Do you have to explain to your family why AAPI should support George Floyd protesters

"Dear Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie ..." begins the video created by Letters for Black Lives. The video is to assist you in explaining to the older members of your families whiy they should support Black Americans in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

The majority of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are first generation immigrants who come from countries that are largely homogeneous

Too often, they don't how to navigate through the diversity of peoples who live in the United States. It is more difficult for the parents to get used to work with people of different faiths and races.

It is usually a different story for their children who attend schools who quickly adapt to the richness of American culture. It iss up to younger genereations to explain to their parents why AAPI should support the Black community's quest for equal justice and rights.

Letters for Black Lives began as a group of Asian Americans and Canadians writing an intergenerational letter to voice our concerns and support for the Black community. 

"We have since grown to include other immigrant groups and communities of color. Our goal is to listen, support, and amplify the message of Black Lives Matter within our communities," says the Letters website.

Letters for Black Lives (lettersforblacklives.com) started as a crowdsourced letter for Asian-American children who wanted a framework for discussing issues of anti-Blackness and police violence with their immigrant parents. It’s quickly grown into a vibrant community with more than 200 contributors, 30 translations, and many more voices being shared through words, sound, and video. 

This particular video was created in 2016. An updated version is in the works.

George Floyd's death solidifying AAPI support for justice and #BlackLivesMatter

The presence of former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao, a Hmng American, during the arrest and death of George Floyd, a black man, has raised a social media storm of commentary on the social media website.

As his fellow officers were holding Floyd to the ground, with former officer Derek Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, Thao stood between the officers and the crowd of onlookers, some of whom were recording Floyd's dying breathes and pleading for the officers to let up from the ground.

The Minnesota event has forced AAPI organizations and individuals to admit to the little discussed anti-Black bias that exists within some elements of the AAPI community.

“George Floyd’s cries of ‘I can’t breathe’ parallel the words of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014. As George Floyd lay struggling to breathe, Officer Tou Thao had the opportunity and the authority to stop the situation. It is unconscionable that he chose to do nothing,” said John C. Yang, Advancing Justice | AAJC’s President and Executive Director.

“We are in a time where doing anything while Black garners unwanted attention and unnecessary law enforcement interaction – and too often death," said Yang. "We are also in a time where being Asian Americans means being harassed, attacked, and blamed for COVID-19. As many Asian Americans are speaking out about this hate, we must also show up for the African American community.”

“Racism and discrimination are experienced by every African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American in this country. We must act against this violence and assault on our communities. It has always been time for racial solidarity, but we need to come together now more than ever.”

Author Louis Leung wrote a commentary for published in Asian Articulations:

"Let’s get this out of the way: Tou Thao is a despicable human being. M.P.D. Badge #7162 has a history of excessive brutality and a settled out-of-court case for $25,000," wrote Leung. "He’s the Asian cop in the infamous George Floyd murder video and his immoral professional choices should absolutely be condemned. The defend-Asians-no-matter-what crowd is wrong here; put the tribalism aside and sit this one out.

In his essay, novelist Leung brought up the "Anti-blackness," that threads its way through the AAPI community. "Yes, the A word. The Asian community hates hearing it. The Asian community can’t make up it’s mind to define it — is bringing awareness of black violence to innocent Asians “anti-blackness”? Is not letting our daughters date black men “anti-blackness”? Is serving black customers in our restaurants and nail salons while whispering negative presumptions about them “anti-blackness”? The answer is, well, that’s really not up for us to decide. We decide anti-Asianness, not anti-blackness.

"Please believe me when I say the Tou Thao is not a representation of us; he is the worst, the bottom 5%. The blatant killing of so many innocent black men is abhorrent to our society; being black in America should not be a death sentence. It can’t be swept under a rug of whataboutisms. Blaming Asians is a waste of valuable energy. It’s too bad the wrong Asian was in the right place to stop a crime at the right time," Leung concludes.

RELATED: A manifesto for AAPI ...

The Japanese American Citizens League sent a letter to Minneapolis Police Dept. strongly condemning the actions of the four police officers involved in Floyd's death and aligned the civil rights organization with the call for equal justice for Black Americans:

The Asian Minnesotans Against Racism and Xenophobia Collaborative an open letter published in their website.

The number of organizations signing onto this letter continues to grow. Click here for the complete letter and the updated list.

In addition, the controversial topic went viral in the twitterverse. Floyd's death at the hands of the police incensed rapper and filmmaker Ruby Ibarra and moved her to post a series of tweets :

Here's a sampling of the tweets calling for justice for George Floyd and #BlaciLivesMatter:

Opinion: Asian/Americans cannot remain silent

Asian/Americans joined Black Lives Matter marchers

By Mandy Day
Reprinted from AsAm News
THERE HAS ALWAYS been an ethnic hierarchy in the western world. The very system that rules the land in the United States existed to protect Whites when it was originally created. While the Bill of Rights was written in language inclusive of all people, we cannot ignore that millions of people were left out of our country’s most sacred legal document. 

