The young men were often without their parents, though four of them were juveniles and Korey Wise, at sixteen, was hardly capable of protecting his own best interests in the interrogation room. Aug. 1, 1990.The front page of the New York Daily News on April 21, 1989.Central Park jogger Trisha Meili, fully rehabilitated and participating in the Achilles Track Club’s Third Annual “Hope and Possibility” 5-Mile Run/Walk in New York City, June, 2005.An aerial view of Rikers Island in the East River of New York City.Woody Henderson (right) from the National Action Network, leading a protest outside of Manhattan’s Criminal Court. All five of them received sentences ranging from five to 15 years, much of which they served, even after the truth had been revealed to lawmakers and the public alike.What really occurred that April night in Central Park involved an anarchistic gathering of criminal mischief and chaos by about 30 teenagers.
And if the physical evidence didn’t implicate them then who did it implicate?On April 19, 1989 Trisha Meili was brutally raped and beaten in Central Park and left for dead. The Central Park Five is a gripping and heart-wrenching story of a heinous crime and miscarriage of justice that was fueled by racism, unfair and biased media coverage, and the incompetence of the investigation team. She fell fifty feet into an air shaft, breaking both her ankles and sustaining numerous other grave injuries, but incredibly, she survived. Before Rudolph Giuliani took over as mayor in 1994 and instituted sweeping reforms against crime and effectively sanitized the city’s grubby facade and its seedy underbelly of crime, it was a city pressurized by the weight of the crack epidemic, gang violence, and a racial divide that often violently bubbled to the surface.When a white female jogger named Trisha Meili was brutally assaulted and raped in the city’s scenic Central Park in the heart of Manhattan, The brutal attack on April 19, 1989 left Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker soon to be known as the “Central Park Jogger,” in a coma for 12 days. Colyard. It’s pretty straightforward and tells the story of The Central Park Five and their abuse at the hands of NYC justice system. Reading this intensified my anger at the toxic criminal justice system.
My heart aches for every person whose race has been used to punish them or hold them down.
The evidence clearly did not support, nor suggest, that these young men were ever guilty of anything. It's horrifying, okay? I thought it would be somewhat dry reading but I could not put this book down. These boys/men have gone through the worst ordeal of their lives and all because the ADA office and the NYPD didn’t do their jobs properly and investigate every possible avenue before condemning a group of teenagers to a life of suffering. Thank you for sharing their story.
In The Central Park Five, Sarah Burns chronicles how five teenagers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time were successfully prosecuted and imprisoned for the rape of this woman when ALL OF THE EVIDENCE pointed to it being someone else.
I can’t even begin to fathom the frustration, anger, and grit of the Central Park 5. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. "in 1990, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr., had been convicted and sent to prison for a combination of rape, sexual assault and attempted murder of a femal jogger named Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19 1989""in 1990, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr., had been convicted and sent to prison for a combination of rape, sexual assault and attempted murder of a femal jogger named Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19 1989"If When They See Us stirred you, I highly recommend reading this account.
But Central Park was a safer place than anywhere else in the city.