It was 1989, and if memory serves, my second full year of teaching Spec Ed in Harlem when I first heard the news, and like all the other teachers in my school (and no doubt so many others in schools throughout the immediate area)- was hoping none of them were any of ours. Praying none of our kids had done the deed- and that none had been picked up for being Black and convenient, and now in the fight of their lives...
The crime had been particularly brutal, vicious. A woman had been raped, beaten and left for dead in the showcase that is Central Park. People wanted justice, in fact, people wanted vengeance. The whole city wanted to make an example of these guys- if you had set them free in Central Park the following day, the park would have been over run by a tsunami of outraged citizenry that would have left them every bit as tattered as the jogger herself- or else hanging from trees. And one of the people leading that potential lynch mob was none other than The Trumpster with his $85,000 ads for vengeance.
They just had to be guilty. Even I pretty much succumbed to the scenario that at least some of them were probably in on it; after all, there were no other suspects, no other evidence, no other logical explanation... the best minds in criminal justice vehemently assured us so...
They just had to be guilty. Even I pretty much succumbed to the scenario that at least some of them were probably in on it; after all, there were no other suspects, no other evidence, no other logical explanation... the best minds in criminal justice vehemently assured us so...
Only problem, of course, was that each one of The Central Park Five, each one of those vicious, (underage) sub human excuses of humanity was, in fact, as completely innocent of said crime as you or I. They finally got the real perp years later- it was his DNA that matched, theirs never did.
Each one convicted, sentenced, jailed. And no one has apologized.
Each one convicted, sentenced, jailed. And no one has apologized.
4 comments:
People are too busy filling their minds with trashy images of made up swamp people acting like animals instead of being concerned with "reality" and truth. The people who control the media have the western world hooked on the opiate of TV stupidity. The reality junkies clamour for more and ever increasingly bizarre, manufactured, physiological codified trash. Rather than leaving needle tracks on their arms these new junkies take in their brain numbing "junk" through their eyes. There is no appetite for truth, justice and real freedom. These aspirations have been dulled by those that want to control us. That and obesity has relegated western society to a quivering mound of puerile mediocrity only raised up off the couch once a year for Black Friday.
Dang, Eric! Didn't know you Canadians could get so riled up! Specially loved that last sentence...
There are a couple of things that get us going. Wasting a human life is right up there.
Unfortunately- we specialize in that shit...
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