As the nation wrestles with perceived inequities in the justice system, the indictment of Peter Liang, a New York police officer, for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man seemed a well-timed demonstration that cops don’t always get special treatment. But Fordham professor James Cohen told USA Today that a judge’s decision to release Liang without bail shows that the badge still holds sway.
“The reason why this defendant was released without bail is because he’s a police officer. That’s just the long and short of it.”
The bail decision may be the first of many decisions to highlight bias in the system, Cohen said. Whether people interpret those rulings as fair or unfair will form the core of their perceptions of the justice system, he said.
“A positive perception is what the system ultimately depends upon,” Cohen said.
Read the entire USA Today article here.