The manslaughter conviction of NYPD Rookie Officer Peter Liang yesterday for the shooting death of Akai Gurley in East New York’s darkened Pink Houses stairwell was generally seen in Brooklyn’s growing Asian community as a dog-and-pony show in which Liang was scapegoated.
But it remains to be seen if the indictment, trial and conviction will galvanize Sunset Park’s Chinatown to turnout and help elect Yungman Lee as the Borough’s first Asian-American elected officeholder when he faces 12-term incumbent Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez in the September Democratic Primary.
Liang, 28, and a Bensonhurst resident, was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct, and faces up to 15 years in prison. He is the first NYPD cop to be convicted of a police-involved shooting in a decade, and his indictment came following no indictments of any of the white officers involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island.
“I think he (Liang) was scapegoated and a lot of people in the Asian community feel the same way. The conviction means black lives matter and Asian lives doesn’t matter. The Asian community doesn’t speak up, but the Asian community is angry about this and everybody will support Officer Liang if he goes to jail,” said a Brooklyn Asian-American political source working for an elected official.
The source said the trial drew a lot of media coverage in the Chinese-language press, which also generally felt the shooting was a terrible fatal accident and Liang was scapegoated while doing his job trying to protect people in one of the city’s most dangerous housing projects.
Bath Beach/Bensonhurst Assemblyman Bill Colton, whose district includes a large Asian-American population, also feels Liang was railroaded.
“While I was not a witness to the events leading to the tragic death of Akai Gurley, and therefore, I can not criticize the jurors in their determination, yet I remain greatly concerned that Police Officer Peter Liang has been made a scapegoat for the failings of many others in government which are a much more real cause to this tragic death,” said Colton.
“Everyone should be looking for justice to be done. But I remain disturbed that the prosecuting attorney made a closing argument to the jury implying that this shooting was deliberate and that Police Officer Liang pointed his gun at the victim- when none of the facts raised in the trial supported such an argument. This was a highly prejudicial and inflammatory argument, which should not have been allowed in a case where there was no evidence that the gun was pointed at the victim or intentionally discharged.”
Colton said the failings of government were much more a cause for Gurley’s death, yet none were considered for indictment. This include the New York Housing City Authority whose reckless neglect allowed the stairways of the Pink Houses to remain dark and dangerous, the irresponsible rhetoric of public officials which fanned an anti police climate, and the inadequate training and the assigning of two rookie police officers together in a dangerous, darkened stairway for which they were never properly prepared.
Velazquez, whose three-borough Congressional district includes both Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Chinatowns, called for changes to police training and a focus on improving public housing.
“This is a tragedy on so many levels. I have not been privy to all the information reviewed by the jury, but I think we can all agree this incident makes clear the need for a review of police training especially as it relates to providing emergency medical assistance. It also makes clear the pressing need for better lighting and other safety improvements in our public housing. I pray our community can heal,” said Velazquez.
Meanwhile, Lee, who faces an uphill battle in besting a longtime incumbent, is squarely on Liang’s side.
“There is no doubt that communities of color everywhere in America are sometimes mistreated by police, sometimes fatally. But while every death is equally awful, the facts of each fatal incident must be separately considered, without controlling reference to a broader political context. In this specific tragedy, the facts did not support how Officer Liang was charged and tried,” Lee said.
