As many of you know, Peter Liang was charged with second degree manslaughter as the result of death of Akai Gurley. Western propaganda, NYC’s mayor and government seems have turned its back against him while many white officers have killed unarmed black people. They seemed to neglect several facts.
- NYPD officers shouldn’t have their guns drawn in many of these stair patrols.
As you can see from this article 2 years ago before the incident, it is normal for NYPD officers to have their guns drawn on these vertical patrols. In fact, they are especially trained to be alert when there are lights out in the staircases, because many officers were ambushed as the result.
2. Liang and his partner Shaun Landau were arguing each other in front of Gurley after he was shot. Not true, Liang and Landau was arguing each other before they realized that Gurley was shot.
3. Liang and Landau does want to do CPR training.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-taught-peter-liang-cpr-hands-shield-article-1.2557145
Liang and Landau received inadequate CPR training.
What I find interesting is that while many Chinese Americans are protesting about the unjust verdict, western propaganda managed to get some brainwashed Chinese ‘journalists’ to go against them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steph-yin/peter-liang-protests_b_9289990.html
Let me make this perfectly clear, Liang is not innocent here and he should be disciplined or even fired from the NYPD as the result of this incident. What I don’t agree is that how can he be indicted for second degree manslaughter for doing his job without the intent to hurt or to kill someone.
N.M.Cheung says
Consider all those shootings caught on camera that weren’t prosecuted, Peter Liang was obviously used as a scape goat to divert public angers. I heard all those prosecution questions on how many pounds of force the trigger pull needed to initiate shooting I must laugh at how ridiculous it was. When Amadou Diallo was shot on 1999 by 4 officers with 41 bullets and 19 shots hit him, the jury found none of the officers guilty even when he was unarmed and in plain view reaching for his wallet. Well, how many pounds of pressure was needed to stop shooting when he was already shot and falling? When your adrenaline was flowing and a sudden noise startle you in the dark, you don’t calibrate the pressure on your finger and accidents do happen, and the victim wasn’t even hit by a direct shot but ricochet off the wall. I bet with almost 1 million Asian Americans in the Tristate area, none on that jury were Asian American. Such is the justice system in America. You can get away with murder in Texas with a good lawyer and sympathetic jury as Robert Durst did, but railroaded to jail in NYC as Peter Liang.
N.M.Cheung says
A few days ago a black police officer was shot and killed in Maryland when he confronted someone firing at a police station. He was eulogized as a hero. Now the story starting to come out that he was in plain clothes and off duty and was probably killed by friendly fire. This is not the first time black police officers in plain clothes were killed by other white officers mistaken as criminals. It seems for black officers to be safer not get involved if not in uniform. I very much doubted that any disciplinary action, not to mention criminal proceedings will happen to the other officer who shot him. I think CCTV should add those to their human right documentary.
pug_ster says
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/an-inept-defense-hurt-peter-liang-1.11466400
The thing about Robert Durst is a wealthy man and was able to afford an excellent defense team to get away from murder whereas Liang’s defense team are inept. Too bad the NYPD turned their back on him. So now after he got indicted the Chinese Americans helped fund the defense team that he should’ve had in the first place.
Ray says
@N.M.Cheung
I’ve read on Phoenix News that Asian American were indeed selected for jury, but all chose to be excused.
N.M.Cheung says
@Ray
I am not talking about jury pool. I was in jury pool myself numerous times. I am talking about in the final jury. The prosecutor can excuse you for being biased, and he can use exemplary challenges to excuse you for no reason. Sure, Asian Americans like any other group will try to get out of a long trial that disrupt their normal routine, but I doubt any are willingly leave the Peter Liang jury. I myself willing join the jury pool when summoned every 4 years, but usually dismissed as defense attorney dislike Asians for being pro law and order, while prosecution dislike anyone that’s well educated and articulated.
N.M.Cheung says
@Ray
The thing that I dislike about all those dissidents in China is they have an idealized vision of West, not the reality. As professor Zhang said that more you have being away from China, more pro-China you become, and I totally agree with him. In U.S., the law is everything, not justice. If you are rich enough and can hire high priced lawyers, you can find enough loop holes in the law, ambiguous language in laws, failure to give Miranda warnings in time, hire psychologists to select favorable jurors, and dismiss hostile jurors, poison fruits not allowing evidences to be presented etc. Consider the 2000 election, Gore got 5 million more votes than Bush II, even in Florida, discounting the butterfly ballots in Palm Spring, Gore still got more ballots than Bush according to the vote tally by newspapers, but Supreme Court, mostly appointed by Republicans, citing time restriction, stopped the counting of votes, and gave the presidency to Bush. For Chinese philosophers, justice is higher than law which as I cited can be misinterpreted and influenced.
N.M.Cheung says
I think only chance Peter Liang for overturning the verdict is study the transcript on the jury selecting process when prosecutor questioned Chinese American jurors to discover their biases to dismiss them and whether any were dismissed for the exemplary challenges.
Ray says
@N.M.Cheung
Definitely, I thought you meant no Asian in the jury pool. Nowadays, prosecutors and defense attorneys pick through the pool, striking out anyone they think wouldn’t be easily persuaded to see things their way. So by not getting a single Asian on the final jury is almost a certain defeat for the Peter Liang’s defence.