Asians and Pacific Islanders have been living on U.S. soil since before the United States was a country. More than four hundred years ago, Filipinos arrived on the West Coast. With a massive wave of Chinese immigration in the 1800s, fearing the growing influence and power of Chinese in American society, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, four years after Chinese immigrants were barred from obtaining U.S. citizenship. The decades following the Chinese Exclusion Act saw dozens of laws restricting the rights of immigrants from Asia, including another discriminatory law, The Immigration Act of 1924 (or Oriental Exclusion Act). Interracial marriage was illegal for Asian Americans, segregation was legal, and in 1942, Executive Order 9066 imprisoned 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps without due process.

RELATED: Dear Asian Americans: Black Lives Matter

There are obvious parallels between the racism and discrimination against Asians and Asian/Americans, and those committed against Native Americans, Latinos, and African/Americans. What differentiates us from Blacks is that our population has been and continues to be largely influenced by immigration rather than citizens by birthright. With that select immigration comes a predominantly well-educated population of people, thus making East and South Asian, and Middle Eastern communities the most economically successful group of ethnic minorities. With that comes a higher status on the ethnic hierarchy mentioned above, and the still common assumption that some Asians are “model minorities”. The connection between AAPI growth and civil rights in the U.S. are illustrated in an article by Christopher Punongbayan from 2015 on what we, as Asian Americans, owe African/Americans. He wrote:

"I am horrified by these deaths. But what is equally disturbing to me is how many Asian/Americans distance themselves from these attacks on African/Americans, as though what happens to another community of color has nothing to do with Asian/Americans. This separation is destructive and perpetuates the model minority myth, a racial stereotype deeply ingrained in the American psyche asserting that Asian/Americans aren’t like other (read: lesser) minority groups."

Humanity has entered an era where almost anything can be seen or found on the internet. Cameras are everywhere. Billions of people can access anything that is put on the web within seconds, and mobile technology has only increased what we see, how we learn, and our ability to affect change. In recent years, the killing of unarmed people by police has become something of an all too common occurrence. I have personally seen dozens of people die, and am disgusted by how voyeuristic it seems to watch the last seconds of a complete stranger’s life. White supremacy’s existence was easy to deny when proof of its continued existence wasn’t presented to us on a daily basis.

RELATED: Asian/American conventions need to bridge the racial divide

We didn’t see Oscar Grant die at the hands of a transit police officer in Oakland. We didn’t see Trayvon Martin’s last breath nor did we see what happened when Sandra Bland died in a jail cell in Texas under extraordinarily suspicious circumstances. But we saw Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and more recently Alton Sterling and Philando Castile lose their lives. The latter two killings, I couldn’t bring myself to watch. Instead, watching Sterling’s eldest child fall apart on national television broke me. Any hope I had of change in how the U.S. does policing ended that night.

When I recollect my own experiences with racism, either as a witness or being subjected to it, I can’t imagine what it must be like for Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans. Often mistaken for being Latina, my mother and I have been followed, discriminated against and pulled over when driving because we “looked suspicious”. If we looked East Asian, chances are that stereotypes applied to our ethnicity would have prevented us from most, if not all, of these experiences. This has driven me to be acutely aware of racism existent in our country, and outspoken of the injustices committed against targeted ethnic groups. 

Not surprisingly, many Asian/Americans have remained largely silent on police brutality. The disproportionate number of Black, Latino, and Native people killed by police should be extremely alarming to Asian Americans. Our families, communities, and we have been in the very shoes these groups of people are in now, and pretty much always have been in. We have been dehumanized, abused, murdered, imprisoned, segregated, stereotyped and discriminated against. What is disturbing is how silent older generations of Asian/Americans, the people who endured the worst of what American society and the U.S. government had to throw at them, have been. When people take to the streets to protest police brutality, the majority of Asian/Americans who join them are not the elders. They’re the Millennials.

Looking back, anti-blackness has been extremely prevalent in East Asian communities. Is it because demonizing this group of people has imprinted itself in our cultures due to Western influence? Is it because many of our communities operate on the belief that Walter Scott, Miriam Carey, Rekia Boyd, and Laquan McDonald all had it coming to them somehow? Or are we just accepting that such violence is a part of life? Why is the apathy in the Asian/American community so rampant? 

RELATED: AAPI leaders respond to shootings in Minnesota, Louisiana and Dallas.

The Pew Research Center did a study on subconscious racial bias and found that only 22 percent of Asian-white subjects had no racial preference, and only 2 percent of monoracial Asians were bias-free. We all grow and change as we age. Well, most of us do. I didn’t even notice my own prejudices until I was in college. With hopes of rectifying the problem, I educated myself on how economics, gender, race, education, and social structure all play a role in how we perceive groups of people. Many times, I find my own Japanese/American community painfully patriarchal and agitating. Fighting elders who believe that being a part of Black Lives Matter equates to wanting all cops to die is draining and stressful. With the discouraging encounters and prevailing naiveté, there is hope.

