The watershed moment which made me realize I HAD to become a writer was the trial of the Central Park Five. These boys were railroaded by a system which fed on the myth of the dangerous Black boogeyman. Sadly they were trapped by the perfect storm of corrupt policemen, inept prosecutors and complicit press agents.
Award winning filmmaker Ken Burns tells the story of the Central Park Five from their perspectives as they encounter the hell of the American criminal justice system for a crime they didn’t commit yet would still serve the full sentences for irreversibly changing their lives forever.
The Central Park Five was me and my brothers, or some other group of young Black teenagers who had to take the weight of the whole New York City piled on top of their shoulders. They are still standing. The Central Park Five are my heroes.
