Totally disagree with a few things you said.
Illegal walked, cop walked. The only opposition there is that the illegal walked because of the jury, and the cop walked because cop-related reasons.
By 'walked' I mean nothing close to what was deserved.
Both of them were charged similarly (manslaughter+)
So, I've been most everywhere in Houston, and a lot of other shitty places in shitty cities in shitty states, including the shittiest places that make it into gangsta rap songs, and many times I've 'sensed danger'. I didn't draw. Brandishing is a crime. Being on edge is no excuse to kill someone who didn't have it coming. I was ready to draw, as anyone should be, but I did not draw. I don't believe that an officer, uninvited by any means, and lacking any justification whatsoever for doing so, has any reason at all to proceed with his gun out. I don't believe that just because some officers were killed doing what he was doing is a reason for him to have his gun out.
On the point of officers being killed doing what Liang was doing being a reason for him to be on edge, lots of officers are killed during traffic stops, too.
One was killed here on Thanksgiving. Traffic stops are dangerous as fuck.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-trooper-shot-killed-routine-traffic-stop/story?id=51357483
I don't believe officers should approach vehicles that had expired registration/were speeding/some other infraction with their guns drawn, but they should always be ready to draw. Maybe if they run the plates and it comes back to a guy that has a warrant for armed robbery, yeah I could see drawing then, but anything short of that I don't see it. Just being surrounded by hoodlums isn't justification IMO.
Here's the main thing I think that's fucking up my understanding here. Both of these guys (Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, illegal shithead/murderer and Officer Peter Liang, dumb fucking rookie) were looking at some serious time.
The jury fucked everything up and acquitted Zarate, possibly because the prosecution fucked everything up on purpose because leftard agendas and politics, and the prosecutor/judge/SC/everybody agreed in Liang's case that he shouldn't have his whole fucking life ruined just because he accidentally shot some probably piece of shit because he got scared in the dark with his gun out for no good reason.
If I was a juror on Liang's case, I probably would have been all about manslaughter and jail time.
If I was a juror on Zarate's case, I probably would have been all about manslaughter and jail time AT LEAST. Given his past though, I would rather see that fucker in an urn.