last night me and my lady were riveted by this documentary.
Watch The Central Park Five on PBS. See more from Central Park Five.
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a new film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of these five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.
a lot of what I write on this site is personal. my personal opinions of policies, my personal recollections, my personal POV of many topics. in that vein, this documentary affected me PERSONALLY. these guys were and are my age and race, and like me, were urban kids.
I can't even come at this from the "how did this happen" POV because, for one thing, I've always known this sort of thing could happen. my parents warned me early and often. the main reason I can't come at this with that sort of high dudgeon is because almost-40 mally remembers being a teenaged mally who was positive that these young black males were GUILTY AS HELL. I remember arguing with my mom (who was sure they were innocent) about it back then. that made this especially hard to watch.
coerced confessions, making them implicate themselves and others. parents overwhelmed by authority. a world (like I said, including me) who rushed to judgement. the result: 5 boys lost thier lives. no, they weren't killed literally. but the men they were supposed to be were.
I can't stop thinking about caramel colored, hazel eyed, Korey Wise, who was sent to Rikers at the age of 16 for something he didn't do. I can guess exactly what happened to him there. I literally shudder to think.
it DEFINITELY could have been me, but for God's grace.
Please watch this documentary, if you can.