Speaker: 00:00:01

Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with the

magic of movies.

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But today we got a bonus episode.

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We're discussing the PBS documentary about the Central Park Five.

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We're three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan, and the institutional

protectionism still be protectioning.

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Hmm.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan.

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And the quote that stuck with me from this documentary is, we're not very good people.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan.

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And this story touched me so much while I was in middle school growing up.

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It was everywhere.

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I mean, because I live right outside of New York, so you couldn't go anywhere without

hearing about this story.

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This episode will answer the question, how has this travesty of justice impacted the five

men?

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Central Park Five is a documentary of five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem, New

York, who were wrongly convicted of raping a white jogger in Central Park in 1989, as well

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as their eventual exoneration after serving lengthy prison terms, directed by Ken Burns,

Sarah Burns, and David McMahon.

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And Dr.

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Yusef Salaam, New York City Councilman and member of the Exonerated Five, will be the

keynote speaker for Northampton Community College's annual Humanities Program on April

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15th.

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We'll be there.

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Shout out to Andrew McIntosh, DJ ARM 18.

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Man.

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Yep, he's putting on these great programs, impactful programs for Northampton Community

College in Bethlehem, PA.

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All right, so we're just gonna this a little different.

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We're just gonna go off the cuff and just talk about the Central Park Five.

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We mentioned Travesty of Justice.

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Boogie, said it, you know, this was everywhere and it still resonates today.

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Just, blatant racial profiling and injustice.

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Yeah, just insane.

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So these kids were just so young and there was an agenda, obviously.

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And I think that's what they mentioned here is that they wanted to make a statement that

pinned this against some kids.

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And it was obviously much easier with what's going on in society, especially there in the

late eighties when New York was so divided, crime, crime running rampant crack epidemic,

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which was, you know,

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pointed at minorities, and there's all theories behind all that, but they're just pinning

this crime on these kids and literally coercing them to make these statements.

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It is mind boggling.

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Yeah, I mean, the one thing that, like I mentioned before we started recording is that

this documentary, it brought back a lot of feelings I had at the time.

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It was borderline triggering growing up outside of New York.

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And I spent a lot of time, if I mentioned over various episodes, I spent a lot of time, I

was born and raised in Newark, but I spent a lot of time in Jersey City, which

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geographically for those of our listeners,

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is right across the water from New York City.

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So you can see New York City, clear as day right across the water from Jersey City.

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So I spent a lot of time there as a youth with my family.

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a lot of stories hit New York.

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was hitting, Jersey City and Newark right away because we pick up New York City stations.

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So yeah, they mentioned some things in here.

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there was...

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They were laying out the background about what was going on at the time.

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as JB said, there was a lot of racial tension going on, a lot of crime.

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A couple of names I did hear in the montage of them talking about how crime written and

how racially tense the area was.

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mentioned Bernard Goetz, the quote unquote subway vigilante who

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shot and injured four black teenagers on a New York City subway in 1984.

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Don't want to get too much into it, but you can kind of guess what was going on at the

time and why they were shot.

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Another clip mentioned Yusef Hawkins.

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Chubb Rock mentions Yusef Hawkins in Treat 'em Right song, Never Forget Yusef Hawkins when

you're walking.

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Yusef Hawkins was murdered in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1989 he, his brother, and some of

their friends went to predominantly Italian neighborhood to inquire about a used car that

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was for sale.

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There's a lot of theories about what happened and why they were targeted.

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I don't want to really get too much into that, but that...

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the racial divide between different sections throughout Manhattan.

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People think, yeah, New York is not the South.

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But understand at that time, there's clear defining lines in neighborhoods where races

were separated.

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And as we mentioned, we talked a little bit about this do the right thing with Bed-Stuy

and his different areas and how racial tensions develop throughout that.

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Same thing, that's kind of the background that was laid out for do the right thing.

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And it's also laid out this documentary as well.

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Unfortunately, as JB mentioned, five young men were targeted and they were basically

railroaded through the system.

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They didn't really know what was going like said, it was kind of triggering because I'm

looking at the whole situation and it's always on the news.

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It's constantly on the newspapers, on the front page, front page, front page.

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And I'm sitting here thinking like, man, these guys are not much older than me.

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I mean, I thought it was like, 12 going on 13 at the time.

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And they're, know, 14, 15 and Korey was 16.

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You know, it's like, wow, these guys are not much older than me.

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How could they do what was being said that they did?

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How could they do that?

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You know, so it's like kind of hard to watch.

