奥兰多220声援梁警官集会活动，约有300左右各界华人华侨和美国友人参加，这对华人少且分散的奥兰多来说实属不易。十二位演讲嘉宾中有律师，教授，华人各组织领袖，美国各界朋友等从梁警官成长故事、该案法律特点、华人斗争激励等各角度作了专业性的阐述。游行也号召了为梁警官捐款和帮忙邮寄给法官的签名求情信。
奥兰多著名律师之一JasonPugh从歧视性判决角度对该案进行了分析。
今天的集会出现众多感人事迹，演讲嘉宾CraigSmith在来集会途中车胎发生故障仍坚持及时抵达现场，演讲后才去修车。
UCF老教授Dr.C尽管刚做完手术，仍以85高龄来现场，用中英文为华人演讲鼓励。
很多奥兰多周边城市Daytona,Tampa, Gainesville, Jacksonville, San Augusta等地赶来的华人朋友，凝聚了这次精彩圆满的声援活动。
APAPA主持了今天集会，并Match当天同额捐款。
最后，奥兰多最大电视新闻频道CHANNEL2 也对我们的两位主持人APAPA郑会长和UCF陈博教授进行了采访。
奥兰多：游行现场（多图）
附，活动现场演讲内容
Speech at the “Equal Justice for All” Rally in Front ofOrlando City Hall
Zhaochang Peng
12:15pm, February 20, 2016
Two years ago, we held a rally to protest against ABC hostJimmy Kimmel’s racist remarks on an innocent child’s idea of “killing all Chinesepeople.” That rally was part of a nation-wide protest with ten of thousands ofparticipants in nearly 20 cities across the country. Two years later, we areonce again holding rallies nation-wide, this time with hundreds of thousands ofparticipants across the country, and the number of cities doubles to over 40cities. This shows our increasing solidarity.
We are here today to mourn Mr. Akai Gurley, send condolencesto his family, and fight the injustices committed against Mr. Gurley and PeterLiang. The speakers before me have said enough about why the trial of PeterLiang is unjust. Here I would like to add one more point. The injustices towardMr. Gurley and Peter Liang were not isolated individual occurrences; instead,they were reflective of systemic racial discrimination in the law enforcementand judicial system. Something is wrong with the system.
Better lawyers for Peter Liang may bring about more hopefulresults within the existing legal system, but at the same time, andparticularly in the medium and long term, we need to demand changes of thelegal system itself. Laws in human society do not work the same way laws innature do. Natural laws do not change. Human laws do change. In 1963, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. had the courage to lead the Civil Rights Movement anddelivered the inspiring “I have a dream” speech. The next year, the CivilRights Act of 1964 was passed. Human laws changed. To borrow words from thefamous Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, rewinding exactly 100years in history from MLK’s speech, which ended with a resounding “governmentof the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,”I would like to stress that human laws can be changed by the people, for thepeople, and as a result of the people.
Apart from the legal system, something needs to be doneabout the economic system, when increasing economic inequality and povertythreaten the prospects of racial justice. We should not forget that Mr. Gurleyhad to walk downstairs in the stairwell of a Pink Houses building due tounderperformed elevators and that the stairwell was unlit due to lightfailures. These two lamentable objective living conditions in the buildingconstituted uncontrollable forces leading to the tragedy. Here, racialinjustice is clearly linked to economic injustice.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was famous for leading the 1963March on Washington, which was about obtaining equal legal rights for AfricanAmericans. Toward the last days of his life, however, he realized that theconditions of African Americans were not just about legal rights; they wereactually deeply rooted in economic inequalities. Just a few months before hewas assassinated in April 1968, he started a new cause—the Poor People’sCampaign. His legacy of linking racial to economic
injustice is less well known to us, and his pursuit ofeconomic justice stays an unfulfilled dream to this day. A quote from JosephLowery, another civil rights movement leader, illustrates this idea mostpowerfully: “It’s one thing to have the right to check into the Hiltons and theMarriotts; it’s another thing to have the means to check out.” This quoteresonated very well with the lamentable Pink Houses conditions Mr. Gurley hadto live with.
In addition to systemic racial and class inequalities, wealso need to address gender inequalities. Today I am seeing a lot of faces ofwomen. I have also heard about many touching stories of women volunteers andorganizers who did great preparations for this rally. Salutes to all theseunsung heroes of our rally! Without their brilliant work and significantcontribution, we would not have stood here. At this moment I strongly feel thatwomen support more than half the sky. They deserve a special quote from thelongest-serving First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, whohappened to be an advocate for three important components of social justice Ihave stressed today: equality for women, civil rights of African Americans, andcivil rights of Asian Americans. In 1946 she asked: “When will our consciencesgrow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge?”This quote resonates very well with one of the slogans of our rallytoday—Revenge Is Not Justice!
African Americans, Asian Americans, the poor, women, policeofficers, and all other disadvantaged people, let us combine our hands to builda more just legal and socioeconomic system devoid of racial, class and genderinequalities. This is our best way to mourn Mr. Gurley and to support PeterLiang.
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