Rantz: Progressive BLM activist accused in ‘violent’ anti-Asian hate crimes

One day after eight women were murdered in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian American, Christopher Hamner posted on Facebook that we’ve “all had bad days but it never justifies hate crimes.” But the day before, Hamner allegedly committed a hate crime against an Asian American woman in Seattle. It wasn’t his only alleged victim.

On Facebook, Hamner appears to be a model Black Lives Matter activist and progressive. He is an enthusiastic supporter of President Joe Biden and loathes former President Donald Trump. He repeatedly says he abhors hate. But his online virtue signaling does not match with the hate crime charge he now faces in Seattle.

Hamner, who is Black, is charged with victimizing three Asian American women on the basis of their race. This is the latest local anti-Asian American hate crime allegation flying in the face of the activist and media narrative blaming white supremacy or Trump supporters.

Alleged hate crimes by BLM Progressive

Over the span of just four days, Hamner is accused in two separate instances, targeting multiple victims. Both alleged crimes are similar.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office says Hamner verbally accosted women in their cars and “demonstrated violent, anti-Asian behavior.”

On March 16, Seattle police say Hamner approached a mother as she was driving with her two young children. The police incident report says an unprovoked but angry Hamner stalked toward her car while shouting expletives including “Asian b—-.” He was allegedly seen “punching his fists together” while shouting for the victim to get out of the car. Before escaping, she was able to take photos of the suspect.

Three days later, on March 19, Hamner is accused in a similar incident.

According to the incident report, two females were driving behind Hamner when he stopped his car at random. When the victims tried to drive past him, he cut them off, opened his door, and started to yell at them, “F— you, Asian!”

Police say Hamner then got out of his car and started to charge at them while yelling. He threw some plastic object at their vehicle and then they drove off to escape what they thought was the threat of an imminent assault.

The victim’s car was equipped with a dashboard camera. Police were able to positively identify Hamner. Prosecutors charged him with one hate crime charge for the two incidents. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on April 8 and the trial is scheduled for June 3.

Hamner’s Facebook page full of progressive virtue signaling

Activists and the media tell us that MAGA-supporting white supremacists are behind the purported spate of anti-Asian American hate crimes and incidents in King County. They argue that Trump’s use of “China virus” explains the antagonism towards Asian Americans. But a look at the hate crime incidents show that narrative unsupported.

Hamner’s Facebook page is full of progressive memes and messages. He’s no Trump supporter and praises Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortes as the “Angel of Congress.”

He posted a video from progressive outlet Now This in support of the #StopAAPIHate campaign. He captioned the post, “We Stand UNITED against racism & white supremacy.” And he cheered on the message “Hate Makes No One Great.”

On March 19, the day he allegedly confronted two Asian American women, he praised the Biden/Harris administration for confronting anti-Asian American hate. He posted: “Thank God for a President & VP who can comfort a nation after the Atlanta shooting.”

Hamner was also active within the BLM movement in Seattle. On Facebook, he posted videos and photos of himself attending various rallies. In one photo, he holds up a sign, “There are no good cops,” and another that says, “Being Black is not a crime.”

He was an apparent admirer of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), calling it peaceful. He claimed “the FAKE NEWS MEDIA is afraid the American people, so they make up stories of looting, and so on & so on.” He was heard marveling in one video tour of the “beautiful people here.” He can be heard saying, “Take that, Donald Trump! Diversity!”

Zero evidence of Trump influence or white supremacy

I don’t think any reasonable person could blame the use of “China virus” or the blanket claim of white supremacy for Hamner’s alleged hate crimes. Looking at the other suspected incidents in the area, that narrative holds even less water.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office has charged 11 total hate crimes in 2021. Over half were allegedly committed by Black men. This isn’t white supremacy in action. I suspect if all these suspects were white men, activists would mention it whenever they could.

Of the 11, five people have been charged for alleged anti-Asian American hate crimes. Of the five suspects, three are Black men. In the remaining two cases, one is a white homeless male and another a white, female senior citizen.

One high-profile case that hasn’t been charged as a hate crime, much to the dismay of area activists and politicians, involves an attack against an Asian American teacher and her white boyfriend. The victims maintain this was a hate crime, though police haven’t been able to find any evidence that race was a factor. The suspect in this case is Black.

The facts as we know them

I don’t know the ideologies of any of the suspects aside from Hamner. But can we safely dismiss white supremacy as the motivating factor? I also think it’s safe to dismiss Trump’s influence over the homeless man who likely isn’t spending much time consuming political news or Trump’s then-Twitter feed.

That leaves us with 72-year-old Jan Myers, who is white, accused of threatening her Vietnamese-American neighbor. Given the demographic, it’s certainly possible that the suspect is a Trump supporter (or at least a Republican).

Nevertheless, it may be tough to connect the former president’s statements to the incident. According to the incident report, Myers’ racial harassment has been on-going for years — before COVID.

The remaining six alleged hate crimes, three of the suspects are Black. At least two are homeless and mental illness may play a role in at least three of the suspects.

There is an agenda

Before the mass murder in Atlanta, progressives were downplaying the anti-Asian American hate crimes. When a spate of incidents occurred in the Bay Area, rather than condemn the crimes, activists took a different tone. They argued that we shouldn’t necessarily respond by putting more police in communities seeing the highest hate crimes.

Seattle Times social justice columnist Naomi Ishisaka went so far as to imply it wasn’t the suspects’ fault: “We can’t achieve public safety when huge swaths of people are trying to survive our destructive system of mass incarceration and struggling under the weight of racial oppression themselves.”

Why that forgiving tone? The suspects of those crimes are Black.

The Atlanta suspect is white, allowing activists to return to their white supremacy/Donald Trump narrative, even though there’s been no evidence of the crimes being motivated by race.

But now we have more suspected crimes locally. And, for the most part, the suspect’s race is being left out. Why? Because it doesn’t fit Progressive talking points.

Perhaps some activist and politician anger is less about the victims and more about pursuing a political agenda that could land them more power? After all, activists have spent much of the last year treating Asian Americans like “privileged” white people.

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