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And the testimony that they were forced to write, you know, there was graphic details in

there.

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And I think one of the mentions like that's not how a 14, 15 year old typically talks.

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And they even, mean, the crazy thing it said 30, 30 teenagers entered the park at the same

time.

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Right.

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And chaos had ensued.

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There was on top of the rape that did occur that these guys were not involved with.

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people were beating up like a homeless individual and other people were being attacked and

it was just a chaotic scene.

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But, you know, and people scampering and they grab these kids, right?

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And what's the common is like they're minorities.

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don't, know, how many of those kids, we don't even know how many of those kids look like

me, right?

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So there's obviously such thing as like white privilege and you speak about it, but like

how many of them were, white and that.

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were they questioned?

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Were they coerced?

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Who knows?

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I don't know.

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the makeup, but know, common denominator there is that, you know, Black or Latino kids

that were.

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taken into custody and forced to write and sign.

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And it was just ridiculous because the stories that they made up, everybody's pointing at

each other and because they were said, know, if you want to get out of here and they were

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like literally interrogated for hours and upon hours at that age when you don't have that

level of maturity and you are granted an option to have an attorney, but you don't really

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think straight.

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right.

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know, give me the more details or you're not going to get out of here right, right, And

all this stuff and sign it.

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Obviously the stories didn't corroborate.

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They were all different stories.

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They couldn't describe what the woman was wearing.

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And so there was obviously gaps in the story and the stories that were given.

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I think it was the journalist Jim Dwyer.

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Yeah, I liked that that journalist, he was telling it like it was like that actually had

an alibi.

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Like they

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Maybe they were involved with some of the other acts of, mischief or violence or whatever,

right?

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And they weren't there because they were making up things.

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yeah, I saw from across the way, I saw this person do this and they were literally, they

knew the names of the other guys.

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So they just started saying names.

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This guy did this, this person held her down.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, the whole situation was really crazy.

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Like you said, there was a whole group of kids walking through the park at the same time.

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And gave accounts, when you see them mature telling what happened, recalling what

happened.

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They were saying, they would describe with some of the stuff that they saw happen.

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And I think it was when they got around to Yusef's SS he was like, you know,

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The only crime I committed that night was I jumped over a turnstile.

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know, who would have thought that jumping over a turnstile would get you six and a half

years.

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You know, it's insane.

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Right.

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And what puts it even more into perspective is that the actual

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The guy that actually committed the crime, the criminal was Matias Reyes.

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The fact that they didn't capture him, he actually went on to commit more more rapes while

these guys were imprisoned.

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And there were other rapes that were happening of people within the same culture.

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And it didn't get obviously nearly as press.

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It was because this was a white woman, well-to-do.

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She was like,

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either Wall Street broker or some professional like that.

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It got all these types of press, right?

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But there was more, you know, I don't like to talk about levels, but there was more

egregious rapes and that were going on.

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because they were like within the same culture, they weren't getting as much press.

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This became the lightning rod case.

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And then you have everybody chiming in, including, the current president, taking out the full page ad and all that stuff and, you know, wanting to.

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invoke death penalty and in the, you know, support.

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capital punishment and all that stuff, right?

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Which came up again in the most recent national conventions and he refused to admit that

he was wrong.

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So, yeah.

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All right, exactly, right.

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yeah.

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Right on brand.

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So...

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Even when it came to trial, it was like the jurors were too tired to even go on any

further.

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It was similar, the boys wanted to just get out of the interrogation.

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It's like the jurors just wanted to leave and they just came up with cockamamie stories.

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And that was the actual idea of cockamamie story that pointed to their guilt because we

were just so tired of the case.

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So.

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I mean, I do understand on one side how you have these testimonies of admissions of guilt,

but you could clearly see, as I said, that they were coerced and they didn't match up with

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each other.

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Yeah.

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and they were so young and then they were.

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you know, didn't match up.

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Yeah, it was really sad how those stories out of them.

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Kevin's mother was there.

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Kevin Richardson, his mother was there.

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But she had a disability and they just, oh, you you go on home and we'll take care of

everything and we'll get your son home to you.

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And then they look over to his sister, oh, you know.

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You're of age, so you can stick behind.

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And your mother was cooperating what we were doing.

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And we'll just make sure we'll take care of him so we can get him out of here as quickly

as possible and get him home.

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Raymond Santana's father, course, didn't, which is really sad, didn't have the luxury of

being able to call out of work and just assumed that his son would be okay because they

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said that they were going to release him.

