Posted on 02/12/2016 7:13:27 AM PST by DoodleDawg
New York City police Officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter Thursday in the 2014 shooting death of an unarmed black man in a darkened Brooklyn public housing project stairwell.
Liang's single gunshot killed Akai Gurley, 28, who was walking down the stairs on Nov. 20, 2014.
NYPD said after the jury's verdict that Liang had been fired from the department. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 14.
Liang said he drew his pistol as he and his partner patrolled the darkened 8th floor stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn. He said he flinched when he was startled by a noise, which he said caused the gun to fire.
The bullet ricocheted off of the stairwell wall and struck Gurley, who was on the seventh floor. Gurley, who was unarmed, died from a wound in his chest.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
The best option for officers now is to simply ignore the projects and let people kill each other. That is what is happening all over America.
a scared man with a gun will kill you,i had rather be up aganist the bravest man in the world.
So you are explicitly denigrating the whole manslaughter charge, which is predicated on lack of intention?
I suspect that there are thousands of police officers in New York and elsewhere who spend their days policing "the projects" in large cities all over the country and manage to do it without shooting unarmed people. I guess they're just plain dumb and careless in your eyes, huh?
And some people are way to quick to justify anything the police do. He shot an unarmed man who posed no threat to him or anyone else and who had made no threatening action of any kind. If that is not wrong then what is?
The officer should be treated with more respect even with what happened. We are armchair quarterbacking the officer. The tenements are a very very scary place and you simply cannot know what it is like. I am on the officer’s side and certainly would not give him jail time. I would take different actions towards him.
So, what do you think the appropriate punishment for an officer who "accidently" kills a citizen?
That is where you are wrong. There are parts of the city that police avoid. One obvious example is Baltimore. Police have stopped policing. This is the case all around the country.
Here in Phoenix, Arizona you used to see police cars all the time. Now they are no longer visible as if they have completely disappeared. They were always in parking lots hanging out. Now they are vacant.
It is obvious police have realized they are targets and have been told to hide from sight.
You can be all high and mighty and extract your pound of flesh from this officer but the net result is that police are no longer available the way they used to be. Just a fact!
Officers need to be held to the law.
In this situation, the officer clearly was in violation of basic procedure - meaning he should not have had his finger on the trigger to begin with. When he fired the weapon, the shot ricocheted, and killed a man.
I understand your desire to give officers the benefit of the doubt, but in this case I disagree it is warranted. I often look at situations like this with a bias toward the officer, but I cannot get past the point where the officer violated basic safety and ended up killing.
Finally, the officer needs to be sentenced in accordance with the established guidelines for the charge. Anything less explicitly undermines the already wounded “rule of law”.
We disagree, but we need not do so disagreeably. Have a good day, FRiend.
Ok, well if you here a disturbance, ran into a darkened stairwell with a drawn gun, were startled or bumped or anything and the gun went off and you killed someone, what do you think would happen to you? If a regular citizen would have been not charged or not convicted on the same set of facts, then my perception is wrong. If not, then the jury and my perception is right.
When you do something wrong and someone ends up dead, the consequences in modern America tough. That you are wearing a badge to me says you are more required to have your weapon under control than if you not wearing a badge.
Like what?
Any lawful CCW carrier who’d done this would be facing the same charge. Cops should be no different.
Good on the jury.
L
Ok. He killed someone. I would not jail him unless there was an intention to kill the guy. It seems like it was more of an accident than intentional.
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Your reasoning and others who deny the guilt of the officer is very flawed.
The officer is not being punished for intentionally shooting anybody but it is NOT an accident. When a drunk driver kills someone by running over them it is NOT an accident. When someone decides to practice shooting targets in his back yard and one of the bullets hits a person and kills them it is NOT an accident.
When a police officer who is afraid of being where he is keeps his finger on his hair trigger and shoots without meaning to it is NOT an accident. When the shooting or running over above results in death it is “manslaughter” pure and simple.
Why anyone would think a police officers life is worth a penny more than the person he shoots without meaning to is beyond me. I would think just the opposite, we trust the police, give them power over us, they should not be haphazardly killing us. That is what happened here.
Cops get paid for taking chances in unsafe situations, not for killing innocent people so they can go home at night.
I am sickened at the attitude of many here on the cop's side. It is not an accident!
And for every officer who do nothing but collect a paycheck, there are hundreds, thousands, who go in every day and do a dangerous job, and do it well. The do it without panicking. Without shooting unarmed people. Without fanfare. Those are the police officers who deserve our respect and admiration, not officers who refuse to do their job. Not ones who panic and shoot and kill unarmed people. You can continue to believe that there is nothing police officers can do that is wrong, nothing that they should be held accountable for, no law that they are capable of violating. I don't. This officer did something stupid and careless and an innocent man is dead. If you don't think that police need to be held responsible for that then what's next? Allow police to shoot anyone they want on sight because the think it's justified?
And your attitude creates the atmosphere in Baltimore where crime is up 300%.
Officers are getting slaughtered all over the country. Their death rates are 3 times what they were 12 months ago. Now when they go into a dangerous situation they have to think that if they should hesitate in defending themselves because whatever they do will haul them into court and possible jail time.
So we live with the stats of Baltimore all over the country.
I am 100% on the officers side and would have handled this much differently. It is way too easy to pontificate where it is nice and safe.
Wow! I am shocked a cop was actually convicted of manslaughter instead of the usual, “The cop feared for his life” crap!
“It seems like it was more of an accident than intentional.”
So, you think it is OK to shoot into a darkened place without knowing what you are shooting at is a threat??
I'm sure had there been the remotest possibility of selling that defense then the officer would have tried it, and probably gotten away with it. But that's hard to do when you don't even see the person you shoot.
“Liang said he drew his pistol as he and his partner patrolled the darkened 8th floor stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn.”
They don’t make flashlights in NY???
It depends on the circumstances.
We need to agree to disagree.
I support the police. Period!
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