Central Park Five Analysis

The documentary ‘Central Park Five’ was told in such a captivating, vivid way, which really allows the viewer to feel the emotional realism and angst in the story. It was so devastating to watch these young men go through this time distressing time of injustice. In the 1980’s there were many issues present within society surrounding race and economic status, which brought a tremendous amount of violent crime. In the documentary you were given an insiders view of the life each of these boys lived, and therefore helped you understand what influenced their decisions and motives. I tried to put myself in their shoes, thinking how hard it was for them to be accused of something they did not do, all in their tender adolescent age. The ridicule they …show more content…
These five young boys were deprived of basic human rights and legal protections for juveniles. Because of their race they didn’t get the respect and dignity that they deserved throughout this case, and the problems continued to magnify. It’s sad to believe that there was such an uneven playing field, particularly because there was a predisposition in government institutions regarding African Americans in the 1980’s. Present in this period was a pompous image of equal opportunity, when really the truth was they fostered prejudice opinions against people ‘unlike their own’. This was a period of time where there was a tremendous fight for social justice, however people continued to have preconceived notions of individuals based on personal belief, race, and social standing. Attainment of equal rights was a constant struggle. There was a dominant social message in the mist of the fight for equality, as they said in the documentary, “no one cared if you lived or died”. This quote really struck me hard, this statement made me realize that this social message gave these once innocent children the power to commit a crime, because they didn’t know any better. According to the documentary, in the late 1980’s African Americans were perceived as the “most dangerous species in America” because of their reputation for crime and violence. To me that …show more content…
Many of the misconceptions in this case, had horrible repercussions. The media had a great desire to create buzz worthy titles for the news, and the media frenzy world. The media played with words to make the story sound more enticing, such as the gang of teenagers were out “Wilding”, “Rampaging in Wolf Packs”. These terms used to refer to the suspects and the crime drew the attention of the public, the media coverage added fuel to the fire. To me the circumstance played into the existing fears and prejudices of New Yorkers, which therefore made this situation a lot worse off for these young men. These boys felt vulnerable, and scared, yearning for the life they once had. There were many instances were this case went wrong. Police used verbal manipulative remarks when interrogating the boys, “If you tell us what happened, you can leave.” In reality, the boys just wanted to go home because they were emotionally exhausted. The ‘creative’ stories began, when the boys no longer had any fight within them, the boys were facing such aggressive interrogation that they just gave into what the police wanted. In the article, “The Case For Reparations”, it says “It was in these early years that Ross began to understand himself as an American—he did not live under the blind decree of justice, but under the heel of a regime that elevated armed robbery to a governing principle. He thought