Thousands rally for ex-NYPD officer Liang across US

Liang's partner, Sean Landau, 28, was fired by the NYPD, as was Liang, after his conviction. Landau had testified under immunity from prosecution during Liang's trial.

Lou Telano, president of the New York Veteran Police Association, told China Daily before the rally that there is currently an "atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric" in New York City.

"I don't know how the district attorney is able to change the penal law to take an accident and define it as a crime," he said. "There are so many things there that are wrong."

In Washington, several hundred people gathered near the Washington Monument on the morning of Feb 20 to support. The crowd, estimated at 700 or 800, included people of all ages and non-Asians and well.

"Starting with a wrongful and selective prosecution, police officer Peter Liang's guilty verdict last week in New York City is clearly the latest case of making an ethnic minority American a scapegoat to satisfy the political thirst of a few and to pay for the police brutality that has troubled the American society for a long time," Sun Yuanfan, one of about a dozen speakers at the rally, told the crowd.

"We call on our politicians to express the true opinions of the people they represent. We demand the NYPD look into the real issues and take the responsibility to face the real problems of resolving the tension between the community and police, providing adequate training and security to our officers," she said.

That two rookie NYPD officers were sent to patrol a dangerous place was inconceivable to many protesters.

"Yes, the bullet from Peter Liang hit the victim accidentally, but why did NYPD send two rookie officers to one of the most dangerous places where they have to make decisions within seconds in pitch darkness?" asked Cliff Li Zhonggang, another speaker.

"We are living in a time when there can no longer be systemic discrimination against Asian Americans and other racial groups. However, bias, prejudice and stereotypes still haunt us as well as our children in this very day," Li said.

Li believes that Asian Americans like Liang are treated unequally because they are often regarded as weak and fragmented. "No more," shouted the crowd.

The slogans heard also included "Equal justice", "No selective justice," and "We need fair trials."

Regina Xu held a plate with the words "deep condolences to Akai Gurley". Xu said she left home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at 6 am to join the rally.

She said the prosecution had been unfair, "though I am not sure we can change the result. But we at least want to tell them that we feel it's unfair. We also want to tell Gurley's family that we are equally sorry for his loss of life."

"We are here to raise our voice and to make known that we will­­ not be pushed around, and we will not take a back seat to anybody else in our country," said Thomas Fong, vice-chairman of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

In San Francisco, thousands of demonstrators gathered initially at Justin Herman Plaza across the historic Ferry Building. While organizers expected some 2,000 people to show up, the crowd on the morning of Feb 20 was estimated by police on the scene to have reached about 5,000, nearly half of them mobilized by a number of community groups at Chinatown.

The crowd then paraded nearly 5 km along Market Street, a downtown commercial thoroughfare, to the UN Plaza.

Sean Yao, of United for Better Community (UBC), a Bay Area community outreach group, reminded the crowd that it is time for everybody to involve in America's political process, especially in the election year. "If you want change," Yao said, "you need to vote."

In Phoenix, Arizona, about 150 people rallied on the morning on Feb 20 at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza to protest what some called "selective justice" in Liang's verdict, azcentral.com reported. They carried American flags and signs stating "No Scapegoat" and "Accident Not Crime" near state Capitol.