The Central Park Five (2012)

Not rated, but the story of the Central Park Five is one of wrongful imprisonment based on race and lazy police work.  Because the crime is so heinous, the film must talk (and, to a certain extent, show) elements of a rape and a severe beating.  The movie also talks about drugs and abuses in the prison system.  It's not an easy movie to watch, but it should also be stated that this was a PBS special.  There's only so much that PBS will show.

DIRECTORS:  Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon

It's going to be a week of a lot of writing.  That's probably not the worst life to have. One of the things that I really try to push myself at (while actively patting myself on the back constantly) is to educate myself about talking points that everyone should know about.  I have always known the loosey-goosey talking points of the Central Park Five.  The title given to these boys has been in the news more often now that Donald Trump is ruining all of our lives with his constant threat of returning.  Now, I knew that Donald Trump put out of a full-page spread calling for the death penalty when it came to these boys.  (It's weird that he's been associated as the pro-life candidate.) But if I was going to be continuing the fight against Trump through discussions with people in my life, I wanted the deep dive into what exactly happened with the Central Park Five.

I wish I could say that the Central Park Five story was a unique one.  As someone who really gets into true crime --a phrase I never thought I would say before I got married --there have been too many tales of shortcuts from law enforcement when it comes to getting a suspect.  Now, I kind of get it.  This is not a forgiveness of the profession at all.  If anything, it's pointing out a chink in the armor of what we think of as police investigation, but being a detective seems way harder than what TV makes it out to be.  We've all been wired (no pun intended) to think that detective work is just like police procedural television.  We assume that everyone who is a detective is well-trained and is able to piece together crazy concepts using the evidence at their disposal.  It's documentaries like The Central Park Five that remind us that a lot of police work is about getting the public less fearful about a criminal out there on the loose.

What the Burnses and McMahon do is remind us that crime is scary, but that doesn't really excuse taking away individual liberty in exchange for a sense of calm.  I think I get yelled at for being too critical about law enforcement.  It is a dangerous and difficult job that a lot of people have respect for.  And, to a certain extent, I'm not necessarily anti-cop.  I'm anti-free passes.  One of the things that The Central Park Five reminds me of is the fact that certain professions aren't allowed to be criticized.  I'm a teacher.  One of the things that is meant to be applauded is when we hold each other accountable.  I was involved in having to report another teacher for inappropriate boundaries.  (Note: This was years ago.  If you are trying to figure out who I narced on, good luck.)  In almost any profession, if you see something shady and immoral, it's encouraged that you point it out.  But the fact that we keep hearing the same narrative come out of law enforcement, that there are a few rotten apples and the whole is good, that has to be somewhat of a myth given the story of the Central Park Five.

One of the key issues with these boys is the fact that multiple precincts worked in tandem to ensure that a structured plan was done to put these boys into prison as quickly as possible.  This wasn't one detective who was lazy or vindictive.  This was a whole police force colluding to get enough kids off the street almost exclusively because they were Black or Hispanic.  They were the perfect targets.  They were poor kids that lived in an area that was considered scummy by well-off white people.  They boys were mostly isolated from each other.  In reality, these boys were only linked through the moniker given to them by the media.  And they were borderline tortured through exhaustion to repeat a story that did not happen.  The worst part, though, is that --as a society --we ate this up.  It's what we do.  The narrative that a bunch of young minorities were doing abysmal things and that they were caught by law enforcement is something that the news is out there for. It's so depressing, by the way, to see Tom Brokaw talking about these kids like they were monsters.  I mean, from his perspective, given the information that he was given, he had little responsibility to give another opinion.  But it's Tom Brokaw!  I grew up watching him and, in my mind, he was the bastion of journalistic integrity.

The Donald Trump bit is only about a minute long in a two-hour documentary.  That makes sense.  In some ways, it's a bit of propaganda to bind Trump to the Central Park Five narrative.  But in a way that I actually believe, it's very much a part of Donald Trump's playbook.  This is me going off on Trump because I honestly think that he's one of the worst human beings on the planet.  But the Donald Trump playbook is to get a read on the room of White America.  Trump tends to find what white people are most afraid of and, from a distance and lacking information, just lets loose. People react poorly.  You know what he does?  (YOU KNOW WHAT HE DOES!?)  He loves turning the temperature up on an already crappy situation.  He presents himself as the voice of reason when he makes everything worse with each opportunity that he gets.  So yeah, he's barely in the movie.  But that's what he does.  He's really good at lighting the match and then running away.   (There!  I feel justified in my watching of a two hour doc so I have a one second talking point added to my piles of rants on Trump.) 

In terms of filmmaking, I've actually never sat down and watched a Ken Burns movie.  I know.  He's the quintessential subdued documentarian.  But I have no desire to watch Jazz or Baseball, so I watched this.  This film is pretty masterful.  True crime is such a difficult balance to achieve.  Often --and I'm part of the problem! --these things tend to be exploitative.  There's a ton of information, but the movies try to make you gasp.  Instead, The Central Park Five elicits a depressing horror at just how easy it was to destroy people's lives.  That's what Ken Burns kind of nails.  (Sorry for not constantly citing all three filmmakers.)   It's organized.  It's clear.  It's also incredibly respectful.  Maybe that's what makes this a little bit different from other true crime docs that I've absorbed.  There's a real lean into the format as opposed to just exploiting information.

Anyway, it works.  It does a thorough job of teaching, which is the point of renting this movie.  I needed to know everything and I got a complete breakdown without feeling like they were stalling for time.  It's fascinating in the most depressing way.