13 years after Central Park jogger case
Framed Black men still fighting for justice
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
New York City
Remember the tragic case of a young woman who went out for a
run in Central Park and ended up battling for her life after
being beaten and raped? That crime was in all the headlines in
July 1989.
Newspapers blared a quick condemnation of those named as
guilty--five young men of color, all just 14-16 years old. The
language used to describe them was extreme--"savages,"
"animals"--and recalled the worst epithets aimed at African
American men during the lynching frenzy of the old South.
Three months later, during their trial, defense attorneys
pointed to an incontrovertible fact--the DNA evidence of the
rape did not match that of any of the young men. Still, they
were convicted and given sentences from five to 15 years.
Now a convicted killer, Matias Reyes, has confessed to the
rape and beating of the "Central Park jogger." Reyes is
currently in prison for the rape and murder of a pregnant
Manhattan woman. Investigators have confirmed that his DNA
matches that in the case.
Reyes insists that he acted alone in the attack, and that he
did not know the youths, who now, 12 years later, are men who
have all served out the sentences they received. (New York
Times, Sept. 7 and 8)
Lawyers Roger Wareham and Michael Tarif Warren represent
three of the original defendants, and have filed a motion to
set aside the verdict in their case. When Workers World spoke
with Wareham, he said, "We have maintained all along that the
five young men were convicted by the racism which has driven
and continues to drive U.S. history, past and present."
Wareham emphasized that there was no physical evidence tying
the young men to the crime. In addition, he pointed out that
the many rapes of Black and Latina women during the same time
period were "not deemed worthy of extended media coverage. But
when the victim was a young, well-to-do white female, the whole
media and societal equation changed.
"A perpetrator must be found and quickly. Any Black and
Latino youths will do. If there is no evidence, manufacture
it--hence the 'confessions' which were instrumental in their
conviction," Wareham said.
False confessions
Although police took "confessions" from the five young men,
they have all maintained their innocence. The validity of those
confessions has also been called into question by a group of
Black police officers that is asking federal authorities to
look into the investigation.
Lt. Eric Adams of One Hundred Blacks in Law Enforcement Who
Care said, "We believe that because of the demand to bring
someone to justice from this crime, there is a strong
possibility that there may have been overzealous policing and
overzealous prosecuting." (Asso ciated Press, Sept. 9)
Pressure for a quick arrest came from the highest corporate
levels in New York City. Real estate magnate Donald Trump
called for the death penalty in a New York Times ad.
It seems no accident that the whipping up of a media frenzy
against these young men of color came at the same time
big-business interests in New York were working to gentrify the
city. Poor people were being driven out by rising rents and
cuts in basic social services as business stood to profit by
the return of elite white professionals who had previously fled
from a city that was majority people of color.
This context reveals the hypocrisy of the hyped-up concern
for the young woman who was attacked in Central Park that day.
What happened to her was a terrible tragedy--and the racism
unleashed against those five young men was another tragedy.
The pretence of "protecting" white women by targeting men of
color has a long and dishonorable history in the U.S. In 1892,
for instance, Ida B. Wells-Barnett launched her national
anti-lynching campaign by investigating the killing of three
Black men in Memphis, Tenn., who had been murdered by white men
on the pretext that they had raped a white woman. In fact, she
revealed, all three had been targeted because their business
pursuits threatened the white economic establishment.
(Wells-Barnett, "A Red Record")
Then there's the case of Emmitt Till, a 15-year-old Black
youth. He was brutally lynched in 1955 for allegedly whistling
at a white woman in Mississippi.
Real, lasting justice for violence against women cannot come
from a legal system riddled with injustice and racism.
Co-counsel Wareham stated, "If there had been a real search for
the real perpetrator of the attack on the Central Park jogger,
Reyes might have been caught and the pregnant mother who he
later raped and murdered would be alive."
Wareham condemned the racism of the "justice" system when he
said, "The words of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney in
the Dred Scott decision still ring true, 150 years later: 'A
Negro has no rights which a white man is bound to
respect.'"
Wareham concluded, "We seek exposure of the truth. We seek
justice. We demand the accountability from a criminal justice
system which continues to fail to apply an even-handed standard
when it comes to Black and Latino people."
Reprinted from the Sept. 26, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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