In the Central Park Five were about five boys living in a low-income neighborhood in Harlem, Manhattan. On the night of April 19, 1989, all five boys decided to go to Central Park with 25 other teenagers to go fight, rob and have fun. Later that night, Trisha Meili was sexually assaulted that same night the boys were there. After that attack, the five Black and Hispanic boys whose names are, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise were arrested and taken to investigation, with a lack of evidence that they committed the crime, they stayed there for more than 30 hours without seeing their family, being put under a lot of pressure to confess a crime they didn’t do, and being scared and confused on why they …show more content…
They were placed in prison for 7 years and released on a promise not to get in trouble again. After getting out of prison on their personal record they were known as “sex offenders”, which made it hard for them to get a job and live a stable life, this caused Raymond Santana to sell drugs and go back to prison. Later, Mathias Reyes confessed to doing the crime that the Central Park five boys were wrongly accused of, his DNA evidence proved that he was the one who did it. In 2014 Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise filed for a civil lawsuit against NYC for $41 Million dollars for taking their youth away, for wrongly accusing them, and for emotional distress. What the Central Park Five documentary tells me about the criminal justice system is that they only see race and not the action of the crime in this …show more content…
Because they were Black and Hispanic, they were immediately labeled as criminals. The racism led them to be automatically suspects of the attack on Trisha Meili, this caused them to be treated harshly while being interrogated, being told, “You did it” and not able to see their family, and the role of the media that played in this documentary by making stereotypes toward Black and Hispanic people that they all committed crimes. In the documentary about the Central Park Five it tells us that the criminal justice system will do anything to get the case said and done quickly by, “they had made up a story something like we have your prints on her pants. how did they take my prints and put it on her pants”(39:00-39:10). This shows that the criminal justice system doesn’t care about the case and wants to get it done fast so they can be known as the hero who did justice for the white women who were assaulted by the Black and Hispanic group of boys. Later in the documentary at (1:05:45) it said in a newspaper, “DNA prints fail to identify the jogger’s
A Climate of Fear “The Gang Crackdown”, provided by PBS, communicates the everyday struggles that the communities of Nassau County face every day. The video’s focus revolves around the homicidal and violent crimes that have been provided by the “MS-13” and the details of cracking down on their development. The Latin American gang from El Salvador is known for their audacity to target the young population of Long Island and their homicidal tendencies. They have targeted children and teenagers at their workplace, their home, and their school. These gang members have left the community defenseless and struck fear into the hearts of many parents along with the government itself.
I enjoyed reading Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios because it was not only informing, but I could place myself as if I were one of the characters in the story. I could not even begin to imagine what these boys with through. From being beaten’ for no reason, to getting cuffed and sitting in the back of a cop car because they were eating a slice of pizza is absolutely ridiculous and should not be tolerated. Not only did I understand how these boys were in the networks of crime, but also, the criminalization, and punishment made sense and how I observed the higher authority took action. In my essay, I will be discussing three major concepts which are: moral panics, labeling , and code of the street.
That headline at the time could have affected the life of those innocent bystanders due to their race because everyone believed Thalia Massie was gang rapped by the four young men. Racial and sexual tension arose in the local community, pre-World War II Hawaii local men and white woman apart from one another so there won't be anyone accused of rape from that nationality. The Massie trial changed the way white woman and non-white men seen each other when it came to being around one another.
Central Park Five is a documentary that revealed the stories of the five boys, now grown men, whose lives have been destroyed for really being in the wrong place at the right time. The documentary traces the lives of the five men—Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kharey Wise, Raymond Santana, and Kevin Richardson, that were convicted and years later found not guilty of assault and rape of jogger Trisha Meili that occurred in 1989. Even though justice was eventually given to the five men, it did not return the adolescent years that ripped from them and mental torture they had endured from the city of New York, media, and police. The story of the case unfolds chronologically through the stories of the five teenage boys from before the investigation until their interviews in the film. Only four of the five exonerated teens are interviewed on camera, Antron McCray chose to participate with only a voiceover in the film. The police and New York City prosecutors and police chose not to take part or appear in the film in anyway. As viewer only the absence of any participation of New York City authorities only demonstrated lack of responsibility for the destruction of the lives of the five teenage boys.
In this documentary, we never go into the minds of any of the people, but only get to interpret what we see and hear. This documentary was filmed in Jacksonville, Florida where Brenton Butler, a 15 year old African American boy was accused of the murder of Mary Ann Stephens. The main people in this documentary are Ann Fennell, Patrick McGuiness, Brenton Butler, and detectives Williams, Glover, and Darnell. Ann Fennell and Patrick McGuisness are the two defense attorney’s on Brenton’s behalf. Brenton Butler is the boy being accused of murder. Detectives Williams, Glover, and Darnell are the detectives in department 3 the violated many laws and policies while holing Brenton in
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
...riends and acquaintances. Nobody could even remember seeing the boys together. Despite the lack of evidence, all three teens were found guilty. Echols was sentenced to receive the death penalty and Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison. They each served 18 years in prison before appealing their convictions. The DNA evidence was retested and found that it did not match any of the boys DNA. Additionally, it was found that there was jury and foreman misconduct during the trial (a member of the jury had discussed the case with an attorney and had pushed for the guilt of the West Memphis Three), as well as police misconduct during the invegation. Due to these factors, the prosections came to an Alford plea deal, in which the defendents please to “No Contest” but still maintain their innocence. They were released from prison and sentenced to time served.
