NYPD pig who killed unarmed Akai Gurley to facing sentencing. Update: Judge gives him 5yrs probation
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The son of a ? DA Ken Thompson, an Uncle ? of a Black man, had the nerve to recommend NO JAIL TIME and gets mad when the judge got rid of the manslaughter charge? Uncle ? Ken Thompson is part of the reason this whole fuckery began smfh, I hope to ? somebody runs him over with a car or some ? these next few days.
NYC has learned nothing after Eric Gardner, wow...... -
the dukester wrote: »Looks like the Judge and District Attorney found a "? in the amour" in the case.
This ? immediately called his union head after the shooting, while neglecting his duties (administering life-saving techniques to Akai Gurley).
It's bewildering to me how all those Asian protesters are out there with their pitchforks, eyes blood-shot red filled with tribalism & ethnocentrism as the default instinct. Pesky facts of the case apparently mean nothing to them. They just want a piece of that good ole "white privilege", that's given to white officers when they murk an unarmed black man.
This yellow-back ? should have never been a cop.
He was sacred shitless in the pink houses. Fired his gun at the first sight--shadow of a silhouette, then chucked his professional posture out the window and went straight into cover up mode.
If Akai Gurley was my relative.....I'd be on some Samuel Jackson "A time to ? ? ."
Asians can be oblivious to a lot of ? (opposed to whites who are willfully ignorant)... that's why they are stereotypically known as bad drivers because they dont acknowledge rules of the road -
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/peter-liang-won-t-see-jail-time-manslaughter-charge-reduced-n558326Peter Liang Won't See Jail Time as Manslaughter Charge Reduced
Former New York Police Department (NYPD) Officer Peter Liang was spared jail time Tuesday for fatally shooting Akai Gurley in a Brooklyn housing project, a sentence that drew anger from Gurley's friends and family who packed the courtroom.
Justice Danny Chun of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn ordered Liang, 28, to serve five years probation and 800 hours of community service. Liang will also serve three years probation concurrently on misconduct charges.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson had originally recommended five years probation along with six months of home confinement and 500 hours of community service.
Robert Brown, one of Liang's attorneys, told NBC News it could take around five months for Liang to complete his community service.
Chun also reduced Liang's second-degree manslaughter charge to criminally negligent homicide, meaning Liang failed to perceive the risk that his actions would lead to Gurley's death. For reckless manslaughter, Liang faced up to 15 years in prison.
"I find that given the defendant's background, and given how remorseful he is that it would not be necessary to incarcerate the defendant to have a just sentence in this case," Chun said Tuesday.
Melissa Butler, who was with Gurley the night he was killed, and Kim Ballinger, Gurley's domestic partner and mother of his daughter, addressed the court before Chun handed down his sentence.
Peter Liang, I want you to know that when you stole Akai's life you stole mine as well," Butler said, facing the judge and reading from a sheet of paper.
Butler was in the unlit stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses with Gurley when Liang, who was on patrol, accidentally fired a shot that ricocheted off a wall and hit Gurley.
"Akai took his last breath and died in my hands," Butler said.
Ballinger spoke next. "[Akai] was a great father to our child, Akaila," she said. "He would get Akaila from school, play with her all the time. Every day Akaila asks, 'Why was her dad killed by a police officer? What did he do?'"
Before the judge announced his sentence, Liang also gave a statement, at one point turning around to apologize to Butler and the Gurley family. "Judge, my life is forever changed," he said. "I hope you give me a chance to rebuild it."
In a statement following the sentencing, Thompson disagreed with Chun's decision to reduce the charges. "While our sentencing recommendation was fair under the unique circumstances of this case, we respectfully disagree with the judge's decision to reduce the jury's verdict and will fight to reverse it on appeal," Thompson said.
Upon exiting the courtroom, Hertencia Petersen, Gurley's aunt, said, "Akai's life does not matter. Black lives do not matter. But don't worry: justice will be served one way or another."
Sylvia Palmer, Gurley's mother, didn't speak with reporters after the sentencing but did issue a statement. "Judge Chun's sentencing decision today is an insult to the life of Akai Gurley, to me as his mother, to all families whose loved ones have been killed by police, and all New Yorkers," she said.
