Thousands of people have rallied in several US cities to support a former police officer found guilty of killing a black man in 2014.

The demonstrators held protests on Saturday to support Chinese-American New York City police officer Peter Liang who they believe is being made a scapegoat in the case simply because he is of Asian origin.

They say that Liang is being made the fall guy for a serious national problem after several African Americans were shot and killed by white police officers.

Liang was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 11 in the fatal shooting of Akai Gurley in 2014. The officer, convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct charges, said that his gun went off accidentally after being frightened by a noise.

Rallies were held in 40 US cities, including Brooklyn, New York, Ann Arbor, Michigan, San Francisco and Philadelphia as well as three Canadian cities and Hong Kong.

The largest demonstration was held in New York on Saturday with nearly 10,000 protesters marching through streets. In Philadelphia, nearly 2,000 people rallied in addition to Ann Arbor, Mich. where more than 150 people held protests.

“Justice for all! No scapegoat! No scapegoat!” protesters in New York shouted, carrying signs to declare Liang's prosecution as “selective justice.”

“We're here today to let people know that Chinese Americans count as well,” said protester Don Lee, a candidate for New York's state Assembly from Lower Manhattan.

Lee added, “It is a tragedy that Akai Gurley was shot and killed.… But this tragedy's been compounded by another tragedy -- that Peter Liang, in an accident, is going to go to jail for up to 15 years.”

“We should not be selectively prosecuting anybody to just to try to ease the tension, We should’ve found the solution, look deep in the system how to solve the problem how to make our society better,” said protester Yining Hou.

Police brutality in the United States has raised nationwide debates amid a string of police killings of unarmed black men that has led to the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

US Police fatally shot about 1,000 people in 2015, of which blacks made up over a third of those killed, according to a recent report by the Washington Post.