The killings continue to draw more outrage and acknowledgment of racism’s existence in the U.S. from some very surprising sources, like conservative political leader Newt Gingrich. The pressure for change will continue to grow, and Asian/Americans are becoming a vocal portion of the movement. 

The Japanese American Citizens League released a statement about race in America and a call to action for all Americans to combat racism and police brutality. So did the Council on American Islamic Relations, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and South Asian American Policy & Research Institute. Several APIA members of Congress have released statements decrying the disproportionate number of black men being killed by police including Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Los Angeles). Journalists, celebrities, and bloggers are speaking out trying to change the perception of non-Asian minorities in the U.S. like Scot Nakagawa who wrote about Asian racism for Race Files. Actor and activist George Takei has posted to his nearly ten million fans about Black Lives Matter and the counterproductive #AllLiveMatter hashtag. Even Forbes Magazine’s website published an article about Asian Americans taking action to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

Something I’ve always tried to live by (and have failed at innumerable times), that it is a wonderful thing to be proud of where you come from, your ethnic heritage, but you have to know when to call out your community too. Our silence and inaction is complicity. Just like cops who remain silent when fellow law enforcement officers violate the human and civil rights of people of color. By failing to acknowledge the existence of racism and look within ourselves to discover our own prejudices, we help perpetuate the ideology that has poisoned the core of our society. Our ethnicity does not define us, our humanity does.

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Asian/American conventions this summer should reach out to help heal the nation's racial division

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) kicks off today in Las Vegas.

On July 21, the Organization of Chinese Americans  (OCA) will meet for three days in New Jersey for its 43rd annual convention.

A couple of weeks later, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) will be staging its 12th National Empowerment Conference on August 4-7 in Philadelphia.

On August 10, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) will convene in Las Vegas.

The Asian/American organizations are meeting during an unsettled time in the nation's history and in the midst of an unprecedented presidential campaign that could determine the direction of the U.S. for decades to come.

We can expect speeches, panels, workshops, galas, dinners and a lot of pats-on-the-backs as the leaders of their respective communities reenergize themselves for the coming year's activities and projects.

We hope they take the opportunity to make a bold statement to bridge the apparent gap between the Asian/American and African/American communities. 

The differences between the communities were brought to the fore with the Peter Liang and Akai Gurley case when large Asian/American demonstrations were held across the nation on behalf of former NYPD cop Liang. His supporters felt that he was a scapegoat for all the shootings of black people by law enforcement.

RELATED: Dear Asian Americans ... Black Lives Matter

Gurley's supporters also sought justice for the fatal shooting by a police officer. Gurley's shooting was just one in a growing string of police shootings from Ferguson to Detroit to the latest shootings in Minneapolis and Baton Rouge. For many, the shootings were manifestations of the injustice, racial profiling and unequal treatment at the hands of law enforcement. The anger and frustration amplified because all the shooters (except for the lone Asian officer) were not punished or convicted. That anger and frustration gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, 

The so-called "joke" disparaging Asians during the Oscars telecast hosted by African/American host Chris Rock left many Asian/Americans shaking their heads in disbelief at how easy it was to joke about Asians. Adding salt to the wound was the fact that this year, a heavy emphasis was placed on diversity because of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

Besides the violence in the streets and the marginalization on the Oscar stage,  the anti-affirmative positions taken by some Asian immigrant groups is being used as a wedge to separate Asian/Americans from other  beneficiaries of the affirmative action college admission programs -- African/Americans and Latino/Americans.

Conservatives love to throw the model minority myth into the face of other minority groups which, in turn, divides us from what should be our natural allies in a country still dominated by Euro/American culture and institutional power in education, employment, politics and in the criminal justice system.

RELATED: AAPI leaders respond to shootings in Minnesota, Louisiana and Dallas.

Asian/American voices are unheard or marginalized -- that is, unless we say or do something that solidifies our model minority image as patsies for those who are really in power -- like filing complaints or lawsuits against college admission strategies that seek to diversify their student body.

That's why the organizations holding their conventions this summer need to take the opportunity to bridge the growing gulf between our communities and other communities of color, especially the African/American community which paved the way for the civil right gains Asian/Americans have enjoyed in the last 50 years.

RELATED: Model minority - the myth that won't go away

Black Lives Matter is not intended to say ONLY black lives that matter. The demonstrators of the BLM movement are saying that black lives matter TOO! We already know that white lives matter. (Look at America's emotional outpouring in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris compared to the way they reacted to attacks in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Istanbul, Africa, Indonesia and Bangladesh.)

As leaders of our communities, these organizations should make a clear statement where they stand in the current context of the inequities that exist in our criminal justice system, not only by front line police officers but also in the courts, the prisons and in rehabilitation.

By doing so we should recognize that we have more in common with other minority communities than we have differences and that our goals of equal treatment and equal opportunity under the law, in the board rooms, on the job, and in the classroom are goals we all can strive for -- together.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Dear Asian Americans ... Black Lives Matter

Rafu Shimpo photo

Asian/Americans show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

AHHH - YOUTH! (That exclamation is not intended to be dismissive but instead, an expression of admiration.)

