The Asian Weekly recently received a letter about Jenn Fang’s article on Peter Liang.
A brief recap: Peter Liang was the New York City police officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley late last year.
Liang is charged with manslaughter in the second degree, reckless endangerment, and official misconduct.
In response to the article about Liang, the letter read:
“While your article was well-written and drew valid conclusions, it is wrong for Asians to be fore-front on condemning other Asians.
“I am not advocating defending Peter Liang because he is Asian.
That being said, what do we have to gain by adding fuel to the fire.
The picture that accompanied the article is very disheartening since it was unnecessary.
Akai Gurley will have justice without the need for Asians to point fingers at each other.”
The issue is deflating, and requires us to run around in circles and consider how we think about how possessive we should be about our heritage and what allegiance requires. The typical argument is that we should always be on our own side.
But what if we disagree with our own side? What if we think Liang was wrong?
And what if we are concerned and other Asian Americans don’t agree with us?
We continue to run around in circles. (end)