Discussion for article #233691
What strikes me about this case are two very different points. 1. The dead man was not in any way involved in a āpoliceā situation. He was simply using the stair case. Peter Laing literally fired a shot in the dark that killed him. Peter Laing had no reason to be holding his finger on the trigger of his gun.
2 The stairs were being used because the elevators were out of service and the lights were out in the stairwell. This shows how badly maintained the buildings are.
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Letās also not forget that rather than trying to offer Gurley medical assistance, this cop was texting his union rep.
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Mr. Liang was texting his union rep because that is exactly what Pat āāassholeāā Lynch instructed his officers to do.
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I believe that there was also discussion between Liang and his partner as to call in the incident or not.
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Itās ridiculous to claim that there would be any political gain in prosecuting Liang. NYC, including all five boroughs, has a very large Asian American population at this point. My area of Brooklyn is now mostly Asian.
What is behind this particular case is the tax subsidized warehousing of multiple generations of dysfunction and crime in housing projects in NYC. The whole originally well meaning concept from the 1930ās turned into disaster areas over the decades. Everything about them should be rethought, and they should be totally eliminated.
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I personally was surprised that there were charges filed against Officer Liang seeing as how most other officers seem to get a pass on killing citizensā¦even if these killings are recorded. There should be no question as to the need to file charges hereā¦but there are and only because the system has failed so goddamn many times.
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That to me is a huge deal. Iād also like to know if the ricochet shot was a fluke. Did he just get startled and his gun went off and the shot hit the wall nowhere near the guy? Or was he shooting at him, but just missed and the bullet then ricocheted and hit him. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if it was a fluke shot, that would be negligent homicide, not second degree manslaughter. One wonders if the higher charge is intended to ensure he beats the rap. The shot trajectory has a lot to do with that, and I have not seen that info yet.
But the fact that he called his Union Rep first before aiding the victim (assuming that is true) makes me want to say just convict him of the higher charge.
The Garner cop should also have been indicted. If he tazed the guy and he died, it was ālegalā. But he put an illegal choke hold on him and should have been prosecuted.
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Liang got indicted because Liang was not white.
Guilt or innocence has nothing to do with it. The officers in all the cases mentioned were guilty of wreckless endangerment at the very least. But again, guilt or innocence has nothing to do with the indictment.
Then you still donāt get it. The other guilty (sometimes police violence really is justified) officers didnāt get indicted because guilty white officers get off; guilty officers of any other color get indicted.
After youāve seen it a few dozen times it sinks in. Itās racial bias pure and simple. All the other facts and opinions and details, are just entertainment, and irrelevant. If the victim is not white and the officer is white, then the officer will walk.
It didnāt happen because he was Chinese. Had Liang been white, he would not have been indicted. Had he been a Latino, or an Arab, or any non-white race, he still would have been indicted.
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Whoever wrote the headline (Iām guessing it was not Esther Wang) should update it to say āChinese-Americansā. As it is now it looks like the PRC is getting involved in this case.
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Akai Gurley wasnāt engaged in any dysfunction at the time he was killed.
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Iām firmly convinced that a very small number of people are capable of making good decisions about gun use while they are under stress. Police are well trained in firearm use and in how to respond to various situations, but still succumb to fear and stress responses that result in unnecessary, tragic shootings. This goes double for ordinary citizens that want to carry guns around, since most of them arenāt at all well trained. There should be some heavy psychological testing under stress for anyone who wants to take on the responsibilities of carrying firearms around.
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I agree, and the whole thing is totally egregious. But my point is that warehousing the least functional people (whether that is societyās fault or not) in big complexes of buildings creates entire status quo peer groups or societies of crime and dysfunction. Many entire extended families have lived in housing projects in NYC for three or four generations. Most crime and most gangs and most violent crime by far in NYC are based in housing projects. Police tell people to stay away for their own safety and in many cases are afraid for their own safety when they enter. And all subsidized heavily by your tax dollars. Itās just a completely bankrupt and counterproductive concept. Itās the reality, and why Liang was paranoid.
This does not in any way excuse Liangās action, or impugn any individual that is in a housing project in any way.
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This is so right.
This was manslaughter, and should be treated as such. Liang should face punishment, as should the officer who strangled a fellow citizen. It is very hard to see such selective enforcement and not think Race has a large part to do with it.
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Also, when I read the law, this seems more like Involuntary Manslaughter, rather than 2nd Degree Manslaughter, if we accept that the gun was fired accidentally.
Itās absolutely racial discrimination that Liang was indicted where countless white killer cops werenāt. But the point isnāt that he shouldnāt have been indicted, itās that the white ones should be too.
Iām reminded of a personal essay I read somewhere about discriminatory justice as it related to a different crime, one that also frequently features perpetrator-impunity and victim-blaming. The headline was stunning in its effed-up-edness and incontrovertible truth: āIām Lucky My Rapist Is Black.ā
If Iām ever to be abused by a police officer, I suppose my best shot at sympathy and justice will be to hope that the officer is a person of color.
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Thatās simply not true. āMinorityā police are also treated extremely leniently. If you believe the opposite, then you clearly havenāt been paying attention. You may prefer the narrative youāre presenting, but youāre making it up. The one dark skinned cop in Ferguson, for example, is an absolute monster - he remains a proud member of that corrupt & ultra-violent department, despite multiple heinous allegations against him. And his circumstance is not a one-off.
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Eh? Itās only manslaughter if you believe what he says without question. And yeah of course - heās been charged because heās Asian. That makes total sense.
If you believe the killerās explanation without question, you mean.