A mere week ago, thousands of Chinese Americans gathered in Brooklyn, New York, in protest of ex-officer Peter Liang's conviction.
Though I think this is a milestone for the Chinese American community and their public involvement in politics, many from the same community criticizes the rally to be a misrepresentation of their community. They claim that the protestors did not act out in a call of justice, but rather chose to speak out because Liang is a member of the Chinese American community.
Liang’s conviction set the Chinese American community apart between the rally’s advocates and abstainers.
The disapproval that came from the other end of the globe is from people who believe that it is “wrong” to protest. They bear the concept that it’s degrading to act and believe in the idea that “the child who cries will get fed.” They compare the Chinese American community to the Jewish community, both of which have a decent student population standing in Ivy League schools, and claim that the since the latter community did not commit such actions under discrimination, why should we do it? They believe that silence will be the best option, and that justice will befall from the judicial system.
One article specifically criticized Liang for his immediate actions after he shot Gurley, and said that he shouldn’t have tried to avoid his responsibilities. The author of the article brings up the line “an eye for an eye,” and blames Liang for not being able to “offer” himself to punishment and even to the point of giving his life for Gurley’s. Though I know that this comparison is an exaggeration of how the author thinks things should be, I still think the article views this with a rather naïve and selfish scope. I doubt whoever wrote the article can face his own mistakes in such a way as to offer himself up for punishment, so who is he to speak when he initiates this type of double standards upon another?
Another sort of disapproval of the rally against Liang’s conviction sparks from our side of the world; from the Chinese Americans who feel that justice should be done for the life lost. Though I do believe that justice should be done, I do not think it is with such a conviction that such a goal can be achieved. Some members of the public are taking the conviction, and treating it as a blow to the NYPD and the police department’s injustice in recent years. However, I don’t believe that they are viewing this from a wide enough perspective. If justice should be done, why shouldn’t justice be done for all previous lives lost under police brutality? Why shouldn’t justice be done against the police department and government system who have offered protection for one another every time a circumstance as such arises? Why should one person be held accountable for the rage that has clouded the public eye?
