Trigger warning: Rape and violent depictions of assault

Right now we live in one of the most polarizing periods that the United States has seen in a long time. With different political organizations going toe-to-toe on hot button issues such as abortion, climate change, and gun regulations, we, in the era of technology, look to media to represent us, all of us. We want to see our stories and our struggles represented in a way that humanizes our experiences and makes us feel less alone. In the case of Ava DuVernay's "When They See Us," the unimaginable anguish of the Central Park 5 is examined in the most human, chilling, and relevant of lenses.

Background

The limited series brilliantly encapsulates the fear and pain of the five boys incarcerated and demolished by the media for a crime they did not commit. Raymond Santana, 14; Kevin Richardson, 14; Antron McCray, 15; Yusef Salaam, 14; and Korey Wise, 16; were interrogated for hours by officers and detectives illegally as minors without parental supervision at the 24th precinct in New York after the horrific events of April 19th, 1989 left a white female jogger naked, beaten, gagged, raped, and fighting for life in a nearby hospital. While the young black and Latino men were out with a group of about 30 others in Central Park that night, there was no scientific evidence to place them at the scene of the crime. DNA samples collected from semen at the crime scene came back both inconclusive on Meili's body and although conclusive in a sock found at the scene, matching zero of the DNA samples from the young men standing trial. While their admissions of guilt, both written and recorded in the case of many of the young men, seemed to provide enough evidence to convict the them, the statements were found to be beaten, coerced, and fed to the boys, leaving them to comply out of fear of retribution if they refused the police what they desired: someone to blame. They wanted a clean confession, no matter the expense, and a secured win for the department. These black and Latino young men were simply the vulnerable targets for a department's urgency to find the individual(s) responsible for the horrific crimes committed against a white woman, believing false, terrified promises of returning home if they complied with law enforcements directions, physical, mental, and verbal abuse. Explored many times in DuVernay's limited series, none of the evidence seemed to match up: no DNA evidence, no eye-witness testimony to support the claims that the young men were Meili's attackers, no matching timeline, no matching location, and little to no knowledge of the other young men involved in the case until they were fed their names by police. That is, until the real attacker came forward. Matias Reyes, who said he found Jesus behind bars and was already serving a life sentence for raping three women near Central Park, in addition to raping and killing a pregnant woman before confessing to the attrocities committed against Meili in 1989, was found guilty after his DNA matched every sample collected at the scene.

Current Importance

Meili, believing there still may have been medical evidence to back the idea that she was attacked by multiple people, stated in an interview with Katie Couric in 2003 that, "If [Reyes] is telling the truth, it's a horrible thing if innocent people are sent to prison and - it only adds to the tragedy of the evening." Still facing double vision and other medical conditions following her attack, Meili did not believe in putting young men behind bars for the sole purpose of blaming someone for her attack. As seen from her previous statement, Meili still believe that only the guilty deserve punishment. This statement is why we need to see films and series such as these that are hard to watch. Too many people still fall victim to the brutality of law enforcement today, specifically young men of color. Whether it is wrongfully identifying a suspect of the crime, or brutalizing an individual whose four-year-old daughter who accidentally took a $1 Barbie from a store, individuals of color are harrassed, convicted, and incarcerated at higher rates and for longer time with, in some cases, a lesser crime than their white counterparts. This only adds to the tragedy of our dysfunctional criminal justice system, especially when it comes to the persecution of white rapists and sexual predators. Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, while a former Vanderbilt football player, Corey Batey was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Neither crime is permissable by any means and absolutely deserve punishment, however, it is important the we see the racial bias and corrupt practices of our justice system. Although these cases are not directly comparable to the Central Park Five case as these men were guilty and the Central Park Five were taken tried, and convicted out of convenience to create a narrative, racial undertones are still prevalent in all forms of our justice system. We need to see films and series such as "When They See Us" that are deemed hard to watch. We need to see our corrupt systems at work and the effects it has on families such as those of the Central Park Five. We need to see the privileges that we all have in our own lives. We need to question our beliefs and attempt to understand the experiences of others in order to help make our world a more equal, open-minded, and just place.

"When They See Us" is filmed in mostly chilling cool colors, focussing on the confusion and horror in the faces of the boys and their families. DuVernay follows the continual verbal assaults made against the young men by the media, law enforcement, and even Donald Trump, as well as the physical assaults by law enforcement and brutalities carried out by fellow inmates in prison against the teens, of which Korey Wise seemed to get the worst of as he was transferred to different prisons throughout his sentence. Korey, whose name was not originally on the list of designated suspects given to law enforcement to bring in for questioning, voluntarily went to the precinct to support his friend, Yusef Salaam, was later beaten and coerced into providing a false confession to a crime he was never thought to be involved in. DuVernay uses Korey's story almost as an anchor, dedicating the majority of the limited series' finale, "Part Four," to the turmoil Korey faced in the adult prison system. The eldest of the boys at 16, he was legally allowed to be questioned without supervision. Combined with his difficulty hearing and learning disability, Korey was highly vulnerable to the pressured of law enforcement at the time in which he was forced into confession. We vividly experience Korey's pain with him and the incredible confusion he experiences throughout the ordeal. Introduced into the adult prison system at 16, we see him stand, physically smaller, silent, and hunched into himself than the other prisoners who had previously been incarcerated next to him. Openly discomfortable, this scene and they preying watch of the presiding law enforcement official foreshadowing the coming conflict Korey will become all too familiar with throughout his time in prison. We see him come back from the brink of death after suffering multiple beatings from inmates, threats from guards, and self-prescribed solitary confinement to protect his life. He suffered time and time again for simply going to support his friend, which is explored in flashbacks DuVernay utilizes to show Korey's introspection throughout his incarceration. Later establishing the Korey Wise Innocence Project at Colorado Law School, offering pro-bono legal counsel to the wrongfully convicted after his exoneration, the only member of the Central Park Five to still live in New York City remains steadfast in his mission to prevent others from going through the same thing he experienced. Although he, among the other four members of the Central Park Five went on to live happy, healthy lives after their exoneration, the exoneration of the Central Park Five is a rarity in the case of the majority of those wrongfully convicted for crimes. This story and the horrors faced by all five of those young men throughout this ordeal highlights the injustice and racial bias that is still oh so prevalent in our criminal justice system, as well as the lasting impact experienced by them and their loved ones.

I knew this was going to be hard for me to watch. I knew I was going to be angry, and I knew that I would want to throw my phone across a room watching these innocent young men face abuse by law enforcement, media, and others in the prison system. I ultimately knew that my privielge will protect me from personally understanding the horrors that these young men faced. This limited series is all too important right now. We need to actually take the time to not just see people, but hear people, listen to people, and work to understand people and their experiences with injustice in order to hopefully shift the cycle in the future. We can no longer stay blind to truth to better protect our seemingly delicate sensibilities. We need to see truth, all of it.