Chinese-American activists, angered by last week’s conviction of former NYPD Officer Peter Liang for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, are seeking a candidate to run against Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson next year, The Post has learned.
“We will lobby against [Thompson] no matter what,” Karlin Chan, executive director of the Chinese Action Network (CAN), said Tuesday, bluntly adding, “This is political punishment for what he’s done.”
Liang was convicted last Thursday on manslaughter and official-misconduct charges following a three-week jury trial and nearly 20 hours of deliberation over the 2014 shooting — in which his bullet ricocheted off a cinder-block wall in a housing-project stairwell and fatally struck an unarmed, innocent black man, Akai Gurley, 28, in the chest.
“This was a political movement by [Thompson] to bring a second-degree-manslaughter charge against Peter,” Chan went on, adding that he was “shocked” by the verdict. “This wasn’t an intentional shooting,” he said.
He vowed that CAN will haunt any campaign Thompson launches, whether it be for one more term as Brooklyn DA or another political seat, because of the “persecution” of Liang.
“No matter what office he runs for, we will be reaching beyond the Chinese and Asian communities, because he’s indicted the whole law enforcement system and he can’t get away with that,” Chan said.
Liang was fired immediately upon his conviction and faces up to 15 years in prison. His attorneys, Robert E. Brown and Rae Koshetz, are drafting a motion to set aside the verdict. If that fails, they will appeal, the lawyers said.
Asked whom his group might seek out for the DA challenge, Chan said CAN will soon begin vetting potential contenders.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re Republican or Democrat, as long as they’re going to challenge him [Thompson]. And we’ll advocate for that candidate, and call on all Chinese voters,” Chan said.
Chan — who stood by Liang throughout the trial, even joining him in the cloistered conference room as the jury deliberated — says he thinks the jury and the DA used the rookie cop as a “scapegoat” after a series of controversial police shootings around the country and the 2014 death of unarmed Eric Garner after a Staten Island cop arresting him put him in a chokehold.
Defense attorneys reminded jurors during Liang’s trial that their verdict was not a “referendum on policing in America.”
A Facebook page dedicated to Thompson’s overthrow — titled “Vote Out Ken Thompson 2017” — features a link to CAN’s website and calls the black DA a “racist.”
A Thompson spokesman declined to comment.