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Central park five essay case
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The Central Park Five, a documentary released in 2012, follows the lives of five Harlem teenagers who were convicted of the assault and rape of a white female jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film details the events preceding the discovery of said jogger and the boys’ association, as well as the trials and tribulations that followed. Within days, all five boys were brought in and coaxed into a confession. Antron McCray, 15; Korey Wise, 16; Kevin Richardson, 14; Raymond Santana, 14; and Yusef Salaam, 15, were not only victims of a malicious profiling scandal but were also subjected to hours of aggressive and subjective interrogations leading to the misappropriation of evidence and written statements suggesting malpractice within the precinct and among the “seasoned” homicide detectives involved. "These young men were convicted long before the trial, by a city blinded by fear and, equally, freighted by race. They were convicted because it was all too easy for people to see them as violent criminals simply because of the color of their skin."(Burns, 2012). Unfortunately, these means of coercion are found all too often in America. Anything from trauma to …show more content…
(2017, March 7). Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States
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About the Central Park Five. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ about-central-park-five/
Wrongful Convictions of Youth. (1999, April). Retrieved from http://www.law.northwestern.edu/ legalclinic/wrongfulconvictionsyouth/
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I recently read a book called Monster by Walter Dean Myers, in which a sixteen year-old boy named Steve Harmon was arrested for being accused of shooting a drugstore owner, and watched a documentary titled Murder on a Sunday Morning about a fifteen year-old Brenton Butler being charged with murdering a woman at a motel. I found that the book and the documentary had many similarities and differences. I thought this because both cases are about a young African-American boy who is in custody for something that they did not do. Both police investigations didn't go thoroughly and just rushed through to arrest the boys immediately and are centered around a white defense attorney who tries to convince the jury that the male teen did not committed the crime by giving out evidence.
In his article, “The Nightmare of the West Memphis Three”, Rich explores how the people of Memphis drew horrific conclusions about people based on the lifestyle they chose to practice. The article highlights the trials and tribulations faced by the accused three young teenagers. Rich does this by citing the popular documentary series “Paradise Lost” which is an in depth analysis into the lives of the accused, the victims’ families and members of the community. This paper outlines how the belief system of that time superseded the inconclusive evidence, which ultimately led to an unfair trial. By “othering” and “marginalizing” those three teens, the society and police created a scenario that aligned with their belief system at the time. Lastly, this paper highlights the influence of the media and celebrity in changing the course for these boys.
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.
Throughout history there has been considerable tension between race and crimes committed. The court trial of Bernhard Goetz initiated debate on race and crime in the major cities, and the limitations of self-defense. Bernhard Goetz in 1984 shot five bullets in a New York City subway, seriously wounding four young black men. After turning himself into the police nine days later, the public now knew who was the shooter. Bernhard Goetz was entitled the “Subway Vigilante”. The subway shooting incident ideally exemplified the exasperation with the high crime rates of the 1980s. Due to the time period that this incident occurred, Bernhard Goetz was commended and reviled in the media surrounding the case, and the public’s standpoint. The subway shooting, and the court trial following the shooting, lead to the uprise of the fight against crime in major cities. Justice is difficult to define, and in controversial acquittal of Bernhard Goetz, justice in this sense, was not served.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
After watching this film it only reinforced the wariness I had towards law enforcement and authorities. The way they media and authorities mistreated these teenage boys was absolutely disgusting. The New York City policy department and prosecutor’s office has never even offered an apology for what they did to those boys is not commendable. The fraudulence of investigators and prosecutors who completely overlooked evidence in a rush to convict and then rejected to acknowledge the innocence of the five even after the true rapist confessed because their careers would be in jeopardy. There is a lot to be learned from this film. It compellingly criticizes law enforcement, the justice department and the news media, and in doing so it is a powerful answer to their wrongdoing in this discreditable case.
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
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
In the early 1990’s in Los Angeles, California, police brutally was considered a norm in African Americans neighborhoods. News coverage ignores the facts of how African ...
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
"NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness." NAMI. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
Psychiatry is one of the oldest medical methods; it is also the most exciting form of medicine. In 1812, Benjamin Rush, who was also a signer of the declaration of independence, published the first psychiatry text book in the United States (5). Recently, circa 2000s, an organization, American Psychiatric Press, is using its subsidiaries¬¬¬¬- the American Psychiatric Foundation, the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education, and many more- to position the organization for a greater role of advocacy. (5)
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 28. (2000): 315-324. Web. The Web. The Web. 13 Apr 2011.
NASMHPD. (2014, Accessed April 27). Retrieved from NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM DIRECTORS: http://www.nasmhpd.org/About/AOMultiStateDisaster.aspx
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