Though Law & Order may lead you to believe that the police exhaust every single lead with honest effort and integrity, that’s just not always the case. All detectives aren’t as cool and swaggerific as Ice-T.
Central Park Five is a documentary that reminds the world that while lady justice is blind, she’s got the ears of Ray Charles and bops her head to the tunes coming from lynch mobs. Back in 1989, when MTV hated hip-hop and the hood worshipped Ralph McDaniels and his show Video Music Box, a young white woman named Trisha Meili was assaulted and raped while jogging in Central Park. Though there were no witnesses, leads or useful evidence the police remarkably cracked the case in record time and arrested five black and Latino teenagers.
After holding them hostage for countless hours and using threats, lies and coercion, they got four confessions. The cops put them away and went about their day. Twelve years later a madman confessed to the crime, and the now grown men were freed. This movie, directed by Sarah Burns and her well-known father Ken Burns, takes a deep look at 1980’s NYC culture and how it let five innocent kids get convicted of a crime they didn’t commit. From the writers who covered the story to the defense attorneys that represented them, these kids were the scapegoats of a ruthless and incompetent law enforcement agency.
It’s a gripping look into the justice system, racism and the irresponsibility of tabloid journalism. From the looks of the trailer, Central Park Five is going to put a lot of "important" people on blast on some Karrine Steffans-like proportions.
