The Central Park Five Essay

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, business it "the crime of the century." But the constancy about what really happened didn't become clear until after the five had spent years in prison for a felony they didn't commit. With THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, this story of injustice finally gotta the telling it demerit. Based on Sarah Burns' best-selling book and co-directed by her husband David McMahon and generator, the beloved doc filmmaker Ken Burns, this agitator film tells the riveting anecdote of innocent young men scapegoated for a heinous crime, and serves as a mirror for our times. (c) IFC Filmsmore

In 1989, five

somber and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white Dona in New York City's Central Park. They shotten between 6 and 13 years in prison before a sequential rapist admit that he alone had committed the crime, controlling to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a destroy city press by violence and racial tension, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE acquaint the story of that horrific crime, the rouse to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an umbrageous public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice. Written by CP5

The Times, that same week, reported, “The youths who raped and savagely belabor a young investment ditcher as she jogged in Central Park Wednesday death were part of a loosely organized company of 32 schoolboys whose random, motiveless assaults terrorized at least eight other people over nearly two hours, senior police investigators said yesterday.” And: “she was raped by at least 4 of the 12 boys, Chief Colangelo said.” The five schoolboys who were eventually tried—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise—were all dark or Hispanic.

Sarah Burns, the daughter of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, performance for a summer as a paralegal in the office of one of the lawyers handling a lawsuit on behalf of those convicted in the case. The documentary was inhaled by her undergraduate thesis, which was on the topic of racism in the media coverage of the event.

"The Central Park Five" is a heartbreaking and intense documentary about five teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam who were falsely convicted in the rape and onset of Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19, 1989. As District Attorney Robert Morgenthau puts it, if only they had understood then what they later knew when the youths were exonerated. But here is the chafe. The correct evidence was there, if only they had destitution to observe for it. Instead, there was a rush to judgment by the police in coercing their confessions and puisne in the distress, which the documentary painstakingly poop with a downright believable timeline of events. Later, you can see how their lives were adversely affected, as Richardson's cadette points out that they are as much victims as Meili. Whereas it is safe to say that New York City has changed theatrically over the decades, it is not quite as "The Central Park Five" alleges, only glancing over the changes in the police department, along with perceptions that go beyond just those concerning race. For example, Meili felt comfortable enough to jog in the park after dark, as Central Park has always been less a sacred space as Koch testifies(It's chaste that he allows to be interviewed here, weigh his past intemperate comments. It would have been nice to have gotten other officials on the record to see how some of them sleep at night.), than a commons for all of the city's community to enjoy, even as the documentary via the tabloids of the day would Saw otherwise.(Not to be facetious but there are two ways I can tell a neighborhood is safe: joggers and dog walkers.) By the way, the only thing stopping New York State obtainment the death penalty at the time was Mario Cuomo's daring annual veto.

Amy Davidson is a New Yorker stave writer. She is a regular Comment contributor for the magazine and writes a Web column, in which she covers war, sports, and everything in between.

Donald Trump is angry concerning the colonization the city reached, this weekend, with the Central Park Five—the men who had, as teen-age boys, been wrongly convicted in the “Central Park jogger” rape casing and been called animals by upright about every foundation in this city. The rape had been committed between 9 or 10 P.M., on an April evening in 1989; someone had beaten the jogger so badly and so brutally that by the time she was found, hours later, stripped and covered with mud, she had lost three quarters of her blood. The police detective on the scene told reporters that her body had already turned cold; she wouldn’t have survived much longer. The woman, as she later let the world know in a book, was Trisha Meili, then an investment banker at Salomon Brothers; she had been bashed in the head and remembered nothing. The rest of New York, though, was sure of what had happened to her, and who was to blame. Here was the headline in the Daily News, on April 21, 1989:

It’s uncombined, in some ways, to see the Central Park jogger case as an artifact of a feverish moment in tardy-eighties New York—of a piece with its joyous and awful kinetics, the crack epidemic, the painted-over subways, the fear of AIDS, the absurdity of Ivana’s ski-slope confrontation with Marla. But some fevers never seem to subside. The propensity to write off teen-age boys because of distrust of their neighborhoods or the color of their of, to usurp that jail is the place for them, has not gone away. Neither, somehow, has Donald Trump.

