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We Will Never Forget What Trump Did to the Central Park Five
On April 19, 1989, a serial rapist brutally attacked and raped Trisha Meili in New York City’s Central Park at around 9:15 p.m.
The rapist was Matias Reyes. But the police violently arrested and maliciously coerced five other teenagers to confess to the attack and rape. Despite no DNA evidence and inconsistent confessions that can only come from coercion, a jury convicted the teens.
The five teenagers at the time — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr., and Korey Wise — had their names recklessly ruined. Unlike Nick Sandmann of Covington High School, the Central Park Five didn’t have a powerful PR team to rebuke the media and change the narrative.
Instead, the Central Park Five had their years snatched forever. The sentences for Richardson and Wise came from a court in January 1991. And the sentences for McCray, Salaam, and Santana came from a court on September 11, 1990.
We should always remember that individuals and communities had their own personal 9/11 before and after America’s 9/11. Individuals and communities still have them, and those tragic days come from…
