Democracy Now!
We spend the hour with Ava DuVernay, whose damning new four-part television series “When They See Us” tells the story of five teenagers of color from Harlem—four African-American and one Latino—who were wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and nearly killing a white woman out for a jog in New York City’s Central Park. The night that would come to define the boys’ lives was April 19, 1989, more than 30 years ago. In the sensational trial that followed, they became known as the “Central Park Five.” Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana served between six and seven years, and Korey Wise, the only teenager tried as an adult, served more than 13 years. In agonizing detail, “When They See Us” exposes the inner workings of a criminal justice system designed to fail people of color, laying bare the decades of trauma triggered by the boys’ wrongful convictions. It also looks unsparingly at those responsible for the miscarriage of justice, including Linda Fairstein, the head of the Sex Crimes Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, who spearheaded the case, played by Felicity Huffman. Since the series premiered, Fairstein has been forced to resign from several boards, including Safe Horizon, the Joyful Heart Foundation and her alma mater, Vassar College. Glamour magazine, which named Fairstein Woman of the Year in 1993, issued a statement saying, “Unequivocally, Glamour would not bestow this honor on her today.” Ava DuVernay says that her series reveals that “the system’s not broken; the system was built this way.”
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The whole Criminal Justice system in the US is deliberately constructed to preserve to the status quo, in which the rich get richer at the expense of the poor, who are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. When a crime that receives a lot of media attention enters the public domain (such as the Central Park Rape case) the tabloid newspapers and the TV commercial news stations whip up public hysteria to the point that the salient facts of the case become lost in the media feeding frenzy. A good example is how Donald Trump paid $85,000.00 to take out full page adverts in prominent tabloids to influence the outcome of the trials by tainting the jury pool. If a UK billionaire with political connections had acted in a similar way, he would be prosecuted for contempt of court. I remember the case quite clearly as I was 22 years old at the time and working as a paramedic in London. I may not have been a police officer but worked alongside them often enough that I had a good idea of how the Metroploitan Police in London investigated these cases. The Met are far from perfect but they could teach the NYPD a thing or two about large scale investigations with both media and political pressure to solve them at any cost. That is why Police Chiefs, Judges, Crown Prosecutors and Prison Governors are promoted on merit and not elected by a manipulated public. Also when miscarriages of justice take place, it does not take, weeks, months or even years to put right but decades. Even in the UK the timescale is astronomical due to vested interests, where original detectives and prosecutors are long since retired, original witnesses have died or moved away and evidence has been discarded or perished to the point that it is next to useless. There are many good informative documentaries on you tube that explain a persons rights when in police custody. Please read them as no matter how much compensation you may be given, you can never get the years back.
Those 5 are guilty as hell !
Netflix = Fictional stories
All those guys in the park but then these 5 are your easiest most gullible target and you take advantage. Injustice All day. I still say everyone involved should be held respinsible. Period. These boys did not have to go through this especially Mr. Korey Wise, had they bot falsely accused them…It just kills me inside. They were compensated but nothing can fix it completely. ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING
When I think of the people that allowed these kids to be framed.
I want reprisal!!!!
Ava is so pretty. I love her hair. ?
Not the Central Park five,the exonerated five!
What is a black
W. A. K. E. U. P ! ! !
Is It About Skin Colour? Yes It Is.
IT'S NOT R A C I S M! ! !
IT'S FACT.
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gensesis 4:5
But unto Cain and to his offspring he had no respect. And Cain was very wroth (Strong's No. 2734), and his countenance fell.
H R Kh- Hebrew For:
Charah, Kharah – "Wroth, Furious, Become angry, To Heat Oneself in vexation" ( Strong's No. 2734)
* * * *
Their GOD put hate, jealousy and envy between brothers.
The:
*Celtics,
*Huns,
*Goth,
*Visigoths,
*Vikings,
*Angles,
*Franks,
*Saxons,
*Romans,
*Greeks,
*Germans,
*British,
*Russians,
*Dutch,
*Spaniards,
*Portuguese,
*Euro-American,
have between their colonizing greed, accounted for the most "evil" , which becomes their religions; Moseism, Jesusism, and Muhammadism, all Abrahamism,
Killers world over..
* * * *
Executing TANAN – "Dragonian, Reptilian" acts on others who were & are:
I*N*N*O*C*E*N*T! ! !
* * * *
E. V. I. L. BY T. H. E. I. R
V E R Y. "N*A*T*U*R*E! ! !
