The Central Park Five

The Central Park Five is a profound documentary on all levels. It was an astonishing look back on the city I love and call home, during a time when this city wasn't doing all the well. This movie may shock you, depending on who you are and where you come from. I give The Central Park Five three buckets of Killer Korn.




In New York City, back in the 80's, there was a chasm between it's residents. A deep one that in certain aspects, still hasn't been healed. It was the time of Koch and Cuomo, corrupt cops, overzealous investigators, ambitious district attorneys, and crack. With crack came an escalation in crime and violence the likes this city had never seen before though most of the violence was Black on Black. Young Black males killing each other over drugs and the money that followed. The city was crumbling down around Black people but was evolving and improving around whites. The stock market was making people rich seemingly overnight and legal money was flowing into the city as fast as illegal money was. Racial tension was high thanks to the likes of the subway vigilante Bernie Goetz, the incendiary Rev. Al Sharpton, the ridiculous Guardian Angels, and the clueless mayor, Ed Koch.

Thrown into all of this was the assault and rape of a white woman in the sacred part of the city known as Central Park. She was known as the Central Park Jogger and she was almost killed by her attacker. Shock and fear descended on the city and the people wanted justice immediately. The police, feeling the pressure of solving such a case, all the while having a handful of Black and brown teenagers in the Central Park precinct at the time for harassing pedestrians and other joggers, pressured and coerced those young men into admitting to a crime they had absolutely nothing to do with.

Those young men were Antron McCray, Yussef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey (Kharey) Wise. These five young men became the symbol for everything wrong with the city at the time. They were so vilified by the press, who was so quick to rush to judgement that even though their accounts of the crime didn't match, and the fact that none of them left any DNA at the crime scene, they were GUILTY! There was even a call to bring the death penalty back just for these boys and leading that charge was the complete and utter ignorance of Donald Trump. This case so split the city in two, divided racial lines so sharply that it was virtually Black against white. White people were outraged that five Black and brown boys pounced on this lovely white woman while she was out jogging in Central Park at 9pm at night. Black people shouted that if this woman had been found in Brooklyn, or the Bronx, no one would give a damn.

Co-directed by celebrated documentor Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, The Central Park Five revisits a time in this city that I had all but forgotten about. It reopened that can of worms and re-awakened certain memories that I had either forgotten about or repressed. If you get the chance to see this movie, I HIGHLY recommend it, and if not then seek it out on DVD when it's available. You get to see just how the wheels of justice, when pressured, can turn against someone, ruin lives with no apology, recourse, or punishment. It may change your perspective on how people are dealt with by those that are sworn to serve and protect. Go see it, as fast as you can because it is worth seeing, and I'll see you at the theater.