Why The Chinese Community Shouldn't Rally Around Indicted Cop Peter Liang

Earlier this month, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced it would indict NYPD Officer Peter Liang for the killing of Akai Gurley, with the most serious charge leveled against him being second degree manslaughter.

This indictment comes after the non-indictments of Officers Dan Pantaleo in the killing of Eric Garner and Darren Wilson in the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, and has touched off a firestorm of outrage, with many in the Chinese American community saying that Officer Liang is being unfairly scapegoated for being Asian. Let’s put this indictment in some perspective: During the past 15 years, NYPD officers have killed at least 179 people, and only three officers before Liang was indicted.

For those who aren’t familiar with the events leading up to the indictment, here’s a brief synopsis: On the evening of November 20, 2014, Officer Liang and his partner were doing their regular rounds at the Pink Houses, a public housing development in East New York. They were performing what’s known as a vertical patrol (a practice that has come under criticism for its harassment of residents of public housing and their guests). As they entered the darkened stairwell on the 8th floor, unlit due to malfunctioning lights, Liang took out his gun, finger on the trigger. Startled by the sound of Akai Gurley and his girlfriend entering the landing below, Liang fired one shot, which ricocheted off the wall and into Gurley, killing him. It hardly bears mentioning that Gurley was unarmed. He was simply there to visit his girlfriend.

And yet this is how upset people are that Officer Liang was indicted: In the span of only a week,almost 120,000 people—who I suspect are mostly Chinese American—have signed a petition directed at the White House, demanding that the Brooklyn District Attorney withdraw the indictment.

Why The Chinese Community Shouldn't Rally Around Indicted Cop Peter Liang