Central Park 5: New Film On How Police Abuse, Media Frenzy Led to Jailing Innocent Teens, pts 1 & II

[marmar]

(Democracy Now!) An explosive new documentary looks at a case once referred to as "the crime of the century”: the Central Park Five. Many people have heard about the case — but far too few know that innocent men were imprisoned as a result. The film tells the story of how five black and Latino teenagers were arrested in 1989 for beating and raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. Media coverage at the time portrayed the teens as guilty, and used racially coded terms like "wolf pack" to refer to the group of boys accused in the attack. Donald Trump took out full-page ads in four city newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty so they could be executed. However, the convictions of the five were vacated in 2002 when the real rapist came forward and confessed to the crime, after the five defendants had already served sentences of almost seven to 13 years. New York City is refusing to settle a decade-long civil lawsuit brought by the men. And now, lawyers for the city are seeking access to footage gathered for the new film. We speak to one of the Central Park Five, Raymond Santana, filmmaker Sarah Burns, and journalist Natalie Byfield.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/28/central_park_five_new_film_on

[niyad]

1. k and r--thank you for posting.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. I was 15 years old in NYC at the time

It's difficult to describe to those who weren't there the absolute hostility of the racial climate in NYC youth culture at the time.

Howard Beach was still fresh. Just a few months after this was Bensonhurst. But these were all in the context of a running race war between white working class and black and Latino kids throughout the city. We used to brawl with the Latino kids right in the middle of the street - thirty on thirty brawls, baseball bats, razors, in broad daylight.

You watched your back. That was a fact of life in New York at the time. You mobbed up, stayed with your people. It was a fucking war zone.

[smokey nj]

3. Thanks for this, marmar.

I was 19 and working at my first job in NYC when this happened. The reporting on the case made it seem so cut and dry and there wasn't any doubt that these men had committed the crime. Their exoneration, however, didn't receive any real coverage and most people probably still think they're guilty.