Outside the courthouse, supporters of Gurley and of Liang gathered to respond to the news. NYPD barricades were set up to pen in protesters along Jay Street while dozens of officers stood watch.
"To the extent that there's no jail time and no home confinement, we feel that the pressure is off," Doug Lee, a Liang supporter, told NBC News. Lee added that he still believes Liang was selectively prosecuted.
On Nov. 20, 2014, Liang was beginning a vertical patrol with his partner, former NYPD Officer Shaun Landau, on the eighth floor of an unlit stairwell at the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn when, Liang testified, he was startled and accidentally fired a shot. The bullet ricocheted off a wall and struck 28-year-old Gurley, who had entered with his friend Melissa Butler from the floor below.
Prosecutors said Liang's actions were reckless and that he did not step in to perform CPR on Gurley, who lay dying on the fifth-floor landing. Liang's attorneys argued he was in a state of shock after the shooting and was inadequately trained in the life-saving procedure, an allegation raised at trial that resulted in the NYPD placing a police academy CPR instructor on modified duty last month.
Thompson, in his March 23 statement, called the shooting unintentional and said putting Liang in prison was not necessary for protecting the public. A day after the announcement, Liang met with Gurley's domestic partner and mother of his child, Kimberly Ballinger, to apologize.
Last week, Chun refused to grant Liang a new trial on the grounds that a juror allegedly lied during jury selection about his father's manslaughter conviction and failed to disclose Facebook posts critical of police. Liang's attorneys Paul Shechtman and Gabriel J. Chin argued that the juror, 62-year-old Michael Vargas, did so to secure a spot on the jury.
Tuesday's sentencing capped a nearly year-and-a-half long case, and a three-week trial, that raised questions about police training and accountability, as well as the role race has played in securing indictments of officers accused of fatally injuring unarmed black men. The case also exposed a schism in how Asian Americans in general, and Chinese Americans in particular, have rationalized Liang's prosecution and conviction. -
Some in the community believe the Chinese-American rookie officer was sacrificed for white officers not indicted in other police-involved incidents, including the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was placed in a hold around his neck, and Michael Brown, who was shot in Ferguson, Missouri. They also say Liang's actions were not reckless, as prosecutors have argued, and that he should have never been indicted at all since the shooting was accidental.
Before Liang, the last NYPD officer convicted in a fatal civilian shooting was in 2005. Bryan Conroy was sentenced to probation and 500 hours of community service for killing an African immigrant during a police raid.
A year before that, a grand jury declined to indict NYPD Officer Richard S. Neri Jr., who shot and killed 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury Jr. while patrolling the roof of a Brooklyn housing project. Neri told the grand jury that he fired unintentionally and that he was startled when Stansbury opened the rooftop door.
Other Asian Americans have been vocal in calling for Liang's prosecution. Members of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, a group founded in 1986 to address police and hate violence toward Asian immigrants, believe that Gurley's death spotlights a larger, systemic problem of police officers not being held accountable in civilian deaths. They also maintain that Liang's conviction was just.
CAAAV along with Asian Americans United, Philadelphia; Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, Los Angeles; and Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco and Boston issued a joint statement Tuesday evening, criticizing Liang's sentence as an "insult" to Gurley, his family and victims of police violence.
"Nothing will bring Akai back, but we must hold all police officers accountable to continue to fight for violence-free communities and win change in our systems and institutions," the statement read.
While counterexamples exist on both sides, the split in thinking, some say, is partly the result of generational differences among Chinese Americans, with older immigrants tending to support Liang and younger members of the community, many of them having grown up in the U.S., calling for Liang's prosecution.
It wasn't immediately clear if Liang's supporters would hold nationwide rallies this weekend as they did back on Feb. 20, a week after his conviction. Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them Chinese Americans, turned out to those protests in at least 30 cities across the country.
Brown, Liang's attorney, said he believes the 40,000 letters from the public that they submitted to the judge asking for leniency helped with Liang's sentence.
"I wish that he would have thrown the verdict out completely," Brown added. "But a reduction from manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide I think was the next best thing."