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So he went to work, unfortunately.

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And then he comes back to see his son and they like move them to another room.

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They moved them and everything.

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He couldn't even see his son.

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It's like this crazy.

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And, they were denying them food.

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They're denying them water.

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You know, we mentioned we've been here for hours upon hours and they're like, you know,

just tell us what we want to hear so you can go home.

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And Antron, for his father, his father's there with him.

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feeding his father the story of, he told his father, I didn't do it.

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He told him, he's like, I don't lie to my father.

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I told him I didn't do it.

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And then they said, well, you know, if he just helped cooperate with us, you know, we'll

get him out of here.

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So of course his father's like, well, you know, just come on, let's just hurry up so we

can get out of here.

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Tell them what they want to hear.

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And had, you know, the guys are all in separate rooms and they're like, well, you got to

tell us what happened because he's pointing a finger at you.

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And then it's a little bug.

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Well, if he's pointing a finger at me, well, I'm gonna point the finger back at him.

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And then everybody's not even saying that everybody's pointing a finger at one another and

the stories are not adding up.

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As you couldn't even describe what she was wearing.

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Simple details like that.

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then when they get to the trial, I mean, there's no DNA evidence.

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That was a big one too, yeah, evidence.

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Yeah, there's DNA there, but nothing matched, right?

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any of quote unquote perpetrators.

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there's no matches for them.

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It's insane.

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I mean, all kinds of loopholes.

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And they just kind of just kept full steam ahead.

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Let's railroad this through.

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because they already had already put them out as the suspects.

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now,

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They can't back down now because they don't want to ruin their careers and their images.

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Just to set any cost.

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Just to say any cause, yep.

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Say.

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In the intro, Donna, right, you mentioned institutional protectionism.

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So even after they're exonerated, you see multiple articles in these tabloid papers and

papers like.

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they were exonerated, but maybe they shouldn't have been or and then the police were

trying to protect their name and they never admitted any wrongdoing.

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Yeah, we did.

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mean, meanwhile, these kids lost.

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valuable years of their lives being stuck in jail.

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Cory was in Rikers Island, which is literally the most notoriously nasty prison out there.

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others were, you know, actually maximum security prisons.

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even when Raymond Santana came back, he came back and he's like, I'm, I totally was a

different person.

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Like, I just couldn't look anybody in the eye because I'm always just checking my, my

whereabouts.

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And I feel like, you know, I've just like, you know, all jittery.

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they were all traumatized.

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Yeah, exactly.

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It's like a form of PTSD, literally.

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And the impact is then you have this dark mark on your record that you can't get a job

easily.

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So these guys are struggling to get a job.

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There was one of the guys was about to get a job in the postal service and then it came up

that he had a prison sentence.

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So then he lost that opportunity.

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Even then you also

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registered as a sex offender.

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So how are you supposed to get a job now?

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And you were wrongly accused, but you still have those on your record.

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So I don't know at what point it became expunged from the record, but I mean, these guys

went through hell.

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Yeah.

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And know, Raymond Santana is trying to figure out how to make money because he's like, you

know, I had an appetite, I'm eating, I'm staying in the house and I'm not contributing.

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So, you he goes out and he starts hustling, starts selling drugs.

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And I mean, of course he got picked up because luck would have it.

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But because he had he already had a record.

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Now he's a offender, so now he's got to serve more time.

224

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So he gets locked up and he's in jail.

225

00:16:34,166 --> 00:16:36,500

Poor Antron just left the whole area.

226

00:16:36,500 --> 00:16:37,833

He's like, I'm gone.

227

00:16:38,708 --> 00:16:40,125

He went to Maryland.

228

00:16:40,125 --> 00:16:41,833

He said, I can't even be around here anymore.

229

00:16:41,833 --> 00:16:43,291

He just moved.

230

00:16:43,958 --> 00:16:51,166

Luckily, he was able to find a job down there, probably because he was out of the

spotlight.

231

00:16:51,166 --> 00:16:52,083

was out of the area.

232

00:16:52,083 --> 00:16:58,125

mean, I'm pretty sure they heard of the case down there, but they didn't put two and two

together because he was so far removed.

233

00:16:58,125 --> 00:17:02,666

Had he tried somewhere closer to home, he probably would have got the same struggles that

everyone else did.

234

00:17:02,708 --> 00:17:06,958

But because he moved to Maryland, he was able to pick himself up and start working.

235

00:17:06,958 --> 00:17:12,791

And he's been working constantly ever since and was able to start a family as such.

