Three days ago, February 11 2016, NYPD officer, Peter Liang, was convicted of the manslaughter of Akai Gurley. My heart and prayers are with Mr. Gurley’s wife and little girls. Their loss is something I haven’t had the misfortune of experiencing and therefore something I cannot truly understand, and yet at some level, knowing that an innocent life is gone and knowing that two children will grow up without a father, I understand plenty.
For Liang, there is punishment in knowing he took an innocent life. There is punishment in seeing the impact of his mistake on a mother and her small children. It is not something that anyone can prepare for. Liang made a mistake. He misfired his gun and that bullet, ricocheting through a darkened stairway, shortened the life of an innocent man.
From multiple media outlets, it is told that Liang and his partnering officer, both rookies, were patrolling a public housing project. There, Liang, already on guard and tense, misfired his gun at a sudden sound while in a dark stairway. He and his partner did not initially see any injured persons and they began a quarrel about reporting the incident. It is told that Liang was primarily concerned he would get fired. Upon further investigation, the officers found a wounded Kai Gurley and his friend. In this instance, Liang acknowledged not trying to help revive the wounded Gurley. He wanted to wait for professional medical assistance. Gurley would not survive the gunshot wound.
In the past year, there have been debates nationwide about the brutality of police towards black men. Liang’s case, however, is not one of brutality. He didn’t knock a black man to the ground and strangle him to death. He didn’t knowingly fire eleven shots at a teenage boy, with the twelfth ending that boy’s life. He didn’t jail a woman for a minor traffic violation and then brutalize her until she felt her only escape was suicide. In cases across the States where officers have purposely preyed on unarmed blacks, why is it that the officer of a misfire is finally the one convicted of manslaughter?
For me, the injustice in Liang’s conviction isn’t entirely the conviction itself, but that other officers did not receive a punishment for far worse crimes. It can be argued that following the precedent set in the trials of these officers, Daniel Pantaleo, Darren Wilson, and Brian Encinia, still free, that Peter Liang too should not be convicted.
I do not believe that Liang is a scapegoat for the NY release of Daniel Pantaleo in his crime against Eric Garner. Liang killed an innocent man and for that he should receive punishment. I hope, however, that whatever form he receives is that which is universal to all officers. If Liang must serve 15 years, then let this be a precedent set for future cases. If an officer who’s misfire killed an unarmed man receives 15 years in prison, then may an officer who is indicted of purposeful murder, brutality, and racism receive a heavier or at very least similar conviction.
There is a trust that needs to be renewed between citizens and police. When officers perform their duty in a way that ends in the deaths of innocent and unarmed citizens, they are no longer ‘Serving and Protecting.’ And while these incidents do not reflect the majority of officers, they do shed light on the struggle of our nation as a whole. My opinion is in solidarity with that of Executive Director of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Cathy Dong, “We have always said this case only means that we want to make sure that [all] officers be held accountable.”
If this conviction paves the way for more just trials involving officers in the future, then Liang’s 15 years would become a sacrifice for safer streets, for both citizens and officers alike.
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