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Biased DA, city scapegoat the Asian-American community
ByShirley Ng
February 21, 2016|7:01am
Officer Peter Liang and District Attorney Ken ThompsonPhoto: Gregory P.
Mango (2)
The justice system has always failed Asian-Americans.
We remember all too well the brutal 1982 slaying of Vincent Chin — a 27-
year-old Chinese-American man killed near Detroit by two thugs who believed
he was Japanese and thus responsible for Motown’s downturn. His killers got
off virtually scot-free.
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More than 10,000 protesters rallying in support of ex-cop Peter Liang
Army Pvt. Danny Chen, who grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown, was
systematically beaten and harassed, driving him to suicide. His tormentors
were barely given slaps on the wrist.
And now, the community has been victimized again — this time by Brooklyn DA
Ken Thompson and his office’s unjust prosecution of NYPD Officer Peter
Liang.
Make no mistake about it: New York’s Asian-American community couldn’t be
more united and outraged by this miscarriage of justice.
By any reasonable reading of the law — and common sense — Liang’s
conviction for second-degree manslaughter was wrong and should be struck
down. It was a tragic accident, for which this punishment doesn’t fit the
crime — which really wasn’t a crime at all, only a horrible mishap.
Liang and a fellow rookie were in a dark staircase at the Pink Houses in
East New York when his gun went off, killing innocent victim Akai Gurley.
Liang never had the intent to kill. He never even saw Gurley.
Group of women holding poster during rally in support of Peter Liang.
Photo: Zuma Wire
Yet somehow, Thompson and jurors failed to grasp this most basic, undisputed
fact.
New York’s Asian-American community can’t help comparing Gurley’s tragic,
accidental killing to the homicide that took the life of Eric Garner on
Staten Island. Garner died from a chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo
— in broad daylight as Garner screamed, “I can’t breathe!”
Garner’s slaying stands in stark contrast to Gurley’s death from an
unintended gunshot in the dark that ricocheted off a wall.
Yet Garner’s killer, Pantaleo, is walking free while Liang, who never aimed
his gun at anyone, is due to be sentenced for up to 15 years behind bars
next month.
How can this be? Why is Liang, this rookie Asian-American cop, possibly
going to prison for a tragic accident while others are never even charged?
Because it was an easy political choice.
Thompson used Liang to satisfy a segment of his constituency with long-
standing grievances about police mistreatment — as if scapegoating Liang
somehow erases all sins ever committed by the NYPD.
The prosecution was also a political winner for Thompson because it didn’t
seem to faze the powerful Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which didn’t
put up much of a fight as Liang was railroaded.
So DA Thompson achieved all his political goals — with the only costs being
Liang’s freedom and furthering the not-so-thinly-veiled message to New
York’s Asian-American community that its grievances don’t matter.
Whether the name is Chin, Chen or Liang, Asian-Americans have long been told
that their pain and humiliation don’t register. And now that’s been
affirmed in a Brooklyn courtroom.
Shirley Ng is a freelance writer and Manhattan Chinatown native. |
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