Assembly Member William Colton (Bensonhurst, Gravesend) said yesterday that Kings County District Attorney Ken Thompson’s recommendation that former NYPD Rookie Officer Peter Liang not do jail time for the shooting death of Akai Gurley is a step forward, but fails to correct the injustice of Liang’s conviction for manslaughter.
But City Councilman Jumaane Williams (Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood) maintains Liang should do jail time, and Thompson’s recommendations sends the wrong message to police that black lives don’t matter.
Liang faces 15 years in prison when he is sentenced next month following his conviction, stemming from the November 2014 incident in which he discharged one round from his gun that ricochet off a wall and hit Gurley who had just entered the stairwell from another floor wall.
The incident came just months after white police were not charged with either the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island, or several other highly-publicized and charged national incidents where white cops shot to death unarmed black men.
Liang’s six-count indictment, and ensuing trial and conviction galvanized the Chinese-American community throughout Brooklyn and the country, with many feeling he was a scapegoat for the many white cops that got off in these incidents.
Colton said he was pleased that Thompson issued a statement contradicting the closing statement made by the prosecuting attorney in the case who told the jury that the defendant was somehow aware that a person was in the stairwell and turned and pointed his gun intentionally shooting at the victim.
“This gross misstatement was not based on any facts or evidence presented in the case and should have resulted in the granting of the Defense Attorney’s motion for a mistrial,” said Colton. “A sentencing recommendation of five years probation, with six months of home confinement and 500 hundred hours of community service leaves Peter Liang, marked as a convicted felon. Never before has a defendant been convicted of manslaughter based upon such a lack of law or facts to justify such a conviction.
Colton said the unjust conviction came about under a unique fact pattern which brought together both Peter Liang, a rookie NYC Police Officer, teamed with another rookie NYC Police officer, and Akai Gurley, a totally innocent person using the stairways because of the lack of dependability of the building elevators, in a notoriously crime ridden and dark stairway directly resulting from the failure of the City’s Housing Authority to maintain the Pink houses in a safe and habitable state.
“Since the conviction we have seen both the New York Housing Authority and the New York City Police Department scampering to correct their own internal policy failures, which bear the true cause of this tragedy. NYCHA seeks to shift blame to its workers despite evidence that the lights were out for months and not merely one half hour from the end of a workers shift. The New York Police Department seeks to blame a training officer its charges failed to adequately provide CPR training to the two rookie officers, while promising to issue a directive no longer partnering two rookie officers,” said Colton.
“Justice can only be achieved in this case by dismissing the conviction as not supported upon law or facts or in the alternative declaring a mistrial and overturning the conviction. Any other solution simply perpetuates the injustice and results in the continued seeking a scapegoat to distract from the failure of city agencies and city officials to meet their obligations properly,” he added.
But Williams called Thompson’s sentencing recommendation “deeply concerning.”
“I truly believe, as do many, that Peter Liang did not intend to kill Akai Gurley that night. I also believe on many levels that the NYPD has questions to answer. Still none of that negates the fact that an unarmed young man was killed and Officer Liang’s actions – and inaction – were reckless and he must be held accountable. This was confirmed by a jury and he should receive an appropriate sentence,” said Williams.
Williams noted that many have expressed outrage that one of the only police officers charged and convicted of shooting an armed individual is himself a person of more color. “I believe the outrage has validity and should be a part of the conversation about policing, accountability, communities of more color and justice. But that conversation must be additive, not subtractive; whenever a life is taken because of police misconduct, the officer should be held accountable, period,” he said.
Williams said he understands Thompson is in a difficult position, and to not recommend the maximum sentence is one thing, but it is hard to accept that it would be offered for no prison time at all.
“The recommendation could have a chilling effect on accountability. It can provide the basis that any officer, even if convicted of manslaughter, should not serve prison time as long as they did not “intend” to kill an unarmed human being. Black life must be shown to have more value.
“These conversations are hard and must be done understanding the difficulties officer’s face every day. It must also be done believing that accountability has be real. The recommendation made today only sets us back in that discussion.”
