FORMER NYPD OFFICER PETER LIANG WILL DO NO JAIL TIME FOR ACCIDENTALLY SHOOTING UNARMED BLACK MAN

Outside the courthouse an angry crowd of protesters chanted "The whole damn system is guilty as hell!"

BarkGrowlBite | April 21, 2016

Former NYPD officer Peter Liang was convicted in federal court February 11 for manslaughter in the accidental stairwell shooting of an unarmed black man during a vertical patrol of a Brooklyn public housing building. The 2014 shooting occurred when Liang was startled by a noise in the stairwell and accidentally discharged his weapon, fatally wounding Akai Gurley. The prosecution maintained that Liang had recklessly drawn his gun, that he shouldn't have had his finger on the trigger, and that he did nothing to help Gurley as he lay dying on the floor.

Liang appeared in a Brooklyn court Tuesday for his sentencing. He could have received up to 15 years on the manslaughter conviction. Instead, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun reduced the charge to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced Liang to five years’ probation and 800 hours of community service. Liang will not have to do any jail time.

That infuriated Gurley’s family and a crowd of their supporters. The angry group of about 100 mostly black protesters gathered outside the courthouse and chanted "The whole damn system is guilty as hell!"

I believe very strongly that Judge Chun made the right decision. Judge Chun reasoned that:

"There's no evidence Peter Liang was aware of Akai Gurley's presence," Chun said.

"I looked at the video of Peter Liang entering the Pink Houses that night and he entered with a good frame of mind. Shooting and killing someone was the last thing on his mind. Incarceration is not necessary."

In a letter to Judge Chun last month, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson recommended that Liang receive no jail time. He wrote:

"Because the incarceration of the defendant is not necessary to protect the public, and because of the unique circumstances of this case, the People do not believe that a prison sentence is warranted,"

Thompson had recommended that Liang receive a sentence of six months house arrest, 500 hours of community service and five years' probation. He was upset with Judge Chun’s reduction of the charge to criminally negligent homicide and announced his office would appeal that part of the ruling.

According to the New York Daily News, the judge said he reduced the charge because prosecutors hadn't shown Liang "consciously disregarded" a substantial risk of death.

I seriously doubt Officer Liang would have been charged and tried for anything were it not for the ‘Ferguson effect.’ Before Michael brown was shot dead by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the Liang case would have been considered a tragic accident. I think that’s what it really was.

While Liang deserved to be disciplined for screwing up, he should not have been fired. Again, this was a tragic accident, not a crime. Under no circumstances should Liang have had to face criminal charges for going gun in hand up the darkened stairs of a building in a housing project where shootings are almost a daily occurrence.

I hope that the reduction of manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide will be upheld upon appeal.

Peter Liang got fucked by the ‘Ferguson Effect.’