1st LD Writethru: Former New York policeman sentenced to probation, community service in shooting case

Former New York police officer Peter Liang will not serve time in prison after a Brooklyn judge on Tuesday sentenced him five years of probation with six months of house arrest and 800 hours of community service.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun reduced Liang's second-degree manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide before announcing the sentencing decision.

Liang, previously convicted in February in the shooting death of African-American Akai Gurley, was the first policeman from the New York Police Department to be convicted of homicide in the shooting death of a civilian since 2005.

A ricocheted bullet from Liang's service weapon accidentally killed Gurley, an unarmed civilian, when the former police officer was patrolling in a housing project in the borough of Brooklyn in late November in 2014.

The reduced conviction and sentencing came after a massive rally in more than 30 U.S. cities in February over the manslaughter conviction. Protesters claimed that Liang was unfairly made a sacrifice to ease the intensified friction between the police force and black communities all around the country.

The new sentence also came after Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson recommended Liang get home confinement and probation instead of jail time on March 23. Thompson has led the prosecution of the case.

"There is no evidence, however, that he intended to kill or injure Akai Gurley. When Mr. Liang went into that building that night, he did so as part of his job and to keep the people of Brooklyn and our city safe," Thompson said in a letter to Chun.

Although remaining their rejection toward Liang's guilty conviction, Tuesday's sentencing was welcomed by the city's Asian-American community and Liang's supporters.

A few dozen Asian-American advocates had been standing outside the courthouse for the announcement of sentencing. Many of them had protested in support of Liang throughout his prosecution and conviction.

"I think this is a step in the right direction. Peter Liang is still convicted unjustly for a crime that is not a crime. But this is a step in the right direction to correcting that," said Brooklyn Assembly Member William Colton.

Supporters believed that the efforts made by Asian-American protesters helped Tuesday's result of laxer sentencing for Liang.

"We have been constantly arguing that our Asians should not keep being silent," said Jerry Luo, one of the protest's organizers.

"We should always voice our positions and concerns; there won't be fairness and justice for us if we don't," he added.

Many protesters have also moved on to push for better representation for Asian-Americans in New York's political scene.

"(The fact that) Liang has been made a sacrifice for the sins of police brutality all over the country is because our Asians don't have adequate representation in the society," said John Chen, president of the New York-based Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.

"Today we are advocating every Asian-American to vote in the local and state elections," he said.

"This is especially meaningful because today is the New York presidential primary. We all have to vote for the representative who can fight for our rights," Chen added. Endi