Year of Scapegoat for Officer Peter Liang?

By Victor Chen, bostonese.com

New York City, Feb. 19, 2015, — Today is the New Year Day on the Lunar Calendar. On the first day of the Year of Goat, many Chinese Americans are debating the recent indictment of NYPD officer Peter Liang.




The indictment of Officer Peter Liang for manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Akai Gurley . This issue is dividing the Asian American community across the nation. A White House petition demanding Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson to withdraw indictment against Asian minority Officer Peter Liang has received over 13,000 signatures as of this afternoon.

The petition states:” NYPD Officer, Peter liang told his superiors that his gun had gone off unintentionally, the bullet rattling off a wall and into an unsuspecting man’s chest, killing Akai Gurley. Nonetheless, the circumstances surrounding Mr. Gurley’s death lead to a manslaughter indictment this week, whereas police officers in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner case were never charged. Criminal charges appeared more likely in the later two cases, but these two non-Asian Police Officers were never charged.”

Many Chinese Americans think Liang is a scapegoat due to ongoing racial tensions after the fatal police shootings in Ferguson and New York. Others insist race should not be part of the equation and police officers must be held accountable, regardless of their race.

“When an innocent person dies, as a police officer, you have to be accountable. At the end, maybe the sentence might be lighter, based on the situation. But there’s a responsibility there that someone has to be accountable,” NYC Councilwoman Margaret Chin said in a statement.

“Instead of supporting rookie NYPD officer Liang, Councilwoman Chin chose to score some political points. She may feel Asian Americans are still the model minority who should always step forward to take the blame when things go wrong,” said an angry Brooklyn resident on popular social media mobile app WeChat.


POLICE OFFICER PETER LIANG UNDER SIEGE

(from sq-deal.com)

NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 11: New York City police officer Peter Liang is escorted out of court after he was charged with manslaughter, official misconduct and other offenses on February 11, 2015 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Liang pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the November 20 death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley. Liang claims he fired his gun accidentally in a stairwell in the Pink Houses, a public housing complex in East New York. Liang was released without bail.

Rookie Police Officer Peter Liang is under siege by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. In what the local DA has himself described as an unintentional homicide, “accidental” insiders see an entirely different face of a DA hell bent on cleaning up NYPD and has been cause celeb for taking on COPS at every single opportunity that avails itself. Ken Thompson himself has an interesting background and history when it comes to taking on NYPD and police related shootings and hasn’t exactly shown himself to be an impartial arbiter of the law. Is every accidental shooting that results in a death brought to a full trial? Certainly not, but Thompson is now on center stage and when political voices like his and other over exposed agitators get involved, it would be a complete embarrassment if Thompson were to fall to get a complete conviction and send this rookie to jail for ten to twenty years. Thompson is on record saying he’ll treat COPS no better or no worst than any other person. What Thompson fails to mention is that Police Officers are human as well and in the course of their duty can in fact make mistakes. The NYPD makes very, very few of those mistakes as a whole but generally is held strictly accountability both internally and externally with levels of oversight that DA’s, Mayors and Presidents of the United States don’t have to withstand.

Officer Liang should not have upholstered his weapon if “MEDIA” accounts are correct. But once again, none of us were there and none of us know the full set of facts.

Police Officer Peter Liang better be prepared. The DA’s Office in Brooklyn NY is using every resource it has within its power to ensure a conviction on every count listed against this Police Officer. They are looking to make an example out of him to scare the living hell out of every single New York City Police Officer from every again taking an active role in law enforcement. They want to send a message so clear, so powerful and so convincing that Police Officers across this nation will refrain from active police work. They will in effect turn our police officers into 50-60 thousand dollar a year report takers. We at Square Deal Committee say support Police Officer Liang and ensure that his rights as a citizen, a patriot and even as a rookie police officer are properly cared for.