Recently, a petition has circulated calling on this administration to intervene in the case of Officer Peter Liang. The petition claims Liang is being scapegoated because of his race, as some White officers who have also killed unarmed Black people have not been indicted.
We, the signatories of this petition, urge President Obama to ignore these calls for intervention. Supporters of Liang have argued he may not have been indicted if he were White. Even if that were true, it would not alter the injustice of Akai Gurley's murder. Neither would it alter the systemic racism of the NYPD. This is a rare moment of accountability for an institution that has killed Black people with impunity for far too long. It would be a great hipocrisy to derail that effort in the name of racial justice.