via Flickr
The infamous Central Park Five case landed five young innocent Black youths in prison for a rape they didn’t commit that happened in 1989. Many years later, DNA evidence and a confession helped free the five innocent men from a racist prison sentence.
However, some people still want them punished!
During the Central Park Case, Donald Trump was ACTIVELY encouraging the boys’ persecution. He took out a WHOLE PAGE AD in the New York Times calling for their EXECUTION.
Yeah, the same person who talked about "grabbing" women without their consent called for the execution of INNOCENT Black boys accused of rape. He even said in a CNN interview at the time, “Maybe hate is what we need if we’re gonna get something done here.”
Trump even admitted to saying, “I hate these people and let’s all hate these people,” supposedly referring to just the Central Park Five.
But we all know who he really meant by “these people.” And to this day, he still thinks the men who were PROVEN innocent shouldn’t have been freed.
The Central Park Five hold many lessons for us all, but consider the part about execution. What if the boys HAD been executed like so many innocent Black victims of our racist criminal justice system?
It serves as one more reason why this outdated punishment needs to go.