No prison time for NYPD officer in stairwell shooting case
wral.com/ex-nypd-officer-to-be-sentenced-in-s...Posted Apr 19, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC
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wral.com
They want to put the laughter back in manslaughter with this decision.
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Chun sentenced Liang to five years probation and 800 hours of community service.
Any ordinary citizen does what Officer Liang did and they throw us in jail for life and throw away the key. But I guess cops are special. Apparently they're better than the rest of us. It's okay for them to murder unarmed people for any old reason cause they know full well that to wear that shiny little badge is to forever have a get out of jail free card. It justifies all manner of evils and injustice. F*** that.
I wonder how Officer Liang or Judge Chun would feel if some rogue cop murdered their wife or mother or father and walked scott free because he's a cop. I'd love to know exactly how they'd feel about that.
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The judge basically said that cops are better than us by saying that because of his background and how remorseful he is that jail time would be unnecessary for the crime. Really?
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Pretty much. I guess the good news is that this sets a precedent for the rest of us. If we kill someone, all we have to do is say we were nervous, it was an accident and we're sorry and just want a do-over.
And walla, we get off with probation and community service- just like this fine, upstanding cop did.
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So if this cop happened to be in front of my car and I happened to get nervous and floor it, I won't get in trouble?
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I don't think it's that cops are better than us, but that the nature of their job adds a certain degree of risk. Like if you fuck up in your job, some website has a missing image box, but if a cop makes a mistake, people die. Should you go to prison for a typo? Because that's what would be fair here.
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Any ordinary citizen does what Officer Liang did and they throw us in jail for life and throw away the key.
Why would an ordinary citizen be patrolling high rise towers of housing projects with a gun out? Officer Liang was doing it because it was part of his job, and apparently it's standard in the NYPD to do it with your gun out.
So let's look at this incident. A door slams which causes Liang to flinch, and he negligently fire his weapon. The round ricochets off a wall and strikes Gurley in the chest.
There was no way this would ever have been considered a murder, so besides being dramatic, what's the point of you using that term?
Also, you can just type out "fuck". It seems like more work to go with "f***".
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Haven't you heard, cops shouldn't be held responsible for 'mistakes' or intentional actions for that matter ! it's a hard job .
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What I find asinine is the commentary by the prosecutors.
But Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has recommended a sentence of five years of probation, including six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring and 500 hours of community service.
Source - http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/us/nypd-officer-sentence-recommendation/
What did Thompson have to say today you may ask?
The prosecution said it will appeal the judge's decision to reduce the verdict.
"My office vigorously prosecuted Peter Liang for manslaughter because the evidence established that his conduct was criminal and the rule of law demanded that he be held accountable for his actions in taking Akai Gurley's life," Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement.
"The jury, the voice of the Brooklyn community, agreed and returned the verdict of guilty against Mr. Liang, who is now a convicted felon, forfeited his career as a police officer and must now always live with the fact that he recklessly caused Mr. Gurley's death."
Source - http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/19/us/nypd-officer-shooting-sentence/index.html
What the actual fuck?
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Trained or not to help a dying person the you just 'accidently' killed. As a human why wouldn't you try to help. That says more about the NYPD'S attitude towards policing the people of NYC than anything.
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Wtf even when they get convicted, they find a way to escape prison time.
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What gets me is that even after reducing his offense from manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide, the conviction still carries a sentence of up to four years. He got community service instead.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt anybody who wasn't a cop would get community service for a negligent homicide.
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So basically this sketch is now real life: https://youtu.be/ttrql2mnOZo
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seems like a real "grey area" case, dark grey, but still grey.
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Look, being a cop is a hard job and if they aren't able to escape prison time and have a license to kill, no one will even do the job! Then what are we gonna do???? What then????
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How many more lives America how many?
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Well it happened 2 years ago so
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Oops missed that oh well :(
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Holy. Shit.
The only thing stranger than the punishment... is how black people don't universally stand up and burn the government to the ground.
I guess in 1992, people had a little more energy.
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I mean, it was an accident. We should try not to send people to prison in general.
