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The Splintered Messages of the #Justice4Liang Movement
Tag:
Peter Liang
梁彼得
梁警官
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OP
05/19/2016
Over the weekend, thousands gathered to protest the sentencing of Peter Liang, a former NYPD officer convicted of manslaughter for killing Akai Gurley, an unarmed black man. Many hailed the verdict as a triumph, yet the Asian-American community finds itself in anything but unanimous agreement.
Anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people rallied to fill up the scenic Cadman Plaza Park by the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend, crowding around the marble memorial to William Jay Gaynor, a state supreme court justice and New York City’s mayor from 1910 to 1913. The back of his monument bears the inscription: “Ours is a government of laws not men.” A chant—“Justice! Justice!”—rang through the air.
Photo by Phoenix Tso Here’s what happened on November 20, 2014: Rookie NYPD officer Peter Liang and his partner were patrolling the stairwell of the Pink Houses. At some point during the patrol, Liang fired his weapon, and the bullet bounced off the wall and hit Akai Gurley in the heart. He and his partner did not perform CPR, and instead allowed one of Gurley’s friends to perform it. Gurley later died at the hospital.
The speakers at Saturday’s demonstration continually referred to Gurley’s death as a “tragic accident.” Several speakers, including Liang’s mother, offered condolences to his family, while Congresswoman Grace Meng, who grew up in Queens and represents part of the borough in Congress, aligned Gurley with Liang, painting both as immigrants whose paths would tragically cross in that fateful “unlit stairwell.”
"The elevator in the Pink Houses should not have been broken. The lights should not have been out in the stairwell. Two rookie cops should not have been patrolling by themselves in New York City. And public housing residents should not have to deal with crime that makes these regular police patrols necessary."
Many in the Asian-American community perceive the verdict as unfair. “Shocking! This is not manslaughter!” former New York City comptroller John Liu shouted from the podium in a thick New York accent as he described his reaction upon hearing the guilty verdict. But, Liu continued, nobody could’ve been that shocked. “We kind of had a sense in our hearts that this was going to be the result,” he said. “Because for 150 years, there has been a common phrase in America. This phrase is called, ‘Not a Chinaman’s chance.’ ”
"There are clear disparities in the way that Liang was treated, but that doesn’t absolve him of responsibility, because Akai Gurley is dead because of him."
In Liu's view, Peter Liang had little to no chance of getting fair treatment in America’s justice system, because he’s Chinese. He connected Liang’s case to the Chinese being labeled as “the yellow peril”—excluded from the country after working in dangerous conditions to build America’s railroad. (He also mentioned Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a former government nuclear scientist wrongly accused of espionage because of his Chinese ethnicity.)
"This is the history that we have seen, and that’s why as much as we understand that our African-American brothers and sisters feel a deep sense of injustice with all the killings, we Asian-Americans also feel a deep sense of injustice!"
While Liang was indicted and convicted for causing Akai Gurley’s death, few other police officers—many of them white—have had charges leveled against them for either similar or even more clear-cut incidents. The conversation over Liang on WeChat, a popular messaging app for the Chinese community, frequently mentions Daniel Pantaleo, who despite choking Eric Garner to death on camera was never indicted.
Curiously, there were pro-police forces speaking at the rally as well, asserting that Liang’s conviction would make policing less effective. They went as far to suggest that the current climate of antagonizing the NYPD resulted in Liang’s conviction.
Wong adds, however, that Asian-American sentiment in this case “runs the gamut,” from those who think Liang was completely a victim to those thinking he did something wrong but questioning why he was singled out, and then to those thinking Liang should be sentenced for doing something wrong, which is the position that she and the CAAAV hold.
CAAAV was founded in 1986 in response to anti-Asian violence in the United States, including the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin. In its statement supporting Liang’s indictment, the organization said, “Asian and Asian-American communities cannot be complacent with the current inherently flawed criminal justice system.”
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