Brown said they are still planning to appeal Liang's conviction and Chun's refusal to grant a retrial based on juror misconduct allegations. In the meantime, Liang still faces two civil lawsuits. Ballinger, Gurley's domestic partner, announced in May that she was suing Liang, Landau and the city for Gurley's wrongful death. Butler, who was with Gurley the night he died, also filed suit against the city and Liang in February.
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/ex-nypd-officer-gets-probation-in-akai-gurley-s-death-1.11708581Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun said Liang was guilty only of criminally negligent homicide because he fired his gun carelessly but did not know Akai Gurley was in the stairwell. Chun said Liang didn’t deserve prison for a crime the rookie officer never intended during a night patrol at the Louis Pink housing project in East New York.
“He entered that night with the intention of protecting the people of the Pink Houses,” Chun said, as Liang looked on expressionless. “Shooting that gun and killing someone was probably the last thing that entered his mind. Incarceration is not necessary.”
Smh... -
Judge Danny Chun tho... come on son!
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Judge Danny Chun tho... come on son!
Once Chun saw Uncle ? Ken Thompson give Liang a pass, I knew this.....person would ride along with it. It took a lot for me to not refer to him as a ? or ? . -
Ive never in my life seen or heard of an asian judge in my life..but they happen to find one to preside over THIS case
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There needs to be an organization for situations like these.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/thompson-justice-gurley-doesn-equal-jail-liang-article-1.2607738Ken Thompson: Justice for Akai Gurley doesn't equal jail time for Peter Liang
In the wake of the sentencing of Peter Liang, there has been criticism in some quarters of my decision not to recommend jail time for the defendant. Given the strong emotions aroused by the senseless death of Akai Gurley, as well as the outrage stirred by the recent instances across the country of police officers who killed unarmed people of color, I understand the anger and confusion expressed by those who opposed my recommended sentence.
Nevertheless, I stand by my decision. While a private citizen is free to conflate justice and vengeance, I cannot and will not do so.
As Brooklyn's district attorney, it is my sworn duty to enforce the laws to protect the lives and well-being of every member of our community. I do not discharge this duty in the pursuit of revenge, but rather in the pursuit of justice and with an unyielding commitment to fairness — whether that means freeing wrongfully convicted people from prison, providing relief from outstanding warrants, refusing to saddle young people with criminal records for possessing small amounts of marijuana or deciding the right sentence for a young police officer who recklessly killed an innocent man.
On Nov. 20, 2014, Peter Liang, a rookie police officer on patrol in the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn, ignored his firearms training, fired a shot in a darkened stairwell that ricocheted off a wall and struck Akai Gurley, and failed to promptly render him aid as he lay dying.
My office vigorously prosecuted this case because the evidence, as we saw it, established that Liang's conduct was criminal. The rule of law demanded that he be held accountable for his actions in recklessly taking Gurley's life. The jury, the voice of Brooklyn's community, agreed and returned the verdict of guilty.
But my office's pursuit of justice could not, and did not, end there. We had an obligation to recommend a sentence that, while recognizing the gravity of the crime and its tragic consequences, also took into account whether the defendant's incarceration was necessary to ensure public safety.
Any claim that this recommendation, or Liang's prosecution for that matter, was influenced by outside pressure is utterly baseless.
Liang's criminally reckless actions took the life of a young father and robbed a family and community of their loved one. However, no evidence suggested that Liang, who had an unblemished record as an officer, intended to ? or even hurt Gurley or anyone else that night.
The truth is that a number of other factors also played a role in this tragedy, including the pairing of two rookie cops and the broken lights in that dark stairwell. Liang, now a convicted felon, has forfeited his career as a police officer and must live the rest of his life with the fact that Gurley died because of his crime.
Justice encompasses punishment, but justice is not only punishment and, certainly, not only incarceration. Justice is also due process; it is the fair and equitable administration of our laws. In this case, the law was fairly applied; a just verdict was rendered; and fairness dictated our sentencing request of house confinement, lengthy probation and substantial community service.
While Justice Danny Chun reduced the top count to criminally negligent homicide — a decision with which we disagree and will appeal — he imposed a sentence similar to my recommendation.
I recognize that Akai Gurley's tragic death has contributed to the nation's urgent conversation about the fairness of our criminal justice system, especially toward people of color, and I embrace this long overdue conversation.
