As a woman, imagine having a daily routine every day: wake up, get dressed, go to work, come home, go for a run, return home, sleep and the cycle continues. Now envision going through your typical routine on a chilly Wednesday night. You head out for your routine jog at approximately 9:00 PM only to never return. This tragic situation is what occurred to a 28-year-old investment banker working on Wall Street in New York City, Trisha Meili. She was discovered at around 1:30 AM, mouth gagged, hands secured with a long-sleeve shirt, and wearing nothing but a bra. This woman’s life would never be the same again. Neither would the lives of the teenage boys who were falsely accused. According to the statistics reported from The Disaster Center in …show more content…
Al Sharpton once referred to New York City as “America’s capital of racial violence.” With 28 first-degree rapes or attempted rapes reported across New York City, it never got the attention that the Central Park jogger received. Trisha Meili was a wealthy white woman, living on the Upper East Side, and worked as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street. Shockingly, less than two weeks after Trisha Meili was brutally attacked and raped as she jogged through her routine trail, a 38-year-old black woman was held at knifepoint on a Brooklyn street and up to the roof of a four-story building by two men. She was raped, beaten, and to top it off; she was thrown off the building, falling 50 feet to the ground. Not many media outlets or outside sources were aware of this incident. The President of the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women stated, “Sexual violence is a continuing problem. But we only talk about it when it’s on the front pages. It happens all the time.” Several incidents went unnoticed. On the other hand, New York City Police Department (NYPD) made sure that the Central Park Five Jogger case was …show more content…
Five young boys who had yet to explore the world were wrongfully convicted. Five young boys who were from a damaged urban area. It is evident that the young boys were easy targets due to where they came from and for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One always grows up believing in the justice system, but it is apparent that the justice system failed these young boys and the community as a whole. The right measures were not taken by New York Justice System in 1989. The young boys were in fact discovered in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989, and held for foolish acts they witnessed but did not perform. They were to be released when Trisha Meili’s body was unexpectedly discovered, with 80 percent of her blood lost during the attack, which made authorities change their decision. Immediately, detectives decided to hold these young teenagers accountable with no physical evidence that pointed to them. Young black and Hispanic boys being in the famous Central Park at around the same time when the deadly assault occurred was enough to convince the detectives that they had captured the WOLFPACK. The responsibility of a detective and criminal investigator is to collect facts and assemble evidence for
According to the FBI, more than 75 percent of all murder victims are women, and more than 50 percent of the women are between the ages of 14 and 29 years old. A part of that statistic is Kitty Genovese,a murder victim who is the focus of an editorial, “The Dying Girl that No One Helped,” written by Loudon Wainwright. Kitty was a 28 year old woman who was brutally stabbed to death while on her way home from work. The woman, named Kitty Genovese, lived in a pleasant, welcoming, residential area, in New York. There was at least 38 witnesses that came forward, and they all heard her cries for help, but no one came to her aid. Wainwright effectively demonstrates how society has started turning a “blind-eye” toward problems that can endanger someone's
Rape is a hidden epidemic that affects many lives world wide. It is a problem that is so terrifying and uncomfortable that people do not talk about it. John Krakauer, author of Missoula, focuses on this issue of rape in the college town of Missoula, Montana. His focus is specifically on the case of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson. As the progression of Allison 's case continues we learn of more and more rape cases that happened to women on this same campus. A majority of women do not report these cases, we later learn as Krakauer continues through Allison 's case, because reporting and pursuing the case would be giving their life away. [4] Of course Allison decides to go through the trails of Beau Donaldson, however it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to convict someone with little evidence. As hard of a read as Missoula
Late in the evening on April 19, 1989, the Central Park precinct was buzzing with reports that a group of teenagers where reeking havoc in the park, beating up bicyclist and joggers. That night female jogger Trisha Meili was brutally assaulted and rapped. That night the five adolescent boys were tried and convicted and served the full sentences for their alleged crime. Their convictions were dismissed when in 2002 when a convicted rapist and murder of numerous crimes Matias Reyes confessed to the assault of Trisha Meili.
