re: When They See Us (Netflix)

Duvernay has all of the subtlety of a jackhammer, which really starts to wear on you after eight hours. Despite the claims of some reactionaries, the Central Park Five were clearly railroaded. There was no physical evidence linking them to the scene, and their confessions were coerced. There's no way you should be able to admit the confession of a child after being held in police custody for nearly 24 hours without food, sleep, or water. Even if they were admissible, the confessions clearly contradict one another on nearly every point, and rarely match up to the physical evidence that did exist.

So even armed with a pretty good set of facts to work with, Duvarney continually stacks the deck. The kids pretty clearly were in the Park to commit petty crimes, and she handwaves away the assaults of several cyclists. Ironically, those other crimes are among the kids' better defenses, as it places them somewhere else at the time of the rape. They timeline doesn't really work and gives them an alibi. Sure, not the alibi they want, but still an alibi.

This is where the movie really fails to capture 1980s NYC. We were at the near peak of the crime wave, and it seemed like it was going to continue unabated. Central Park was incredibly dangerous after dark, and the show sort of blows past the crime statistics and the rapes in that area. It was horrific, and that's why there was a task force in the first place. 80s NYC was a place in which Bernie Goetz could shoot kids on the subway and not only get away with it, but be lauded as a civic hero. The director takes no time to set up that world, or impart just how tense things were at the time. After 25 years of crime steadily going down, we've developed cultural amnesia on how truly bad crime was in the 70s and 80s.

This leads to the failure of her portrayal of the cops. Did they coerce confessions? Absolutely. But why did they do it? Not because they were cartoonishly evil, but because they genuinely believed the kids did it, so they constructed the evidence needed to convict (which, ya know, was not uncommon).

Linda Fairstein was a hero to many because she was an uncompromising champion of women and children victims of sex crimes. She wasn't motivated by racism, but of her liberal support of women's rights. She was a crusader for rape victims, and she tossed every roadblock out of the way in order to pursue what she felt was right, showing pretty much why we shouldn't have crusaders but dispassionate investigators. There's a lesson there today for people who would discard Constitutional protections aside in order to advance an agenda they feel is right. The ends do not justify the means, and in fact, lousy means usually end up with the wrong ends.

There's a compelling, complicated story to tell, but one that Duvernay is completely uninterested in telling. And there is some value in focusing on the kids and making them the protagonists. It shifts perspective, and that's a good move... but it doesn't have to come at the expense of trampling everyone else's point of view.

Just like the initial prosecutors of this case, Duvernay puts her thumb on the scale in order to get the conclusion she is sure is correct. She does a better job of illustrating how their biases blinded them to any facts that didn't fit the narrative they constructed than she thinks. She commits the same sin, and for the same reason: to pursue what she believes is a greater moral truth.

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When They See Us

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And that is all that show is

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“You think the guy in a 3,000 dollar suit would coerce a confession?? CMON!”

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"Pack up because you're moving to frick mountain! In jail of course"

That's it.

There is already a thread for you PT types to pollute and argue about the Central Park Five which, of course, y'all couldn't behave like normal human beings in. But this thread is for discussing the series itself. Obviously, that will involve some mention of the politics, but if your post is not talking about the series itself and is instead your jumping off point to go on some political ran... go away.

Seriously, get off this board. We are not going to let the PT all-war all the time mentality infect this board anymore than it has. this is a place for a little more congeniality and general respect for one another. If you can't be nice to one another or follow the rules, I will ban you not only from this board, but all of them.

This is your only warning. Take your bullshite elsewhere. IF you can't obey the higher rules of decorum that the M/TV Board has developed over the years, then you don't need to be posting anywhere on this website.

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If the police had found Reyes in 1989, those 5 kids would have never been charged.

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This is obviously not true. Reyes coming forward did not change the facts as presented to the juries. They were told that the semen found did not belong to the Central Park 5. It wasn't hidden from them. The cops and prosecutor always knew they were missing at least one offender.

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They were missing the only offender. Reyes.

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Again, this is obviously not true. The victim had multiple hand impressions on her body of varying sizes. Your statement ignores the physical evidence.

ETA: Believing the 5 are innocent is one thing, and I can understand that position, but there is no way to logically conclude only Reyes was involved in the assault.

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imjustafatkid

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Your fellow posters on your side have posted some really nasty garbage in both threads. They're just making your position look worse.