There are so many cops who were caught on video intentionally shooting a suspect, causing death. Akai Gurley was killed by an unaimed ricochet but Peter Liang was convicted.
Is it a miscarriage of justice? To be honest I feel every cop who shot and killed unarmed suspect should be prosecuted. However, Peter Liang is obviously being held to a different standard compare to other cops.
Charles Liu says
I wonder if NYPost have seen this:
https://youtu.be/aYONo5LeWDs
Ray says
Police in China rarely use gun even when the suspect is armed with a knife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdV-ywj8Sw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPm1TUVGL7c
ltlee1 says
I am surprised by the author’s harsh view against Peter Liang.
It is clearly a case of political expedience.
Liang and his partner were sent to patrol a darkened stairwell of a housing project building. (House projects were frequently the war zone where gang battles and other crime related fire fights had happened) They came before a closed door. They did not know what were behind the closed door. With his partner holding the light behind him, Liang drew his gun with his left hand and tried to shoulder the door open. While openning the door or very shortly afterward, Liang heard a quick noise, his body tensed and the gun was discharged accidentally. The bullet travelled down two flights of stair and hit the black victim. Liang was now found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Involuntary manslaugher could not be applied to Liang because he did not consciously made a decision to fire the gun wrongfully during the whole chain of events. The firing was a reflex which could not be controlled by Liang. He heard a sudden noise, he body including his finger tensed.
Hence the prosecutor claimed Liang had committed a wrongful act by placing his finger on the trigger rather than on the trigger guard. He did not challenge Liang’s decision to draw his gun given the inherent danger of patrolling a darkened stairwell of a housing project building. But he thought Liang should place his finger on the trigger guard. To be sure, NYPD code of gun handling does emphasize the need to place one’s finger on the trigger guard unless one is ready to shoot. And this is indeed a way to minimized accidental discharge.
However, this really did not apply to Liang’s case. Liang was opening a closed door. He did not know what was on the other side of the door. To the degree that Liang needed to draw his gun, he needed to be ready to shoot. He had good reason to place his finger on the trigger. Judging from the trajactory of the bullet which ended up killing a person two flights of stair down, he had pointed his gun downward while trying to shoulder the door open.
“But to de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Thompson and many black leaders – some of whom agree off the record that Liang was scapegoated – needed a cop conviction and Liang was the perfect fall guy. It was and remains the politically expedient thing to do.”
Liang was made the fall guy. But this injustice infuriated the Asian-American community. Hence thousands of them protested. Some police officials also spoke out, hanging Liang on placing his finger on the trigger would endanger cops.
(quotes from:
http://www.kingscountypolitics.com/op-ed-political-expediance-and-the-liang-trial/ )
ltlee1 says
@Charles Liu
But Peter Liang’s situation is totally different.
See my comment below.
ersim says
@ltlee1 Were you expecting Peter Liang to been given the special status of “honorary white” when he decided to recruit to NYPD???? :-\
ltlee1 says
@ersim
If your point is the US system is racist and/or having a double standard, that is exactly why thousands in the US had protested on behalf or Peter Liang.
N.M.Cheung says
Well, the prosecutor recommended no jail, 6 months home detention and 5 years of probation. At least Peter Liang got his scape goat part done and they don’t need to rub it in on Asian community. I assume there will be more protests from the victim’s family and Al Sharpton, stay tuned.
pug_ster says
@N.M.Cheung
Probably it is better this way. I think the sentence recommended by the prosecutor is fair, maybe the defense attorney work with the prosecutor behind the scenes. However, the lynch mob behind wants Liang to go to jail the misdeeds of the other NYPD cops, which is counterproductive. Still, the prosecutor went way too far when he go for the second degree manslaughter.
ltlee1 says
@pug_ster
Intent to hurt or to kill is not a necessary condition for involuntary manslaughter. However, a conscious decision to act or not to act wrongfully is needed. One example is a person killing somebody while driving drunk. The wrongful act is driving while drunk.
pug_ster says
@ltlee1
I would’ve agreed if Liang was charged with Negligent homicide instead of second degree manslaughter. However, the moronic DA don’t even give an option to charge Liang with negligent homicide.
The last time an NYPD cop got indicted, it wasn’t even second degree manslaughter but of negligent homicide. And the circumstances was even more egregious than what Liang did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Zongo
pug_ster says
http://gothamist.com/2014/08/20/ryo_oyamada_video.php
I thought this is an interesting article 18 months ago. The lack of outrage towards a black officer killing an Asian man.
pug_ster says
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/peter-liang-won-t-see-jail-time-manslaughter-charge-reduced-n558326
I thought that this is a fair outcome for Peter Liang. 5 year probation, no home imprisonment, 800 hours community service and reduced second-degree manslaughter charge to criminally negligent homicide. He should’ve been charged with criminally negligent homicide in the first place and not second degree manslaughter.
pug_ster says
http://www.bensonhurstbean.com/2016/06/billy-thai-running-male-district-leader-47th-assembly-district/
Perhaps there is a silver lining in the Peter Liang case. Many Chinese Americans were typically a-political before the Peter Liang case now many groups and organizations formed. Chinese Americans are running for districts that doesn’t represent them.
pug_ster says
Looks like the latest killing of Philando Castile is done by a police of Chinese descent. Looks pretty bad and I don’t think this guy will get the sympathies like Peter Liang.
Edit: Looks like the shooter is not Chinese.