NO ASIAN COALITION, PART 2

Many Chinese-Americans created WeChat groups to organize demonstrations and distribute information about the case. WeChat was China’s most popular mobile text and social media application and served as a major communication tool for this campaign. One of the groups, a civil rights channel, gained over 10,000 followers in less than 10 days following Liang’s conviction. The articles published on the channel received over a million views.

In addition to creating WeChat groups, Chinese community members in New York formed a general command committee to coordinate activities devoted to supporting Liang. Key members of this committee included community leaders Eddie Chiu in Manhattan, John Chan in Brooklyn, Phil Gim in Flushing, and Yiping Wu and Doug Lee on Long Island.

Through WeChat and the cooperation of at least 50 nationwide Asian-American community groups, campaign organizers planned national protests for 20 February 2016 across 30 states and in cities such as Orlando, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Organizations that led these demonstrations included the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights (CAACR), Greater New York Coalition to Support Officer Liang, and Chinese American Equalization Association, among others. In St. Louis, the Coalition of Justice for Liang organized a brief rally at a plaza in front of the Civil Courts Building, followed by a march of a couple hundred protesters through downtown. Again, many protesters carried American flags and signs with messages such as “Equal Justice For All,” “We Demand Fairness,” “NYPD and NYC Are Accountable,” and “One Tragedy, Two Victims.” Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, approximately 2,000 protesters marched in Center City and used similar tactics.

The largest demonstration took place in New York. Over 10,000 protesters gathered at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn to protest Liang’s conviction. Demonstrators chanted, “No scapegoat! No scapegoat!” and held signs that expressed the same or similar messages. Among the speakers at the demonstration were Councilman Mark Treyger and Assemblyman William Colton. Around 20 people on the other side of the road counter-protested and argued Liang was not a victim and called the larger protest an insult to Akai Gurley’s mourning family. These protesters believed that, regardless of race and the circumstances of other officer-involved shootings, Liang should still be held accountable for his involvement in Gurley’s death. Officers stood between the two protest camps and held plastic handcuffs and police batons.

In response to the large protest, New York State Senator and former NYPD officer Marty Golden released a statement that expressed solidarity with Liang supporters. Golden stated, “The rallies taking place throughout our city and nation are bringing the voices of many Asian Americans to the front lines of the debate around justice in America. The conviction of former police officer Peter Liang has created widespread frustration among many, including myself, who question the outcome based on the evidence.”

Months after the jury’s verdict, a Brooklyn prosecutor requested that Liang receive no prison time. On 19 April 2016, Brooklyn judge Danny Chun reduced Liang’s charge to criminally negligent homicide and ordered him to serve five years probation and 800 hours of community service. Chun stated, “Shooting that gun and killing someone was probably the last thing in his mind and likely never entered his mind at all… This was not an intentional act… There's no evidence, either direct or circumstantial, that the defendant was aware of Akai Gurley's presence.” In the summer of that year, the city settled a wrongful death lawsuit that awarded Kimberly Ballinger, Gurley’s domestic partner and mother of his daughter, more than $4 million. The court demanded Liang pay $25,000 of the four million.

The success of this campaign is unclear due to the divisions within the demonstration group. Some Liang supporters believed that Liang should be held accountable to a certain extent, but not for manslaughter, while some protesters wanted all charges dropped. It is also unclear to what degree these protests influenced Judge Danny Chun’s decision to lessen Liang’s conviction. The campaign was very successful, however, in organizing a nationwide demonstration by drawing the attention of tens of thousands of Asian-Americans across the United States.

Name of researcher and date: 20th of April, 2017.
Juli Pham, 20/04/2017. Continue—