When They See Us: A study in police misconduct
The Department of Diversity Initiatives screened the first episode of the new Netflix Original miniseries “When They See Us” last Tuesday.
The miniseries tells the story of the Central Park Five and illustrates many of the ways that police have historically abused their authority to coerce confessions from innocent people and victimize people of color, which is still relevant today.
The first episode of the series is a dramatization of what occurred the night of April 19, 1989, in New York’s Central Park, and the following weeks.
Five African American boys named Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santata, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise were incorrectly targeted as potential perpetrators of a violent rape of a jogger named Tisha Meili, which took place that evening.
Though they were minors at the time, the New York Police obtained fabricated testimonies by isolating them from each other and their families.
The five boys were falsely convicted and served between 6 years and 7 years in juvenile detention, except for Wise who served 13 years in various state prisons.
The Central Park Five were eventually exonerated after DNA evidence and a new confession matched a convicted rapist to the assault in Central Park, and their charges were vacated. They had all fully completed their sentences for the rape of Meili at the time of their exoneration.
The four-part miniseries is available to stream now on Netflix.
Photo by Netflix.
