Analysis Of The Central Park 5

Watching Ken Burn’s The Central Park 5, a viewer can easily see the vulgarity and vitriol which fueled the case and think, even hope that this sort of treatment of black and Latino American youths would be intolerable in modern America. This documentary chronicles the case, dubbed by the media as the Central Park Jogger, which involved the violent rape of a white female jogger in Central Park on April 19, 1989 and the wrongful conviction of five boys of color. The jogger, a 28-year old investment banker of the Upper East Side was so brutally beaten that she was in a coma for twelve days, and her assault became a huge media spectacle. This case exacerbated racial tensions in a crime-driven, poverty-stricken New York City, and revealed the prejudices

The prosecutors did not have DNA connecting the boys to the crime, the crime scene did not indicate from than one assailant, only one boy looked like in he was in a physical altercation, and the timeline provided by the detectives placed them at the other side of Central Park when the rape took place. The whole case was substantiated on one type of evidence – their confessions which were recanted afterwards. The boys gave their confession when they were formally arrested, after they were interrogated for over a day without sleep or food. The children say that they were told if they confessed, they could go home. The confessions told were inconsistent with each other and the physical evidence. In addition, most of their lawyers later argued that these confession were given under coercion and should not be used as evidence. The narrative itself proved to be most persuasive component of the case: poor, uneducated males of color sexually violating a wealthy, educated white woman. Despite all of the weak evidence, many accepted the narrative and the five boys were

His account matched the crime scene and also elucidated uncertainties concerning the assault. His DNA also matched the blood and semen found. The five boys, now men, were finally vacated of the crime and removed from the sex offender registry. In spite of the new evidence and the judge’s ruling, the police commissioner Ray Kelly still supported the police work behind incarcerating five innocent boys of color. Police officers are human and thus fallible, however, refusal to fix detrimental practices and denial of racial and socio-economical disadvantages is unacceptable. These attitudes are especially horrendous for the law enforcement to support since cops have so much power in a community. Yes, police officers are human, but due to the immense power they are granted, they should be held to a higher