Recently, I had found out about a petition that was being circulated to ask the White House to ask Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney (DA) Kenneth Thompson to withdraw the indictment of Officer Peter Liang for the death of Akai Gurley. Immediately, I buried my face in my hands and was brought to dismay. According to the link where I discovered this petition, it was created by a Chinese-American woman in California, and the petition basically says that because Officers Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo were acquitted or not even indicted for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, respectively, neither should he. After all, he was only a scapegoat for the previous two white officers who were not indicted. This woman who lives 3,000 miles away and knows nothing about the local climate here in New York has created a petition for a man she only shares her ethnicity with while possibly souring relations between the Asian and black community over here.
When I first heard about the death of Akai Gurley, I really wanted to give Officer Liang the benefit of the doubt, not only because he was an Asian-American, but because there were so many factors that were just not working in his favor. He was a rookie officer paired with another rookie officer, so neither was really able to give each other guidance. He was patrolling in the Louis H. Pink Houses, where the lights of the stairwell were not working, a common problem that exists in many New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings, so he had to take out his flashlight, while carrying his gun. Akai Gurley took the stairs because the elevator in the building was broken, another common problem in NYCHA buildings, causing him to be accidentally shot by Officer Liang, as Liang was startled by Gurley opening the door. Unlike Pantaleo, who put Eric Garner in a chokehold, and Darren Wilson, who was still in his patrol car, where he could have driven away, had he really feared for his life against Michael Brown, Officer Liang was in a dark stairwell, where he probably did feel a certain level of anxiety. According to the NYPD, he and his partner, Shaun Landau, were not supposed to be doing a vertical patrol, and his commanding officer told them not to, as well, so we can ask what they were doing in the building in the first place.
However, when I found out that he waited minutes before he and Officer Landau finally called to get medical assistance for Mr. Gurley, even I could no longer support him. As a police officer, he should also know basic First Aid, if I am not mistaken. Anyone who has taken a CPR and First Aid course knows that those first few minutes are crucial. The fact that he did not do more to save Mr. Gurley’s life is inexcusable. To put it another way it is like going to your child’s school, when your child gets in trouble and finding out that your child did not tell you the whole story. As a parent, you have two choices: accept that your child did wrong and let the school discipline your child accordingly or make excuses that someone else’s child got away with the same thing, even though it happened in another school, so your child should get away with it, too. This is exactly how the Asian-American community, specifically the Chinese-American community, needs to see this case. Accept responsibility that Officer Liang did wrong and needs to be held accountable.
As writer and activist Sahra Vang Nguyen had stated in her article, “Asian-Americans, A Popular Tool in Anti-Black Propaganda “, many of us within the Asian-American community cringed when we first found out that the officer who had shot Akai Gurley was Asian, fearing that the media would create a narrative that might drive a wedge between the black and Asian community. However, I did not see that early on, at least not to my knowledge. The sentiment among both police officers and the community is “blue first”, then your race. That is why, when former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly made it a point that one of the officers who had shot Sean Bell was black so it could not have been racial, people seeking justice for the Bell family collectively laughed. Furthermore, many residents in East New York were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, stating that it can be dangerous for an police officer.
Even after finding out what Liang had done wrong, I have not heard too much in the media about any kind of anti-Asian sentiment. Hopefully, most people understood that this was a police officer who just happened to be Asian. I have even heard many within the black community, including a New York Times journalist say on New York Times Close-Up on NY1, make statements along the lines of: It is a relief to finally see an officer get indicted but unfortunate that the first officer to get indicted was an officer of color. The most that I have heard was from a loved one of Mr. Gurley’s, who stated that had it been a black or Latino officer, he probably would not have been released. I do not know, if that is completely true.
I do understand how many in the Chinese-American community feel, as illustrated in this recent article in the New York Times. However, the woman and the people who have signed this petition clearly do not realize the consequences of their actions. They may not know about how 20,000 New Yorkers who came together on May 19, 1975 to protest the beating of Peter Yew by police officers, closing down the Chinatown community in the process. They may not understand how this issue affects so many within the black community and why it is so important to see the Gurley family get justice. For those who are circulating a petition, all they see is that two white officers were acquitted, and this Asian officer was not.
Many of them fail to understand that Kenneth Thompson was elected as the new Kings County DA because the people of Brooklyn wanted to see reform, and I was one of the people celebrating, when he defeated incumbent Charles Hynes in the Democratic Primary. Had Charles Hynes still been the DA, there is the chance that Peter Liang would not have been indicted, since Hynes was the kind of DA who just went with the status quo. Is it unfair that the outcome of a case can be determined by who is in office and what borough you live in? Yes, but that is why it is so important to be involved in local elections. You cannot complain, unless you are actually involved. That has always been my rule. The recent Eric Garner decision has inspired a local attorney in Staten Island to run for DA, which may be vacated by current DA, Dan Donovan, who is running for the Congress.
What bothers me even more about this petition is that this petition reached its goal of at least 100,000 petitions in less than a week, while another petition being circulated on Change.Org to seek justice for Qingyou Li only reached its half way mark of 5,000 signatures in a month and has not reached any traction after. This petition was created two months ago. Why are Asians not rallying behind this cause? Or, were these same Asians who signed this petition involved with fighting for the justice of Fong Lee, Cao Bich Tran, and Michael Cho, who were all killed by officers with no consequences? This is where Asians should focus our activism on, while also requesting that same solidarity from the black community in the same way that many Asians have given the same support for both Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Yes, many of us can claim that we did not know about these cases because there was minimal media coverage about these stories, but that is why it is so important to educate ourselves and understand the larger picture and the context of our actions. It is rather selfish for some within the Asian-American community, particularly within the Chinese-American community, say: Officer Peter Liang should not be charged because two white officers were acquitted. That is selfish and insensitive to the members of the Gurley family who are still mourning his loss and are now seeking justice.
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Uptown NuyorAsian 