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
July 15, 1999, was an ordinary night for Kristopher Lohrmeyer as he left work at the Colorado City Creamer, a popular ice cream parlor. Kristopher had no idea that his life was about to end. When Michael Brown, 17, Derrick Miller and Andrew (Andy) Medina, 15, approached Kristopher and demanded his money and his car keys. Before the boys knew it shots had been fired and Kristopher was dead. About an hour after the fatal shooting of Kristopher Lohrmeyer, all three men were in custody and telling their version of the night’s events. Michael and Derrick who had run away after the shooting confessed to police and named Andy as the shooter. According to the three boy’s testimony, they had only recently met and needed away to get some quick cash, so they developed a carjacking scheme and headed to Andy’s house to pick up 2 stolen handguns. The three boys were uneducated and had spent most of their time on the streets in search of drugs. The judge ruled that they would be held without bail and there was probable cause to charge them all with first-degree murder (Thrown Away, 2005).
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
There have been several women who have been able to escape from their captors and get help to recover from the traumas they endured. According to reporter, Naomi Martin (2013), “Clemmie Greenlee, a former victim of sex tr...
Sadly these teenagers became victims of mistreatment by police and the lawlessness and errors that occur in the justice system. It all began on the night of April 19th in 1989. Trisha Meili, the victim was a 28 years old caucasian woman. Trisha was a smart and successful woman, she was a graduate from Wellesley College where she received her bachelor's
Scene: This story takes place in New York City, New York in the mid 90's. While the UN conference is in town, a series of kidnappings has erupted and it's up to a team of forensic scientists to follow the clues and find the killer.
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.
In 1989, the Central Park Five case shook New York City when a female jogger, Trisha Meili, was brutally assaulted and raped in Central Park. This incident drastically altered the lives of everyone involved, including the victims, perpetrators, society as a whole, and the complete justice system. Amidst outrage, five African American and Hispanic teenagers - Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise - were wrongfully accused and convicted of the crime. Despite the lack of physical evidence tying them to the scene and inconsistencies in their confessions, the teenagers were unjustifiably convicted in a highly publicized trial marked by racial tensions and media melodrama. The convictions of the Central Park Five were based
On the night of September 7th, 2001 16-year-old Lindsay Armstrong was walking home after spending the evening with her friends in her small hometown of New Cumnock, Scotland. She rode the bus as far as it would go and then began to walk home as the clock ticked past 10 PM. As she was walking, a 14-year-old boy who Lindsay knew caught up to her, beat her, dragged her into a park, and raped her. He then threatened her life if she spoke about the incident and ran off. Filled to the brim with Scottish fight and determined to better the world, Lindsay promptly told her parents and the local authorities. Soon after Lindsay began to suffer from the common symptoms faced by rape victims and withdrew from her friends, her family, and her school due to severe depression. Through a lengthy trial, Lindsay was forced to hold up the underwear she was wearing under her clothes, verbally attacked by defense lawyers and her own accuser, and berated on the stand. Lindsay’s rapist was sentenced four years to juvenile detention and was released after two. Lindsay on the other hand killed herself a short time after the trial. Her father later commented “She said [the trial] was like being raped all over again.”(Beaven) In standing up in her own defense, reporting her trauma to the police, and facing her attacker in court, Lindsay did what 60% of rape victims refuse to do (RAINN). The judicial system of our society repaid her bravery with psychological and emotional torture. The treatment of rape victims in our society today is shrouded in blame, disbelief, and insensitivity. Furthermore, the culture surrounding the crime itself is one of downplaying, humor, acceptance, understanding, and even more insensitivity. Society’s immoral and uneducated outlo...
“It’s difficult to believe a human being would inflict so much pain and… so much brutality towards another human being,” said Detective Daniel Villars. In the documentary, “The Confession Tapes: 8th and H”, emphasizes on how a false confession tape ruined the lives of five innocent teenagers. Catherine Fuller was the victim of the brutal assault and murder that occurred at the alley of 8th and h street. The documentary argues that the suspects of the murder were teenage boys that were classified as “wolfpack” by the media. Some of them were questioned without their parent’s knowledge, and were all questioned for hours and hours without any break. There were found guilty for the crimes and sentenced 35 years to-life for a murder they didn't
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
A New York Times article from 2011 covers the story of an eleven year old girl who was walking home from the bus stop when she was dragged to a car and driven to a trailer home where she was gang raped by 18 men ranging from middle schoolers to 27 year olds. Instead of helping an eleven year old who was threatened to be beaten if she didn't coperate, the article says instead, “It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.” The main concern was how these boys were doing. They didn’t blame the boys, the girl was blamed as it says later in the article, “She dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s.”