a firearm. A bill Lim wrote proposed community policing and outreach training for local law enforcement that would address cultural and language barriers. 

Reflecting on the bills introduced, Lim said his colleagues knew their bills were unlikely to pass during the legislative session last year, but while their community was hurting they needed to do something.

“We were using the bills as means to start conversations which we have since continued because there is a lot that needs to be done at the local level and the agency level," Lim said.

Since then, Lim and his colleagues have been working to see some of their proposals become a reality without needing new state laws.

Lim said that has included detailed conversations with the director of the Georgia Emergency Management Association to address translation services for 911 call centers.

"He was able to provide to us information on the structure and the vendors our various counties and law enforcement can reach out to for translation. We have been continuing to push that issue at the local level with those local police jurisdictions," Lim said.

His proposal for law enforcement training is also being handled currently through non-legislative means. 

"That bill has been translated into an effort that I have been undertaking with a couple of partners in the non-profit realm in concert with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center to provide curriculum within the GPSTC for cultural and language accessibility, awareness, et cetera," he said. "It is still in draft form but we have developed a very comprehensive curriculum that we hope GPSTC will eventually adopt. They are very excited about it, the curriculum just isn't finished." 

Lim views that as progress toward a goal of addressing concerns from the Asian American community. He hopes as time passes the tragedy one year ago and the need for action in response isn't forgotten.

“There is that fear, but I along with my colleagues have tried everything we can to ensure that there is consistent attention focused on these issues," he said. "Which is why even without legislation because again us here in the General Assembly only have 40 legislative days a year, we have been continuing those conversations. Not only are those conversations necessary to have at the local and agency level in order to get anything done, but those conversations are necessary to have in a very localized way in order to ensure people are simply just paying attention."

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