Three months after Akai Gurley’s killing and three weeks after the indictment of Officer Peter Liang, some residents of the Pink Houses public housing building in East New York – where Akai Gurley was killed – aren’t convinced the indictment will bring about a change in how the police operate in their community.
“I don’t think nothing [is] gonna be different. If anything, he might get slapped with some minor charges. He might end up doing six months. He might get five years probation…I know how this goes already,” said Mitchell Aimss in a short documentary published by the Gotham Gazette. Many residents still expressed anger over the killing that occurred at the end of November. “He had no business running around in this dwelling with his pistol [not] holstered,” Aimss said.
Another local resident named Lafon Nicholas mentioned the importance on focusing on the victims, stating that something needs to be done “on behalf of all these innocent people that’s been abused, civil rights taken away from them.”
Justice For Akai Gurley, a group that includes Gurley’s aunt Hertencia Peterson, released a statement on the Peter Liang indictment that expressed the importance of looking beyond an indictment to NYPD policing tactics that encourage abusive behavior:
“We recognize that justice lies beyond an individual conviction and must include removing the failed policies of ‘generating revenues’ from our repressed communities. Policies such as, the Broken Windows paramilitary policing methods of urban development and its proponents like Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Pat Lynch must go.”
Watch the full documentary by Chauncey Alcorn above.
(Image: Chauncey Alcorn)
