Watch: The Central Park Five

 

For the past few years New York City has been hailed as a sort of mosaic city. A city where people of different colors, cultures and beliefs come to peacefully co-exist amongst one another and continue to add to the melting pot that is the Big Apple. But life in New York City during the ‘80s was an entirely different ballpark. Matter of fact, it wasn’t even the same sport. If living in New York today is a rat race, then life in New York in the 80’s was a dogfight, and the media played the role of Michael Vick while the police department played the part of Caesar “The Dog Whisperer” Milan. Let me explain.

In the wee hours of the morning of April 20, 1989, a 28-year-old white female jogger, Trisha Meili, was found beaten, gagged and raped in Central Park. Her facial injuries so severe that the only way her friends could identify her was by a piece of jewelry she wore. Jumping the gun as they usually did in those days, the police decided that a couple of kids that they arrested earlier for causing a ruckus in the same park were going to be held responsible for the atrocity one way or another, even though they were innocent.

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