The power of the internet was on display in full force yesterday as hundreds of people contributed to a powerful letter from a younger generation of Asian/Americans to the generation of their first generation immigrant parents.

The open letter was started on the morning of July 7th, 2016. Its original intent was to be a multilingual resource for Asian/American children who wanted to talk to their immigrant parents about anti-Blackness and police violence. 

"We wanted to write a letter—not a think-piece or an explainer or a history lesson—because changing hearts and minds in our community requires time and trust, and is best shaped with dialogue," the writers said on their website. "We also want to do our part to normalize support for Black Lives Matter."

RELATED: Asian Americans need to reach out to help heal the nation's racial divisions

Though the conversation has expanded due to the interests of so many people, their goal is publish this letter and as many translations as possible so that people can share it with their parents by early next week.

I know, there are many "older" Asian/Americans who might want to call the letter writers "Unrealistic Idealists." I remember being called that once. Maybe you were called that too. Remember those college days protesting against the Vietnam War and the draft; or, you went on strike for ethnic studies; maybe you were there blockading the cops from entering San Francisco's International Hotel; or you were marching in support of the farm workers in California; or you demanded justice for Vincent Chin.

Young people in Asia also demonstrated against colonialism, dictatorships, unfair elections, for women's rights, for human rights, to free political prisoners, for a more open society. 

Maybe you were there, too: At EDSA to force Ferdinand Marcos to flee the Philippines, at Tianaman Square, witnessed the Partition in south Asia, at Tokyo's Diet in 1968, took part in Myanmar's 1988 uprising, or in Hong Kong when it was returned to China. Every Asian country had its protests, usually sparked by its young people. Some ended in victory, many failed.

But you know what? Every little bit helps. Changes in attitudes are not going to happen overnight. Starting this conversation is another chip on that big ol' mountain of ignorance and intolerance that has haunted this country from its very beginning.

The model minority myth is what non-Asians would prefer us to aspire to and it is a useful stereotype in order to separate us from other minority groups. However, protests  and demonstrations are as much a part of our heritage as working hard and attaining good grades.

Read their letter:
Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother:

We need to talk.

You may not have grown up around people who are Black, but I have. Black people are a fundamental part of my life: they are my friends, my classmates and teammates, my roommates, my family. Today, I'm scared for them.

This year, the American police have already killed more than 500 people. Of those, 25% have been Black, even though Black people make up only 13% of the population. Earlier this week in Louisiana, two White police officers killed a Black man named Alton Sterling while he sold CDs on the street. The very next day in Minnesota, a police officer shot and killed a Black man named Philando Castile in his car during a routine traffic stop while his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter looked on. Overwhelmingly, the police do not face any consequences for ending these lives.

This is a terrifying reality that some of my closest friends live with every day.

Even as we hear about the dangers Black Americans face, our instinct is sometimes to point at all the ways we are different from them. To shield ourselves from their reality instead of empathizing. When a policeman shoots a Black person, you might think it's the victim's fault because you see so many images of them in the media as thugs and criminals. After all, you might say, we managed to come to America with nothing and build good lives for ourselves despite discrimination, so why can't they?

I want to share with you how I see things.

It's true that we face discrimination for being Asian in this country. Sometimes people are rude to us about our accents, or withhold promotions because they don't think of us as "leadership material." Some of us are told we're terrorists. But for the most part, nobody thinks "dangerous criminal" when we are walking down the street. The police do not gun down our children and parents for simply existing.

This is not the case for our Black friends. Many Black people were brought to America as slaves against their will. For centuries, their communities, families and bodies were ripped apart for profit. Even after slavery, they had to build back their lives by themselves, with no institutional support — not allowed to vote or own homes, and constantly under threat of violence that continues to this day.

In fighting for their own rights, Black activists have led the movement for opportunities not just for themselves, but for us as well. Many of our friends and relatives are only able to be in this country because Black activists fought to open up immigration for Asians in the 1960s. Black people have been beaten, jailed, even killed fighting for many of the rights that Asian Americans enjoy today. We owe them so much in return. We are all fighting against the same unfair system that prefers we compete against each other.

When someone is walking home and gets shot by a sworn protector of the peace — even if that officer's last name is Liang — that is an assault on all of us, and on all of our hopes for equality and fairness under the law.

For all of these reasons, I support the Black Lives Matter movement. Part of that support means speaking up when I see people in my community — or even my own family — say or do things that diminish the humanity of Black Americans in this country. I am telling you this out of love, because I don't want this issue to divide us. I'm asking that you try to empathize with the anger and grief of the fathers, mothers and children who have lost their loved ones to police violence. To empathize with my anger and grief, and support me if I choose to be vocal, to protest. To share this letter with your friends, and encourage them to be empathetic, too.

As your child, I am proud and eternally grateful that you made the long, hard journey to this country, that you've lived decades in a place that has not always been kind to you. You've never wished your struggles upon me. Instead, you've suffered through a prejudiced America, to bring me closer to the American Dream.

