One tragedy, one victim and one punishable misdeed

In February, a jury found Peter Liang, an Asian American police officer in the New York City, guity of  the manslaughter of 28-year-old black man Akai Gurley.

The verdict was condemned in much of the Asian-American community. The rallying cry claimed that systematic racism victimized Liang when he became the first officer in over a decade to be convicted, unlike the multitude of white policemen who murdered black civilians and walked free — Darren Wilson, Daniel Pantaleo and Timothy Loehmann among them.

Yet we can’t help but wonder: Why was the Asian-American community so silent after the murderers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice? Does the community only protest now because a police officer of their own background is going to jail, or because they believe that there should be no punishment for the killings of Gurley, Martin, Brown, Garner and Rice?

Perhaps it’s the system of the NYPD, instead, that is to blame for placing a rookie cop like Liang in an environment that should better handled by someone with years of experience.

But the fact stands: Liang was convicted of involuntary manslaughter because he killed a man, an act that is punishable by law. We can’t point fingers at Zimmerman and Pantaleo, who walked out of court unscathed, and ask the court system to fail justice again, this time for Liang. In essence, that demand is a plea for access to white privilege — something that should never be part of the Asian-American community’s agenda.

We’re fully aware that manslaughter is, by definition, an accident. But the law does not punish only malintent; “accidental murder,” while a lesser crime, has its penalties.

As an officer, Liang is held to a higher standard. Police officers should be properly trained not to make “rookie errors” in the field, at the cost of civilian lives. In the case that Liang was utterly unprepared for the job, the shooting of Gurley stresses another flaw in the American police system, already in desperate need for reform.

As Gurley lay dying on the stairwell, Liang texted his union representative instead of calling for medical help immediately, sources from the Daily News said. Although their commanding officer attempted to contact them, Liang failed to respond.

His failure to perform CPR on Gurley and notify his supervisors — at the cost of a human life — cannot be dismissed as “beginner’s mistakes.” Even if Liang, reeling in shock, was unsure of what to do, he could have reached out to his resources, called his chief and obtained the instructions for helping Gurley.

On a broader level, we, as two Asian-Americans, believe that the problems encountered by any minority group in America is “our problem.” We are worried that the Asian-American community, historically failing to stand up for the black victims of police brutality from Rodney King to Eric Garner, has been more focused on Liang’s Asian heritage than the actual issue of justice. To defeat systematic injustices, we must speak up not only for our ethnic kin but for all. This battle for equality needs, above all, a true understanding of and belief in the idea of equality itself.