As the jury read the verdict — guilty — in the manslaughter trial of a New York City police officer whose gunshot into the stairwell of a public-housing building killed an unarmed man, the officer, Peter Liang, crumpled in his seat in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, his face falling into his hands.

In the courtroom gallery on Thursday night, his deflated posture was mirrored not just by his family, but also by some of the Chinese-language newspaper reporters present, and by the supporters, many of Asian descent, who had rallied around him.

Their courtroom sentiment reflected the feelings that have swelled throughout the city’s Asian enclaves since Officer Liang’s indictment last year and that have peaked following his conviction. Many have rallied around the officer, who is Chinese-American, describing him as a scapegoat who was targeted at a time when there is a roiling national debate about the policing of black neighborhoods. And it has pulled at a thread long woven through the city’s Asian population, which sees what happened as yet another example of the mistreatment of a marginalized community, ill-equipped to fight back.

“In the wake of unfortunately so many deaths of unarmed black men, some cops gotta hang,” said John C. Liu, referring to what he contended was a widespread opinion. Mr. Liu, the former New York City comptroller who ran for mayor in 2013, has been vocal on social media about his belief that Officer Liang was unfairly singled out. “The sentiment in the Asian community is: It’s easier to hang an Asian, because Asians, they don’t speak up.”