The police had decided that Maylin had most likely been involved in a situation that had put her life in danger. This is a racist act on the authority’s side because they had preconceived ideas that because Maylin was Latina she had something to do with her disappearance. Yet, Karina who had been found murdered was not ever accused of being involved in her own death. She was automatically viewed as an innocent victim in a situation that ended in her death. On the other hand, Maylin was viewed as some type of criminal who chose to be in that horrible situation that lead to her death. I know that if I were to go missing that I would want to receive equal media coverage as Karina had when she went missing. It’s only fair that all missing women, men, and children get equal media coverage when they go missing. Stereotypes should not come into play when people’s lives could possibly be in danger. After thorough investigation, if any information comes to light saying that the person who is missing had some type of involvement in their own disappearance, then it would be fair to bring that to the media’s
This movie really tied everything we’ve been discussing in class and seeing it unfold was actually really eye opening. I found it important going forward to make sure I do not fall into that tunnel vision mentality and to make sure I follow the evidence rather than fitting the suspect to the evidence. Again, I found it interesting like in the Norfolk Four case and in the Central Park 5 case police neglected to look at surrounding crime areas to see if any other cases matched the same modus operandi. If the police did look at surrounding cases they would have established a link between previous assaults and the assault that took place in the park that night. I was amazed how the detectives did not connect how each of the confessions varied by who did what and how they attacked the victim. It was Korey Wise in the video that kept putting up his hand when asked how big was the rock and he was just moving them back and forth. Police also neglected to look at the attack patterns of where the group first was hassling people in the park. They would have found that the boys were at one end of the park, while the victim was being attacked and there was no way they could have been in two places at once. I also found troubling during the time was the media portrayal of the Central Park 5, how they were painted as vicious young men, who brutally attacked a harmless white women. Even after each one of them was exonerated from the crime the media still portrayed them as vicious men. As we discussed in class, I think a lawyer like a magistrate should be available 24/7 when it comes to juveniles, because I believe that this five did not know their Miranda Rights and what they were entitled. If they knew what their rights were I believe the confessions never would have happened and none of them would have gone to
At the subway complex the Caucasian man, in which he had a problem with while in prison, started a fight with Grant. Police officer’s where called into the scene, but as usual the Caucasian man gets away and they arrested Grant, the African American. While Grant was arrested, he was trying to get his friends released because they had nothing to do with the fight. During the argument there were people video recording the scene. To add, the police officers in this movie where Caucasian, and in the movie it made it seem like Grant was the unscrupulous person in the problem, but it was no't him. Due to the racist police officers, the Caucasian man was not arrested. The police officer’s made it seem as if Grant was trying to resisted the arrest, in the process of this Grant was scared to death, the officer keep telling Grant that he was going to tase him. When trying to pull out the taser he instead grabs the wrong weapon and shoots him. Grant died hours later. Grant was a great example of how African American’s get blamed for something they didn't do, because of misjudgment of others. Just because he had a bad past does not mean he stayed bad, plus the racism around him did not help get him proper justice. People need to learn how to not be so bias, and view the other side of the story not just
For this assignment, this review will be about the documentary The Central Park Five by Ken Burns. Ken Burns the director of the movie is also known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in his documentary films. Other documentary films he is known for is The Civil War, Brooklyn Bridge, and Baseball. His other works don’t seem to be significant to the analysis of the film because they are mostly just about different types of topics that aren’t like this one but with the way that he does his types of films will help could help with the analysis because it gives an idea at the way that he convinces people. The Central Park Five are 5 young men who were convicted of a crime of raping a jogger in Central Park. They implicated themselves in the crime after hours of pressure and aggression during the integration. They were all released at different times but they spent six to thirteen years in prison. The goal of this documentary was to revisit what had happened and to review the injustices of what had happened. In this review, I’m going to be talking about how Ken Burns uses pathos and ethos to convenience the audience/whoever
When Kids Get Life, which was produced by PBS, allowed FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel to travel to Colorado in the year of 2007, to document a story in which featured five individuals who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. Through out watching this documentary, the story of Nathan Ybanez and Erik Jensen were the one to make a life long impression on me. In 1998, these young adolescents were high school students who lived in Denver, Colorado were members in a band together. Jensen, had come from a very affluent household, while Ybanez had come from an abusive one, however, no government official ever investigated the situation, regardless of being alerted to the problem. Within
The officers were acquitted of use of excessive force and abuse. This started riots in Los Angeles that rocked our country. This was the beginning of a stigma and stereotype that would be placed on all police officers. The stigma was that Rodney King was brutally beaten because he was black. The media portrayal of incidences across the nation since 1991 only heightened the stereotype. There was a very similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 with the shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer. The coverage for Ferguson lasted for weeks and put the police in a very negative light. The Portland Press Herald states that “many police think they’re being stereotyped as racist and brutal” (Wise). There also seems to be a stereotype within a stereotype. Besides the stereotype of police officers profiling young black men, is the stereotype that all young black men are thugs, especially if they’re in neighborhoods known for gang and drug activity. “Our country 's history, culture and social divide feed a subconscious attachment to stereotypes, even in the minds of people with no measurable racial bias.”
In the quiet New York town of Savona, Eric Smith, age thirteen, intercepted four year old Derrick Robie on his way to a park recreation program and offered to show him a shortcut. Hesitatingly, Derrick set off with Eric. He never made it to the park. That same day the little boy's savagely beaten body was discovered outside the park area (Seifert 98).
The three men, Said, Hubert, and Vinz were without a doubt unfairly discriminated and mistreated by the cops. Simply because of where they came from, the police never gave them the full respect everyone is entitled to have. The police did not even know them or have proof they committed a crime or offense, but still beat Said and Hubert up severely. Even when a group of the people from the projects were just on the roof top, not causing trouble, they were forced to get off and disperse. And when they refused, the situation got out of hand and violence was