But I hope you can consider this: the American Dream cannot exist for only your children. We are all in this together, and we cannot feel safe until ALL our friends, loved ones and neighbors are safe. The American Dream that we seek is a place where all Americans can live without fear of police violence. This is the future that I want — and one that I hope you want, too.

With love and hope,

Your daughters, sons, nieces, nephews and grandchildren

Not your model minority: Asian Americans have a history of protests and demonstrations.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

No jail time for Peter Liang

Shirley Ng

Supporters of Peter Liang waited outside the courthouse for the verdict.

By Shirley N Lew
Reprinted from AsAmNews

JUDGE DANNY CHUN sentenced ex-NYPD officer Peter Liang yesterday (April 19) to a reduced charge of criminally negligent homicide from second degree manslaughter.

With the reduced charge, Chun’s sentenced Liang to five years probation and 800 hours of community service. The judge removed the recommended six months of house arrest, but increased the community hours from 500 as originally recommended by the Brooklyn DA, Ken Thompson.

Liang was facing up to 15 years of manslaughter for an accidental shooting of Akai Gurley in the Pink Houses during a vertical patrol in 2014.

Chun felt Liang would be more productive if he was not just sitting at home under house arrest and also acknowledged the over 40,000 form letters he received in support of Liang.

“I am compelled to modify and reduce the sentence to criminal negligent homicide. The people needed to prove that substantial and unreasonable risk would occur. There is no evidence that the defendant was aware of Gurley’s presence. Shooting that gun and killing somebody was the last thing on his mind,” the judge said.

RELATED: Justice is not just a black and white issue

Sobs were heard from Gurley’s family and supporters in the courtroom as the judge read Liang’s sentence.

“It’s still a conviction even-though it’s a criminal negligent homicide,” said community activist and Director of Free Masons, Karlin Chan. “It’s a relief to get rid of the manslaughter charge. Like I’ve said, I’ve sat in on so many trials and the verdict reached by jury was unsupported by testimony and evidence presented at the trial, and that it was more an emotional verdict to hold police accountable. The judge looked at the evidence, he did the right thing. He stood by the letter of the law and he made the right decision. “

Supporters of Gurley believed that Liang never called for help. Complicating the matter the night of the incident is that Liang and his partner Shaun Landau did not know immediately that a man was shot. When they did, they both were not able to perform CPR, they said because of inadequate training.

Landau testified in the trial and was then fired from the NYPD. He was never charged.

When asked if the Liang’s legal team will still appeal, Chan replied, “We will discuss that even though it is now a Class E felony. We still try to clear his name totally.”

Just before the judge read Liang’s sentence, Liang read his statement, ”I always treated people fairly and with respect.”

Outside the courthouse, demonstrator Marquis Jenkins said, “For decade and centuries, the criminal justice system has been holding people of color hostage. We are yet again disappointed, but not surprised by today’s verdict. We will continue to advocate, immobilize and organize for justice. We can not allow another person of color to fall, to die in the hand of the system that was designed to protect us.”

Before the sentencing, about a hundred Liang supporters already formed across the street. They held signs in English and Chinese that read “Stand up to justice,” and “Tragic accident does not equal manslaughter.”

The probation department will determine when the sentencing will begin and the type of service Liang will be performing in the community.

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The Peter Liang case demonstrates that justice is not simply a black-and-white issue

The banner pretty much sums up the situation.

Editor's Note: When a New York police officer Peter Liang shot at Akai Gurley resulting in Gurley's death, activists in the African/American community, led by Black Lives Matter, rose up demanding justice. When the NYC District Attorney brought charges against Liang resulting in a conviction, Asian/Americans across the country rose up in protest because they believe Liang, because he is Asian, is being made a scapegoat. They argue other police officers (who are white) in similar circumstances have not been charged. 

Other Asian/American groups sided with Black Lives Matter, in solidarity with the African American community, sought justice for what they see as unjustified police violence against African/Americans.

What has happened is an apparent schism between the African/American and Asian/American communities, both with sound arguments for their positions; two minority groups seeking justice in a judicial system that sometimes seem stacked against both of them.

Since Liang's conviction, the D.A. said his office would not seek a jail sentence for him.

Following is a commentary from one Asian/American who decided to take the stance on behalf of Liang.

By J.L. Chan

Reprinted from AsAm News

I WAS AMONGthe tens of thousands rallying in support of Officer Peter Liang at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn on Feb 20 2016. While I had mixed emotions about attending the protest which I found out about on Facebook, I felt compelled to do my part to speak out against the persecution of a man whose mistakes do not rise to the level of criminality, but must bear the wrongs of a nation and the anger of many.

As an Asian American, I am not supporting Peter Liang on the basis of our shared ethnicity or that I too, grew up in New York City’s Chinatown as an immigrant to this country over four decades ago. I am supporting him because the facts of the case do not add up to that of the manslaughter charge levied against him. Even prior precedents have yielded no conviction for accidental deaths under less clear cut circumstances. His conviction was unfair and unjust, selective prosecution, as many protest signs read.