After decades of injustice, our country is finally seriously considering critical reforms to all aspects of our criminal justice system. We must continue to explore opportunities to repair and strengthen police-community relations.
We also need to examine how offenders are brought into the system; whether everyone who comes into the system belongs in it; and how people are ultimately treated within the system. And, if the criminal justice reforms we seek are to bring about real positive change, we must always aim to balance our duty to keep the public safe with the community's right to fair treatment under the law.
I am committed to improving the criminal justice system to ensure that all who come in contact with it are treated equally and fairly. I support systemic change, but also must evaluate each case on its individual merits. Every day, I will strive to do what is fair, what is right and what is just — because that is what I must do as district attorney.
Thompson is Brooklyn's district attorney.
? DA Ken Thompson does damage control(confessions of a ? ) by writing some ? excuses for why he sold out.. For ? who don't read what he wrote.. I'll some up all that ? excuses in the form of a gif..
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Ive never in my life seen or heard of an asian judge in my life..but they happen to find one to preside over THIS case
Judge Ito -
NeighborhoodNomad. wrote: »There needs to be an organization for situations like these.
There was but it got destroyed by mighty whitey.. I wish it was still around cause they would fire bombed some ? by now... -
I dont think this could even be considered a slap on the wrist.
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On the real.....somebody needs to die
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ghostdog56 wrote: »
So ummmmmm about this..is this a real thing or some ? .. I don't feel like calling if its some ?
It's legit -
......But but but All Lives Matter
? was a ? , scared of his own shadow
criminal justice does not show black men mercy, will they tell us we have redeeming qualities? -
"Redeeming qualities" was code for he's a good company man and bootlicker. They see him as an asset to the establishment
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So when is DA Ken ? Thompson up for reelection?
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not_osirus_jenkins wrote: »
You sure? Cuz im pretty sure he got felony animal cruelty charges.
He got convicted officially of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce to aid in unlawful activities...aka you made money and didn't give Uncle Sam his cut. They threw in the dog fighting charges but that money is what really ? him
Figured that. I just remember people throwing him under the bus. -
Also, I bet he gets this conviction expunged and it's gonna be like it never happened. 7 yrs he's gonna be able to vote and carry a gun again. Maybe less. Watch.
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I wonder if DA ? did a dance routine for them afterwards... -
the dukester wrote: »Looks like the Judge and District Attorney found a "? in the amour" in the case.
This ? immediately called his union head after the shooting, while neglecting his duties (administering life-saving techniques to Akai Gurley).
It's bewildering to me how all those Asian protesters are out there with their pitchforks, eyes blood-shot red filled with tribalism & ethnocentrism as the default instinct. Pesky facts of the case apparently mean nothing to them. They just want a piece of that good ole "white privilege", that's given to white officers when they murk an unarmed black man.
This yellow-back ? should have never been a cop.
He was sacred shitless in the pink houses. Fired his gun at the first sight--shadow of a silhouette, then chucked his professional posture out the window and went straight into cover up mode.
If Akai Gurley was my relative.....I'd be on some Samuel Jackson "A time to ? ? ."
Asians can be oblivious to a lot of ? (opposed to whites who are willfully ignorant)... that's why they are stereotypically known as bad drivers because they dont acknowledge rules of the road
When the Asian protesters say "he's only being prosecuted because he's Chinese." That's code for White cops can ? unarmed black men and nothing happens, so why can't we?
It's a way of utilizing their so-called "model minority" status gravitas, and parlay it into a non-jail sentence for one of their own. Even when the facts of this case meet all the judicial standards for (some) jail time.
White people have done a magnificent job of demonizing us as being systematically dangerous to society. This case, and many others like it, illustrate that the narrative of us as violent criminals, not deserving of justice is so powerful that the level of cognitive dissonance, or guilt-ridden fear can't bring them to a place that shows us fairness.
Apparently video evidence (Eric Garner, Tamir Rice) isn't enough. It just makes whites double-down on the media narrative about us. We got hit with a trifecta of horseshit today......Hillary "superpredator" Clinton, won big in New York today. This coward pig got off with no jail time, and Donald "trumped" his competition and secured a gang of delegates.
All New York ? should burn their du-rags and Tims in protest.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBho5jH_HOk