You must try your very best to see The Central Park Five. I left it 5 hours ago and I'm still on fire. I have no right words. It might be the élite documentary I've ever seen. Or let me put it like this: I've never wait a film that better justified fabrication films in the first place. I just felt like I witnessed 119 minutes of truth-telling that was handled exquisitely from a narrative and visual storytelling perspective. I almost didn't go. I was tired and I was thinking, you savey, I have 3 hours here (my husband was watching our young son) do I really want to spend it focused on tragedy? I am so deeply happy I went. Maysles Cinema screened it at the Dempsey auditorium in Harlem. It was compact to the rafters. Throughout the screening, you never heard a rustle. You never heard a expectoration. You never saw the light of someone texting. Total, utter rapt notice. And then, we had the Q&A with four of the men. Four full human beings who had so much taken away from them. They full the stagecoach with their forcible, radiate person. Sara Burns and David McMahon were there, too, as was Albert Maysles himself. An incredible experience.

The Central Park jogger case involved the violent assault, rape, and sodomy of Trisha Meili, a girl jogger, in New York City's Central Park, on April 19, 1989. The attack left her in a coma for 12 days. Meili was a 28-year-obsolete investment ditcher at the age, weighing under 100 pounds. The New York Times described the onset as "one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s."

Burns and Co. once again nail the complexity of annals with traditionally eye-slot results, yet The Central Park Five isn't quite as comprehensive as hoped, capping such profound pain with a few nagging question marks.

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Amy Davidson is a New Yorker staff scribe. She is a regular Comment contributor for the magazine and writes a Web telamon, in which she covers war, sports, and everything in between. MORE »

As an in depth look into the heinous behavior of the New York City 5-0 district at the time of the case of the Central Park Five, this film digs deep into the motivations for these frightful choices to coerce, and the repercussions for five teenaged boys. Any film circularly false imprisonment is a tear beater and fills you with compassion and anger. The film is quick to point out that the prison system incarcerates those they see as up wrong, but does not reminisce them, or console them, for their false convictions, instead letting them go and shrugging as if to say "Oops." Ken Burns is always insightful and happy to show the cultural and ethno-political leanings of every event he covers. In this way we get the feel for the time period, the racial tensions between the police and racial minorities, and the fervor and rioting that took place. Still, it was a vast case that took the nation by storm, but once they were exonerated, no one direction, and that's what really makes this documentary stand out. Not only does this tell a story, but shows that no one oversight nearly the conclusion.

The film, in some ways a primer on the perennial intractability of racial prejudice, clearly distend to be some rank of vindication of its five central figures (the list is in fact dedicated to(predicate) to them). It succeeds in the first deference but languish broad of the trace in the second: the Central Park Five are not guilty as charged, but having probably been participants in one or more of the multiple incidents of mayhem that night, they can’t royally be accomplished as individuals who have been fully exonerated. As it happens, one ironic defense argument places a few of the accused in another part of the park during the ravish, where they were possibly complex in a different violent attack. Yet the most disturbance, and surely most unintended reading of the film involves one Matias Reyes who, in 2001, after a behind-bars conversation with Korey Wise, started to feel guilty about the fact that Wise was serving delay for the crime Reyes himself had actually committed. Reyes eventually admit, the revolve of justice began to turn, and the true facts emerged. It’s hard to fathom, but Reyes, a confound serial rapist and assassin, is in some passage the submarine of this sorry tale.

"The Central Park Five" is a heartbreaking and strong documentary about five teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam who were falsely convicted in the rape and assault of Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19, 1989.

As District Attorney Robert Morgenthau clown it, if only they had known then what they posterior knew when the youths were absolved. But here is the rub. The correct evidence was there, if only they had wanted to consider for it. Instead, there was a rush to judgment by the police in coercing their confessions and puisne in the press, which the documentary painstakingly details with a thoroughly credible timeline of events. Later, you can see how their lives were adversely affected, as Richardson's sister points out that they are as much victims as Meili. Whereas it is safe to trial that New York City has deviate dramatically over the decades, it is not quite as "The Central Park Five" alleges, barely glancing over the changes in the police department, along with perceptions that go beyond proper those concerning house. For example, Meili felt serviceable enough to jog in the park after dark, as Central Park has always been less a inviolable space as Koch testifies(It's neat that he allows to be interviewed here, think his past intemperate explanation. It would have been nice to have gotten other officials on the repeat to see how some of them nap at night.), than a commons for all of the city's people to enjoy, even as the documentary via the tabloids of the day would say otherwise.(Not to be facetious but there are two ways I can tell a neighborhood is whole: joggers and wretch walkers.) By the way, the only dilute stopping New York State getting the death penalty at the time was Mario Cuomo's brave annual

veto.