There was clearly a different and harsher standard applied to Liang. Even setting aside standard and precedents, the specific set of circumstances in Liang’s case on its own merit is more akin to accidental death than manslaughter. There was no conscious intentional recklessness involved. In fact, it should have been settled as a civil case and not that of a criminal case. There should not have been an indictment in the first place. It was a tragic accident, not a crime.

Peter Liang was found guilty.

I was at the protest with some college friends. None of us have participated in prior demonstrations before but felt the Liang case was so egregious that we simply could not turn the other cheek. I met a couple from New Jersey there with their two young sons, and another couple where the Caucasian husband had insisted that his Asian wife attend. We all shared the same sentiment that Liang’s conviction was a blatant miscarriage of justice. It was inspiring and a powerful experience seeing so many Asian Americans in a show of solidarity in support of justice for Liang. It was about standing up for what is right.
When I first heard about the accidental discharge from Liang’s gun and the subsequent death of Akai Gurley, I knew then that Liang’s fate was sealed and written. The incident took place within a politically and racially charged climate of anti-police brutality and no indictments for Black lives lost at the hands of police officers. Never mind that Liang was an odd choice as the poster boy for police brutality, there was a hunger to convict a cop at all costs and Liang was Asian American, an easy target. It would be the perfect storm.

This is where I say that the overzealous prosecution got it wrong. And the jury got it wrong. The unique circumstances of this case are different from the others where Black lives were lost. There was no direct shooting at a victim, no conscious intention to kill, only that of an accidental discharge and the blind ricocheting of the bullet. It was an accident. Peter Liang is not a criminal and should not have been prosecuted as one.

As many were quick to offer their condemnations, some facts of the case became muddled with people passing judgment based on misinformation maliciously leaked to bolster the case to hang Liang.

On Nov 20 2014, Liang and his partner Shaun Landau, both rookie NYPD police officers, were conducting vertical patrols in the city’s housing projects of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, known to be a dangerous place, where the lights have been in disrepair for months and the stairwell was pitch black. Liang and his partner were on the 8th floor when he was startled by a loud noise and his gun went off. Incredulously, the discharged bullet hit the wall and then ricocheted in a downward trajectory piercing Akai Gurley’s heart, who was entering into the darkened stairwell one floor below on the 7th floor. While the mathematical probability of this fluke accident happening is probably close to an infinitesimal zero, it happened, and Gurley died from the ricocheted bullet. It was plain and obvious that Liang had never intended to fire at Gurley. Liang did not even know that Gurley was at the lower level of the stairwell when his gun went off.

Immediately after the shot went off, Liang and his partner returned to the hallway, where they debated who would call their supervisor. It was in the hallway that Liang worried about his job due to the accidental discharge, all the while not knowing that the bullet had hit someone. It was only after Liang then went back into the stairwell to look for the bullet did he hear Gurley’s girlfriend. It wasn’t until Liang went down the stairs did he realized a man had been hit.

Fliedner, the lead prosecutor in the case, said in court that a report by the Daily News — which claimed Liang texted his union representative right after the shooting — was FALSE.

“We don’t believe [Liang] intended to kill Mr. Gurley,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson told reporters, “but he had his finger on the trigger.

While it is easy for the prosecutor to say that Liang should not have had his finger on the trigger, it is not unreasonable to expect when an officer is on high alert, he or she may have the discretion to be ready to fire at an imminent or unexpected threat in a dangerous environment. As a painful reminder of the constant dangers police officers face day-in, day-out, and especially so while patrolling in the city’s most dangerous, gun-ridden housing projects, two NYPD police officers were gunned down at point-blank range at a Bronx housing project on Feb 4 while on vertical patrol. The officers were doing the same type of vertical patrol at the Melrose Houses on E. 156th Street as Liang was doing at the Pink Houses. One of the officers was seriously wounded. The perpetrator, who was recently released from prison for armed robbery, ran to a friend’s apartment and then killed himself. The incident took place in a well-lit stairwell; Liang was facing a dark stairwell which was even more dangerous.

Studies have shown that 20% of law enforcement officers habitually put their finger on the trigger of their weapons when under stress without even realizing it. It is in recognition of police officers often being in the line of fire, and may make unintended mistakes in a dangerous situation, that our legal system has mostly not pursued criminal prosecution for similar to or worse offenses than Liang’s.

The prosecution had each juror handle a firearm similar to Liang’s in the courtroom to gauge the pressure needed to pull the trigger. That was nothing but a dog and pony show. There is no comparison between someone calmly pulling a trigger in a secure controlled environment versus having to react instantly on high alert in a dangerous environment.

The prosecution also accused Liang of being reckless in not providing immediate medical help to Gurley right after the incident causing his death. That is not exactly true. Liang and his partner did not know that Gurley was hit by the ricocheted bullet until quite a while later. And when they finally did, Gurley’s girlfriend was already applying CPR under the instruction of a 911 operator. And the real help did arrive within a few minutes after Liang and his partner found that Gurley was shot. Another point the prosecutor neglected to tell the jury is that the ricocheted bullet had pierced through Gurley’s heart, a fatal shot that no amount of CPR could have saved Gurley, not even if a surgeon was there at the scene.

