The 28-year-old officer with the New York Police Department (NYPD) was found guilty for fatally shooting unarmed Akai Gurley while patrolling with his partner on the darkened eighth floor of the Pink Houses in the borough of Brooklyn.
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The St. Louis march and a brief rally at the plaza in front of the Civil Courts Building were part of nationwide protests by those concerned that Liang, who is Chinese-American, is being scapegoated because of anger over other police shootings.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, carrying signs and chanting in support of a New York City police officer convicted in a deadly shooting.
During the trial, Liang testified that after he discovered that he might have actually shot Gurley, he did not immediately resort to medical assistance, leaving Gurley’s girlfriend to perform CPR on him.
Many of those at Saturday’s rally carried signs depicting a goat, reflecting the feelings of Liang’s supporters that he was a scapegoat for other police shootings and that Gurley’s death, while tragic, was not a crime.
In Brooklyn, thousands of people waved American flags, held signs calling Liang a “scapegoat” and demanded his freedom.
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The rally in NY was met with a counterdemonstration from protesters with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Today’s verdict represents justice for Akai Gurley who was totally innocent when he was shot and killed that night”, Thompson said in the statement.
Thousands of people rallied across the United States on Saturday in support of Peter Liang.
Bo Chen, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida, started his speech by expressing sorrow for both Gurley and Liang; he then said people need to think more deeply about the case. The ‘Coalition of Justice for Liang, ‘ the national group that organized the protests, said a total of 30 protests were held across the US. She said she has not woken up so early for years, but she had to because of the rally in Orlando.
“It’s not fair, we should try and find justice for all the people”, said another. “As we all know, in the past two years, from Ferguson to Baltimore to Houston to NY, tensions between police officers and communities of color are at an all-time high”.
Asia Times argued that “action in the line of duty as never been a cause for criminal conviction”, but conceded that Liang’s case could be an exception because he is an Asian cop and not a white one.
Besides the racial tones of the cases cited – wherein the officers were white and the victims were black – the newspaper noted that Liang was also poorly trained and inexperienced.
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“What happened here is a tragedy”, defense attorney Rae Koshetz said.
