When They See Us TV Series Review & Recommendation
Blogger: Isaac Adeyemi
When they see us is a heart-breaking well put together true story limited series on Netflix. It’s directed by Ava DuVernay and tells the story of the central park 5 from their perspectives highlighting the systematic injustice in the way the case was handled from the beginning, all the way till the acquittal of the 5 more than a decade later. The case involved Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker who was raped and assaulted as she went for a jog in Central Park, Manhattan on the night of 19 April 1989, she was beaten so bad she was in a coma for two weeks and she couldn’t remember the incident. The central park 5 Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam were black and Latino men discriminated against because of their race and coerced by dirty cops and an unlawful prosecutor into giving confessions under duress.
They were convicted with no other evidence than them being in the park on that day and they all maintained their innocence till they were acquitted turning down appeals and plea deals as that would mean confessing guilt. The 4-part series keep the viewer appalled while very emotional about how the young men are treated. The series follows each individual’s recollection of that night and how events unfolded after that night which changed their lives forever. Linda Fairstein the prosecutor is under immense pressure to convict someone for the crime, so she throws away protocol and decides to look for a scapegoat to blame the crime on. Violations of rights can be seen from the very moment the young men go into police custody for example questioning young children without their parents or legal counsel present, and Korey Wise and Kevin Richardson were allegedly assaulted in police custody.
The series also shows us the viewer the personal relationships of the young men with their loved ones and how this effected the case for example Anton McCray’s dad told him to lie to the police as he thought they would let him go home but this just made him look guilty. In a very public trail all 4 boys except Korey wise were trailed as children and received 10 year sentences ultimately serving 6 years in juvenile before going free. Korey Wise was the oldest (17) so he was tried as an adult and ultimately served 12 years in adult prison until the actual preparator crossed paths with him and felt sorry for Korey as he was still in jail for something he didn’t do prompting him to confess. DNA evidence and a confession proved convicted rapist Matias Reyes was the true, lone culprit. The charges against the five men were vacated so Korey Wise was finally free after 13 years of incarceration.
In 2003, the Central Park Five filed a civil lawsuit against New York City for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. City officials fought the case for more than a decade, before finally settling for $41 million dollars. Korey received 14.2 million the biggest chunk of the settlement. Today all 5 men are advocates for justice reform and have done many media interviews explaining their story while Trisha Meili still maintains no wrongdoing in her handling of the case.