As to Liang and his partner not offering to take over administering CPR, they both felt that they were not qualified to do a better job than that already being done due to inadequate training. A 6-year-old-girl died a few years earlier when a police officer refused to administer CPR because he was not properly trained and the officer was not charged. You can blame the system for that failure, as evidenced by the recent disciplinary action taken against the CPR instructor who taught Liang’s class for lapses in CPR instruction.

Peter Liang has been nothing but remorseful and apologetic. He was in shock after the accidental shooting. He broke down and cried by Gurley’s body and as a senior Officer at the scene confirmed, Liang wished the bullet had ricocheted and hit him instead. The first words spoken by Liang’s mother at the protest were apologies and condolences to the Gurley family before she was unable to utter another word through her sobs. It was one tragedy, two victims, as the protest signs read.

Peter Liang is not a callous individual. He decided to become a police officer to protect people because his mom was robbed. He was sent to the Pink Houses to protect the residents, including Akai Gurley, while innocent at the time he was accidentally shot, was a known drug dealer to the police with 24 prior arrests. I bring this up not to blame the victim but to point out the dangerous elements associated with patrolling of the Pink Houses.

While Liang the rookie police officer is made to shoulder all the blame, one must ask where are his superiors? The same people who put him into this unforgiving situation. The NYPD should take accountability as should the NYCHA for broken lights and unsafe housing and stairwell.

If Liang was a bad person, thousands would not be out there protesting and continuing to support him. He is not a criminal or a threat to society. He is entitled to fair treatment and equal justice under the law. In fact, true justice would be the rightful setting aside of his wrongful conviction, as his lawyers are currently appealing. Liang does not deserve to be incarcerated. Any jail time sentenced would be an atrocity.

In the latest turn of events, and in a small gesture of fairness, Brooklyn DA Thompson has recommended no jail time for Liang. It is now incumbent upon Judge Danny Chun to also rule fairly with no jail time so as not to further compound the injustice befallen upon Peter Liang.

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Vanita Gupta: The criminalization of poverty

Vanita Gupta, an Indian/American, heads the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.

VANITA GUPTA, the head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, compared Flint, Michigan to Ferguson, Mo., in a speech she gave Friday (Feb. 19) at a two-day symposium on the criminalization of poverty held at the University of Michigan Law School.

"In communities across America today, from Ferguson, Mo., to Flint, Mich., too many people — especially young people and people of color – live trapped by the weight of poverty and injustice," said Gupta. "They suffer the disparate impact of policies driven by, at best, benign neglect, and at worst, deliberate indifference. And they see how discrimination stacks the deck against them."

Before he left office in 2014, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Gupta, who at the time was deputy legal director for the ACLU, had “spent her entire career working to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of equal justice for all.” He also praised her ability to work across the aisle.

“We come from a different side of spectrum than ACLU,” says Marc Levin, policy director for the conservative criminal justice reform organization Right on Crime. “But, I’ve found her interested in identifying areas where we can work together.”

The 41-year-old lawyer was born in Philadelphia to Indian/American immigrant parents and later went on to Yale University and New York University's Law School. 

Her most famous case was also one of her first. While working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2003, Gupta successfully got a judge to overturn the convictions of 38 African Americans from Tulia, Texas after they were wrongfully arrested in a drug sting.

Gupta led the DOJ investigation of the Ferguson police department after a police officer fatally shot the unarmed Michael Brown, and African American teenager. The DOJ file suit on Feb. 10 against the City of Ferguson in order to force the city to institute reform in its policing policies.

The civil-rights lawsuit against Ferguson alleges the city routinely violated residents’ rights and misused law enforcement to generate revenue — a practice the government said was “ongoing and pervasive.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Ferguson’s decision to reject the agreement left the department no choice except to sue.

"As we discuss the inequality that pervades our criminal justice system – a defining civil rights challenge of the 21stcentury – we must also acknowledge the broader inequalities we face in other segments of society," she said at the symposium. 

RELATED: Read Vanita Gupta's complete speech

"Discrimination in so many areas – from the classroom, to the workforce, to the marketplace – perpetuates the inequality we see in our justice system. And for those already living paycheck-to-paycheck, a single incident – whether an arrest by the police or a fine by the court – can set off a downward spiral. It can lead to a cycle of profound problems that ruin lives and tear apart families. Problems like losing your health care, your job, your children or your home."

"Too many people grow up in our country and view justice as the provenance of the wealthy. They hear about the ideal of equal justice, but they find that in reality, it feels distant from the grasp of their community – far off and out of reach.

"Together," she concluded, "we must fulfill the fundamental promise of America – a promise that is written throughout our Constitution and woven into the fabric of our nation – so that we can make equal justice, equal opportunity and fundamental fairness a reality for all."

