PDF The Central Park Five eBook Sarah Burns

Product details File Size 3496 KB Print Length 256 pages Publisher Vintage (May 17, 2011) Publication Date May 17, 2011 Language English ASIN B004G8P7HI

The Central Park Five eBook Sarah Burns Reviews

• As a Native New Yorker now living on the west coast I am finally Glad Someone corrected the record on this event. The Writer did a brilliant Job on this I was in Army at the time and those kids got a RAW DEAL THEY Were from my Neighborhood and I was overseas at the time and it happened during the Puerto Rican Day parade. Everybody in the Neighborhood knew they were Innocent but with Trump and the Down Towners in their cross hairs.They had no chance. Plus the Police are always right even when they plant evidence and extract confessions with the 3rd Degree (Being Beating in Interrogation). A fact of life Growing up in East Harlem, If you lived it no matter how long ago or travelling all over the world you always remember Innocent or Guilty.
• Well written book. If read carefully, the book disproves its own thesis -- which would be my major complaint. Certain key facts are there, but buried under lots of opinion to the contrary. Here's the kicker -- a key defense witness statement seals the case for the prosecution! No jury would have or could have found these predators innocent. Other than contradicting itself, this is a good book.
• This book recounts the steps that led to a horrible injustice done to five teen aged boys who are referred to as the Central Park 5, who were convicted of raping the Central Park Jogger in 1989, and whose convictions were vacated completely after they served their full sentences. I lived in NY at that time, and the book is a fair recounting of the frenzy around the case as well as the details that led to overturning their convictions. The book and film are the work primarily of Sarah Burns, daughter of documentarian Ken Burns, and show the background research and production values of a Burns project. It's an easy and effective read, and highlights the ineffectiveness of the justice system when it is deliberately perverted by those in control of the process. I used the book and DVD in a class on how racial conflict is presented in the mass media focusing on the racial elements of the story, and found it very effective and balanced. Greater coverage of how the minority media covered the ongoing story would have strengthened the project, since the few references that are included indicate the coverage was very different, and especially since the five teenagers were all members of minority communities. Chapter titles would also have been handy. The whole mess is sad and frustrating and infuriating, and the interviews with the now-grown men reflect the pain and injustice of lives that cannot really be recovered. These kids were put into prison for years when they were not guilty and simply wanted to play baseball, create some art, and go to the prom. The impact of the film and book have been significant; for the first time in about ten years, the NY City government is starting to negotiate with them on compensation for unlawful imprisonment.
• I had a renewed interest in this case after the money judgement settlement. The author writes well, but her premise is that a jury in NYC, at the time, could not give a fair trial to five black and hispanic youths being tried for raping a white woman. I respectfully disagree, and the the juries were racially diverse and deliberated for over 10 days in both trials. If these youths are so innocent, than answer the following
  
  1. Why did Anton McCray only open up on the videotape confession after his mother said "Tell the truth, we brought you up better than that?." I watched the confession. This was interestingly left out of the book. I believe his confession is the most honest and accurate for this and other reasons. If you watch any one of the confessions, watch Anton's.
  2. Why were Kevin Richardsons underpants full of debris, grass stains, and semen? The jury actually discovered this and it was never pointed out at trial.
  3. Why did Korey Wise tell two different people, outside the police station, "that was us" when referring to the rape of the jogger? Why did he also tell another person that he either held or fondled the joggers legs (but did not rape her)? I admit that his videotape confession is the weakest, and that is why it is the only one played in the documentary.
  4. If Yusef was innocent, how did the pipe get out of his pocket and wind up being so instrumental in what happened that night? He portrays himself as a mere observer of the events, yet admits bringing the pipe.
  5. Why did Raymond Santana spontaneously say, outside the police station, that he grabbed the lady's breasts (he used another word)?
  6. Why did Steve Lopez say, before the jogger was found, "I didn't do the murder"? Why did Kevin Richardson then say "Anton did it?" Again, at this point the police did not know about the jogger, so no interrogation had occurred.
  7. Why did several boys name a "Tony" as one of the rapists? The author conveniently leaves out that Mattais Reyes went by the nickname "Tony", and that was well known. Also, Korey Wise said a "Rudy" stole the jogger's walkman, that Reyes actually did. The police did not know about this at the time, and it is admitted that Wise had a hearing issue, so it is possible he just misheard the name.
  8. If the police were orchestrating the confessions, why did they allow so many inconsistencies in the statements? I will also submit to you that the statements are more alike then they are different, and at night, in the dark, while attacking numerous people, I would never expect 33 teenagers to get the facts all the same.
  
  Reyes raped her, but these kids were there and participated. They were guilty under the acting in concert theory, and the jury got it right. Several of them were not convicted that were clearly there, like Thomas and Lopez, but that is just evidence that our system works in erring on the the side of innocence. Even if these kids did not engage in the jogger attack, and I believe they did, they all served about 6 years, which is very fair for attacking numerous people that night and gravely wounding several of them. The only person that has been racially attacked in all of this was Elizabeth Lederer. That woman deserves sainthood.
• amazing book
• I purchased this book because I had to do a research paper and I really don't regret at all. Good story, the writer did a great job.
• Well written, and a fairly balanced review of a horrible, highly publicized crime and it's outcome for five young men who were convicted but innocent. Disturbing look at how all levels of society pre-judge crime situations without all the facts. How those who are responsible for our safety abuse their power. How those who are responsible for protecting the innocent protect their own careers instead. How those who are supposed to report the news accurately distort the facts, are too lazy to get the facts, or are too busy trying to sell newspapers with sensationalism to get it right. Yet another example of how we humans fail over and over again to learn our lessons from past experience. For another recent example, read Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers.
• Was a very good read. The differences in the facts and what actually happened were amazing. So many people involved really made it interesting.