* * * *
They Were Bred That Way By:
Paa Kamah – u
"The pleidians."
REMEMBER:
E V I L * BY * THEIR * VERYI *
N*A*T*U*R*E! ! !
S E T * R E C O R D * S T R A I T!
Genesis 4:5
Excellent interview…
All 5 of these boys were hit with the full weight of the law yet Brock Turner, who was caught by multiple witnesses raping an unconscious woman, was out jail in 6 months.
GUILTY !!!
I'm so glad they are all alive to tell it as it is, thank you Ava God bless you ?
The way these men were vilified and convicted by the media is telling. When Trump says “fake news”, he knows from first hand experience how the media is used to manipulate public opinion. He has used the media for decades to get what he wants.
Thank you Ava DuVernay.
Linda Fairstein! You are a EVILLLLL lady, but I can tell you one thing. Linda you will not go unpunished by GOD HIMSELF!!!
Best interview ever, thank you Amy. I can only wish that mass media on tv would be so fair. It shows the terrible biases and prejudices still working thru out America. “The land of the free, “ what a joke! These people will be judged by God.
This is why I preach to my children not to talk to police stay away from them, they are not your friend. You are guilty first is what these so cold peace officer's are systematically taught and it starts from home as children also…..
Trump and those corrupt pos are trash…much worse than that…
must everything look and sound like format 'hollywood' .. Oh wait it's Netflix !
However kudos to all such efforts (big and small) .. to expose the apartheid that (still) exists in America…
The sad part if the racist cops were doing their job that reyers the real rapist wouldn't have killed the pregnant mother of 3 this whole case is sick smh?
Just the clips alone are harrowing! I can't watch the show or I will spend the whole time crying or being very angry…or both. I knew they were released, but I didn't know they had been fully exonerated! that part of the story was very low key, so I'm glad for the Netflix series to bring this case to the wider public and to the world!
The system is not broken. It was set up to work this way and still works this way. This is the intent and will of the system, in relation to black American descendants of chattel slavery in particular. This country can't deport us, so it deploys state-sanctioned slaughter and mass selective incarceration of us as a means of disposal.
This is such a tragic story!!! I can’t imagine what it must have been like for these innocent kids…but this is NOT exclusive to a certain race. Injustices like this happen everyday to every race in this country. There will always be racism, discrimination, etc…but perception is also a factor. I would argue that most people confuse racism with people who are just assholes. But it’s easy to assume racism when it comes from a person with a different shade of skin color. Class privilege is more alive today than race privilege or actual racism…
The police behaved as usual based on historical evidence
All officials involved should be stripped of their pensions…. you do not prosecute rape without forensic evidence…
This is soooo heartbreaking!!! ?
The Criminal justice system is a predatory system that preys upon and sustains itself on Black people.
Excellent presentation ??. Linda F., Needs her ass whipped. I am not an advocate of violence either.
Or won't be in none of our lifetime sad to say. It'll take the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to wipe out this criminal justice system
Good for prison reform, police reform, and court reform.
Exceptional.
I’m still not ready to see this. It makes me so angry.
The EVIL, DEVILISH power of racism!
When he hit that boy’s hand like that, I swear to God.. ?
I was born in BK nine when I heard this . Back then when I hear people say when someone is stuck now I understand. Korey's life will never be 100%.. He's just one of many trying to make it in a hateful world one day at a time..❤️❤️❤️
Love n hate the movie when they c us n I also feel the five families that was victimized by Reyes should sue the City n there is no price to pay for what happened to Kory Wise it's just so sad I'm not even going to talk about nest head ???
Very sad……how can you just hate people just because of the colour of their skin. Shame on the USA a failed nation. That's why they voted trump to make America great again. Bringing back the old days of discrimination is what they mean by making america great again
POLICE ARE NOTHING MORE THAN LAWLESS GANGSTERS. I HOPE GOD DEALS WITH EVERYONE OF THOSE PIGS, PROCECUTERS AND EVERYONE ELSE INVOLVED WITH THE CONVICTIONS OF THESE KIDS. WICKED SET OF MOTHER FUCKERS. THIS MOVIE WILL FURTHER EXPOSE ALL YOU PUSSIES
Great acting and makes one feel like one is in the room with them. Gives chills. Shows how African / Latino American teens are viewed like less than human. Sad!!
This our duty as artist to shed light into dark places. This work will stand the test of time.