The case of 27-year-old Peter Liang has split Asian-Americans across the nation. On Feb. 11, former NYPD officer Liang was convicted of manslaughter in the shooting of Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old black man. Liang was patrolling stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority projects in Brooklyn. Entering a pitch dark stairwell, Liang clung onto his gun. When Liang opened the door, he heard a sound and his gun discharged and ricocheted off the wall when Gurley and his girlfriend arrived on the floor, striking Gurley on the chest. Instead of immediately calling for medical care, Liang stood arguing with his partner.
Liang’s case reached an appeal in April as Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on April 19 sentenced Liang to five years of probation and community service instead,
Liang became the first officer in over a decade to be convicted. In Brooklyn, a group of Asian-Americans across the nation protested Liang as a “scapegoat” and his conviction as a method of appeasing the Black Lives Matters movement. They claim that this sense of justice was purely based on race, for if Liang was white, he would not have been convicted, citing cases such as Eric Garner. Black Lives Matters argues that the overturn of Liang’s harsh conviction captures the repitition of another police officer gets off without jail time at the cost of a life.
The real debate lies in the interpretation of justice. Is it justice for Liang’s conviction to be overturned because officers before went unpunished?
Instead of calling for his release and an overturn to his conviction, protesters of the Asian-American community should had called for the conviction of all other officers as well. While I deem it unfair that officers such as Daniel Pantaleo got away with atrocious demonstrations of police brutality, it is also unfair to argue that because he got away with it, Liang should as well. Justice is not fulfilled by Liang getting the same unjust treatments as officers who take away lives and go on without jail time. That too is a denial of justice. Justice is fulfilled only when every officer, despite their race, that commits acts of police brutality is held to the same accountability in order to ensure justice for the lives lost and justice in that the judicial system does not favor based on race.