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Manslaughter in the 2nd Degree A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when: 1. He recklessly causes the death of another person; ... Criminally Negligent Homicide A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person.
According to the prosecutors, Officer Liang, who is left-handed, pulled out his flashlight with his right hand and unholstered his 9mm Glock with his left. He then shoved open the stairwell door with his right shoulder, turned left to face the seventh-floor landing, where Gurley had just entered. It appeared neither side knew the other was there and no words were exchanged, according to authorities.[16] After being startled, Liang's gun accidentally discharged as he opened the door and the bullet ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley once in the chest, who died within minutes.
I know that this thread is going to be full of the cop bashers, and people yelling about how unfair everything is. However, this case definitely fits criminal negligence. Reckless would have been if he just ran in the building and started shooting for no reason at all. Negligent is being in a dark place, startled, and you shoot at a wall and it ricochets into someone.
So yea, I know this will be the minority opinion in this thread, but there is a reason it happened, and it was the right reason. I see people stick up for criminals all the time on Reddit, and it shouldn't make a difference if the defendant is a cop or not, but it sure appears to. This is the fair sentence.
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Didn't the prosecution show that the weapon did not misfire and that the weapon had something like a 12 pound trigger pull. I don't know just thought I saw that. If the weapon didn't just go off but had the trigger pulled then Manslaughter would be right. But either way no non Police citizen would be out of jail if they did that.
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NYPD has rediculous requirements for trigger pull weight, if your not correct by saying 12 lbs your not far off. That being said, there is no way the gun accidentally discharged.
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I was always taught not to put your finger on the trigger unless you planed to pull it. He may have pulled it unintentionally but he should not have had his finger on the trigger. Also the calling the union rep before EMS is telling.
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You are ABSOLUTELY correct. You are committing to shooting whatever you are pointing your gun at the moment you place you finger on the trigger, it doesnt matter if you actually pull the trigger or not. The act of putting your finger on the trigger shows intent to fire the weapon.
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You dont pull your gun out until you see an actual threat. There was no reason for that gun to leave its holster.
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That is total bullshit and 100% not what they teach police, and it would be idiotic if they did. You don't need to "see" a threat to pull your gun, only "perceive" a threat. Cops pull their guns all the time when walking up on a car during a stop, or before entering a house, or whatever.
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The only difference between 'perceive' and 'see' is that perceive includes other senses. He could not articulate a valid reason for why he pulled his gun out.
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Actually you are 100% right about what percieve means which is exactly the point. And since you obviously didn't read the article, he already had his gun out. As a rookie in a dangerous place might do (fault of the NYPD). You're biased as hell if you think a cop shot at a wall intending for it to ricochet and kill someone. Come on man.
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But after the shooting instead of immediately calling an ambulance he decided to call his union rep first then argue with his partner about taking responsibility while Gurley bled out.
Accidents happen... But most people try and mitigate the negative effects of their accidents. He didn't. That's not reflected in the sentence.
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Responsibility is for poor people, not cops.
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You don't see how this anti-cop outrage led to this behavior? If cops can't be free to do their jobs, with all the risks that entails, and know they won't be fired and/or jailed for the slightest mistake, then how do we expect them to prioritize properly? We've created an environment for them where covering their asses becomes the top concern.
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I understand him wanting to cover his ass...
The problem is that isn't what he's paid to do. Especially not when someone else's life hangs in the balance due to a mistake that HE made.
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Yeah, I'm not saying it was right, but I think it's the environment we've created that made him unable to think clearly. He knew he fucked up, and he knew that meant he could be in deep shit. If he didn't have to fear for himself, he could have stayed focused.
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So A cop can disobey patrol orders...
Shoot a "completely innocent" man...
Argue with his partner about who reports the shooting...
Call his union rep BEFORE an ambulance, while the victim bleeds out...
And get ZERO time in jail?
If the intricacies of the law truly allow for such an outcome then the law is wrong.
I thought you had to be joking, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. If you fuck up as a cop and shoot someone who can probably sue you, the union reps best advice would be to call them instead of an ambulance and make sure they bleed out. That way you can just get off with community service, if he had called an ambulance first and the guy lived, there might have actually been consequences.