I live in New York City just one
block off Central Park and when this unthinkable crime occurred on April 19,
1989 I remember, like most New Yorkers, being shocked and horrified. This
brutal attack not only rocked the city it reverberated around the world.
Mayor Koch called it the "crime of the century."
Movie poster by Florentine Films
The victim, a 28-year old white
female, investment banker had been so badly beaten, raped and left for dead she
was not expected to live. The suspects, five black and Latino teenagers,
were in the park for a night of "wilding" and the jogger was just another victim
in their wake or so the story went.
It was amazing how quickly the
perpetrators were apprehended, confessed to the crimes, tried and sent off to
rot in prison. No muss. No fuss. The press dehumanized and
vilified them as members of a "wolf pack." Notable personalities,
including Donald Trump, immediately went to work publically defaming and
demonizing these kids. Mayor Koch chimed in "They got 'em." They
were tried in the court of public opinion, condemned and convicted in a court
of law and that was that.
The young woman miraculously
recovered although, luckily for her but sadly for the five accused youths, she
remembered nothing about her attack or attacker(s).
Amazing how quickly all the loose
ends were wrapped up in a neat little package and tied with a bow. Now
everyone could go back to business as usual. The criminals had been
apprehended, law and order restored, we breathed a collective sigh of relief,
the city went back to normal and everyone forgot about the attackers as justice
had been served or so we were led to believe.
I recently attended a screening of
the film, "Central Park Five" by Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and her
husband, David McMahon. As I watched this powerful documentary unfold I
became more and more outraged, as did the audience as evidenced by how many of
us, myself included, responded verbally to what was transpiring on the
screen. The film uses actual footage of the events including the
confessions. As the facts unfurl you realize not only was there no physical
evidence linking these kids to the attack but their confessions were coerced
and none of their confessions matched each other or the crime. The entire
case was built on lies.
The cops, the detectives, the
prosecutors all knew there was no physical evidence linking these kids to the
crime so they manipulated these kids and the facts to fit their
narrative. They reassured them if they'd just confess they could go
home. Then coached them on what to say. It seems the cops were
under so much pressure to find the perpetrator(s) they needed/wanted
someone/anyone to pay for this crime and it didn't matter who.
These kids didn't stand a
chance. They didn't even have attorney's present when their confessions
were coerced. The parents look shell-shocked in the film and didn't seem
to know they had any rights let alone the right to an attorney. Everyone
just went along assisting the police who they believed were helping them until
they realized they weren't and by then it was too late.
Then low and behold some 13 years
later a serial rapist and convicted murderer, Matias Reyes, now serving a life
sentence for raping 3 women and raping and murdering another woman suddenly
confesses to the crime. His DNA is tested and it's a match for the DNA
found on the Central Park Jogger.
In 2002 Judge Tejada reviews
the confessions and DNA evidence from Reyes and immediately overturns the
convictions of the Central Park Five and wipes their records clean.
Unfortunately, there was little if any fanfare regarding their innocence and
even a ticker-tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes couldn't give these five now
grown men back their lives. This travesty of justice destroyed their
lives and their families. And because Matias was not apprehended he was
allowed to continue his slaughter of innocent women as well.
The Central Park Five and their
families have subsequently filed a $250 million civil suit, accusing the city
as well as the police officers and prosecutors who worked on the case, of
violating their civil rights, which the New York City government is
fighting. According to a New York Police Department commissioned review,
the police officers involved in the case claim they did noting wrong.
No surprise there. The police
protect their own. We all know many police departments have their own
"code of conduct." This Blue Code of Silence is an unwritten rule among
police officers in the U.S. not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts
or crimes by claiming ignorance of any wrongdoing.
The city has also fired back by subpoenaing
Burns' company, Florentine Films, to turn over all their notes and outtakes not
included in the documentary for review. The city claims Burns and his
colleagues are not journalists and therefore aren't allowed to invoke legal
privileges to protect their work.
This case brings to mind the recent
execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Davis was tried, convicted and executed
for the shooting of a white police officer, Mark MacPhail, in Savannah,
Georgia, although there was no physical evidence linking him to the
crime. Then in a evidentiary hearing ordered by the Supreme Court of the
United States eight of the witnesses, whose original testimony identified Davis
as the shooter, recanted their testimony and identified Sylvester "Redd" Coles
as the trigger man. Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense so his
alleged confession to the killing was excluded as hearsay. Troy Anthony
Davis was executed on September 21, 2011 by lethal injection.
The systemic corruption and mass
incarnation of black males is outlined in Michelle Alexander's best selling
book, "The New Jim Crow." The United States has 5% of the world's
population but 25% of the world's prisoners. According to Alexander, the
majority of young black men in large American cities are "warehoused in
prisons" (their labor no longer needed in the globalized economy) or, after
having criminal records and labeled as "felons," are permanently trapped in a
second-class status."
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