The Central Park 5

The Central Park V jogger case was the case of the battering and rape of female jogger Trisha Meili; in New York City’s Central Park on April 19 1989. Five youth males four were black and one was hispanic. They males were falsely convicted of the rape of Trisha Meili. Until 2002 when their charges were vacated. On the night of April 19, 1989 several attacks and robberies happened in Central Park an estimated 30 youths were thought to have come together to commit these crimes. 

According to police investigations on the night of the crime; the perpetrators were ‘gangs’ of teenagers who ‘set out’ to assault ‘innocent’ strangers which the media then gave the action the name “wilding”. April 19th was known to be the night in which these youths (predominantly blacks and hispanics) where these random acts of ‘wilding’ occurred in Harlem. Aside from normal police protocol the name of suspects under 16 years of age names are not to be released to media. Which instead the names, photos, and place of residence was publicized while the joggers name was still kept private. 

Although many youths were identified as partaking in these acts of ‘wilding’ and some identified themselves as assaulting other people. Only the five which became known as  “The Central Park Five” were brought to trial later on. The names of the five youths that were taken in for questioning are Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise. Yusef Salaam was the fifth one but he refused to sign a confession with his signature. The police interrogated these young men to the point where they were telling on each other claiming one committed the rape just to get the police to let them go home. They blamed each other and said the others were raping   the jogger claiming themselves to be innocent. 

No DNA connected the boys to the case, they actually had no idea what happened to the jogger. Their statements were released just so they could go home.

The first trial was held in August of 1990, the defendants are Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Antron McCray were being tried for attempted murder and convicted of rape./ During the time of the trial Salaam and McCray were 15 years old. Raymond Santana was 14 years old at the time They received the maximum amount of time permitted for minors. 

Reverend Calvin O. Butts (a supporter of the youths that had been wrongly accused) said "The first thing you do in the United States of America when a white woman is raped is round up a bunch of black youths, and I think that's what happened here." The race card was pulled by blacks who were enraged by the fact these young men were wrongly accused. Police had no physical evidence nor did the “suspects” have any evidence on themselves that was related to the crime. 

The police were obviously biased to “whites” post the Civil Rights Era. Black protesters were angered at the fact the these five “kids” were convicted of a crime they had no idea even took place. Police created a time line of when the boys were projected to have committed the crime it did not add up. The time and place the jogger was raped did not even correlate with the time the boys had been in the park. The boys also later released a statement stating that they were not in that section of the park where the woman was battered and raped. 

The difference between the 60’s and 1989 is racism was not as publicized. Media is biased towards exploiting black crimes. The media made this case much larger rather than if the media had not started releasing these statements from minors. In the 60’s there were leaders like MLK and MX who were constantly on tv defending blacks which made race a larger issue. Once the late 80’s hit racism still existed though it was less publicized. This was during the crack era, (1989) so the drug wars and black on black crime was more of an issue on the news rather than a KKK rally. I believe this and I know for fact that blacks at this point dealt with the race aspect though they still had to deal with live in their own neighborhoods. 

These biases by the media often portray the image that all blacks are bad especially during this time where activist were “pro” jogger or “pro” youth. The media threw their names and personal information out before they put on the cover of the NY Times “ Female Jogger near death after savage attack by roving gang”. Not only were they bashed so bad but after the true rapist came forward there was no type of compensation or remorse felt towards the 5 now 15 years later men. Today the men are all in contact with each other and tell their stories in their documentary.