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For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Finally, Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders' stakes out a position on race

Black Lives Matters activists interrupted Bernie Sanders Seattle rally on Social Security.

SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS chose to unveil his plank on combating racial inequality in the whitest city in America. 

A day after being confronted by black activists in Seattle, Sanders, battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, released his first detailed statement on race relations in Portland, a city some call the whitest big city in America because 75% of it's residents are white.

Not coincidentally, he drew 28,000 to his Portland rally, the largest crowd he's addressed during his campaign vs. favorite Hillary Clinton. That apparent disconnect between his campaign and people of color is part of the problem.

"We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic," his racial justice platform begins.


At a Netroots Nation town hall held in Phoenix in July, BLM activists interrupted Sanders and Gov. Martin O'Malley, asking the candidates about their positions on racial justice.

Shortly thereafter, O'Malley made the matter a part of his campaign and outlined a detail position on the issue. “For too long, our justice system has reinforced our country’s cruel history of racism.”

Sanders, on the other hand (perhaps the toil of the campaign was starting to get to him) responded defensively, "I've spent 50 years of my life fighting for civil rights. If you don't want me to be here, that's OK." 

The protesters were unimpressed, according to Dara Lind writing for Vox. "Your 'progressive' is not enough," Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and one of the protesters who took the stage, told the press as a message to Sanders and other presidential candidates. "We need more." 

RELATED: If you are interested in this issue and want to dive deeper, Lind's article is an excellent starting point.

At an event in Houston the following day, Sanders talked at length about Sandra Bland (who died in police custody in July), more than he had previously. 

The timing of the plank's appearance on Sander's website is hard to ignore, the day after the candidate was confronted by Black Lives Matter activists at his Seattle rally. The activists took over the microphone and shortly thereafter, Sanders left the stage without delivering his speech.

In Portland the next day, Sanders introduced his newest star member, Symone Sanders, a black criminal justice advocate, to serve as his national press secretary. Sanders, who is of no relation to the candidate, introduced Senator Sanders at the Seattle event on Saturday.

Even though Symone Sanders applied for the position weeks ago, the timing of the announcement of her hiring seems to be more than coincidence. 

Representing Vermont, a state that is 95% white and only 2.4 percent Asian, we were beginning to wonder if the senator has had many encounters with people of color and/or their issues. His appeal as a democratic socialist who attacks Wall Street's big money by raging about income inequality is gaining momentum and making frontrunner Clinton's campaign start to notice.

His platform is a detailed document that outlines his position on racial inequality and justice. It is unfortunate that he has to be confronted before he released this statement. He has won praise from activists for at least we know that he acknowledges the issues surrounding race is still unresolved in this country despite having the first African/American president. This admission is a huge step forward. 

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and reelected in 2012, many people thought that America had passed the test of race and we were living in a "post-racial" society. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Obama served as a flashpoint for the fearful racists. If anything, the events of the last few years and how conservatives disrespected the Office of the President, demonstrates that the opposite is true.

The strong white backlash towards having a black President brought the racists out of the woodwork. With no one grown-up enough, or strong enough to temper their views, conservative luminaries and the Fox network made it socially acceptable (or, at least in those far-right circles) for bigots to share their biased views without the filter of civility. (Lest  you forget the unprecedented act of a congressman shouting "You lie!" during the president's State of the Union.) Other incidents - too numerous to mention - indicate that racism is no longer a social faux pas in the America of 2015.

Just because President Obama is not a candidate this time around doesn't mean we are finished talking about race. We saw bias in play the other night in the first Republican candidates' debate, during which Dr. Ben Carson was basically ignored. Views From The Edge will continue to cover the Presidential campaigns in the coming months.

We here at the Edge, hope that Sander's campaign doesn't dissolve into that tired old paradigm of only a black and white America. America's diversity is much more complicated than that. While African-Americans, or "black Americans" were mentioned throughout Sanders' platform statement, "Latino" was mentioned only once. "Asian-American" or "Pacific Islander" were not mentioned at all. 

EDITOR'S  NOTE: There is an Asian-Americans for Bernie Sanders Facebook page, but I have no idea how legitimate it is or if it is affiliated with Sander's campaign.

All the candidates - Democratic, Republican or whatever party - need to make their positions clear where they stand on social and racial justice, immigration reform, the tilted criminal justice system, affirmative action and the ever-widening disparities in wealth, health and education. 

To Sander's supporters please understand:  It is not enough to just limit your conversations to economic justice as the cure-all for America's ills. If you think income inequality is bad for the country, overlay that issue with America's current state of race relations, the problem gets more complex by ten. To people of color, income inequality and racial inequality go hand-in-hand. You cannot address one without grappling with the other.

That's why Black Lives Matter activists and other people of color want the issue in the forefront, not shuffled off to the margins of this presidential campaign. We're tired of waiting around for candidates to acknowledge our issues, our presence. That's why some feel that they have to take matters into their own hands at the risk of alienating the progressive supporters of Sanders and the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party. That's why we're impatient. That's why we're angry. 

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