236

00:17:12,791 --> 00:17:16,416

the other guys, they still going through the wringer a little bit.

237

00:17:16,458 --> 00:17:17,125

I've seen

238

00:17:17,125 --> 00:17:28,291

interviews with Korey Wise and you can clearly see when he starts talking about what he

went through you can clearly see the the trauma in him and how he was affected because you

239

00:17:28,291 --> 00:17:40,291

know it's a known fact that you know rapists they get a hard time in prison it's a known

fact and even though he didn't do it he's labeled as it he's that's what he's there for so

240

00:17:40,375 --> 00:17:41,750

so we know we had a hard time.

241

00:17:41,750 --> 00:17:43,333

He probably had the roughest time.

242

00:17:43,333 --> 00:17:52,750

I mean, I've watched a dramatization of it, of what he went through, but he was in

solitary confinement and all kinds of things.

243

00:17:52,750 --> 00:17:55,375

And he had it really, really, really bad.

244

00:17:56,041 --> 00:18:01,416

feel sorry, like, you you mentioned, said, supposedly some of the best years, you know,

you're, teenager.

245

00:18:01,416 --> 00:18:06,541

You know, Santana mentioned, you we watched a lot of your MTV raps, you know, we listened

to this, we did that.

246

00:18:06,541 --> 00:18:08,833

I was coming into my own.

247

00:18:09,208 --> 00:18:15,458

Then it stopped, you know, out who you are as a person, what kind of man you're going to

be.

248

00:18:15,458 --> 00:18:17,000

And then it's taken away from you.

249

00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:18,750

You're not even given a choice.

250

00:18:18,791 --> 00:18:20,125

you become a survivor.

251

00:18:20,125 --> 00:18:21,958

That's, that's the mentality you have.

252

00:18:21,958 --> 00:18:24,666

And like your normal routine is completely thrown off.

253

00:18:24,666 --> 00:18:26,375

Things you normally do and take for granted.

254

00:18:26,375 --> 00:18:27,833

You can't do those any longer.

255

00:18:28,166 --> 00:18:32,791

You have a whole different routine on how you handle things, deal with people.

256

00:18:34,333 --> 00:18:44,875

missing out on proms, graduation, starting your career, like you said, and then formidable

financial years, you're building up a career usually, and you can never get that back.

257

00:18:45,541 --> 00:18:51,291

And then you have, again, those checkered past, you know, unfortunately.

258

00:18:53,041 --> 00:18:57,541

And Korey wise, his father passed away while he was in jail too.

259

00:18:57,541 --> 00:19:02,291

So the toll that it takes on your family on top of that, he said it was like cirrhosis of

liver.

260

00:19:02,291 --> 00:19:09,208

So I guess his father had a drinking problem, but maybe it became worse because his son's

in jail.

261

00:19:09,208 --> 00:19:10,083

Who knows, right?

262

00:19:10,083 --> 00:19:12,041

So couldn't have helped.

263

00:19:12,458 --> 00:19:16,708

Yeah, I think he mentioned that his father was probably coping, drinking to cope.

264

00:19:16,708 --> 00:19:17,541

Yeah.

265

00:19:17,541 --> 00:19:18,833

Right.

266

00:19:19,750 --> 00:19:22,708

So, yeah, just terrible, just terrible.

267

00:19:22,708 --> 00:19:31,958

And you know, the quote and I forget the name of the young man who was also just

excellent, who said, we're not very good people.

268

00:19:31,958 --> 00:19:33,916

I don't know if he was a lawyer or journalist.

269

00:19:33,916 --> 00:19:35,916

That was the historian.

270

00:19:35,916 --> 00:19:37,791

That was Craig Stephen Wilder.

271

00:19:37,791 --> 00:19:38,583

Yeah.

272

00:19:43,166 --> 00:19:44,000

Yeah.

273

00:19:44,958 --> 00:19:46,458

It's a terrible story

274

00:19:48,791 --> 00:19:52,250

Yeah, I think one of the, no, not the whole story.

275

00:19:53,375 --> 00:20:00,000

Yeah, I remember like there was one of the quotes that stuck out for me was Reverend

Calvin Butts.

276

00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,708

He's actually the, they didn't say who he was, but I'm very familiar with him.

277

00:20:04,708 --> 00:20:07,583

I've actually met him on a couple of occasions.

278

00:20:07,583 --> 00:20:14,000

He was the pastor of Apusinian Baptist Church, the historic African-American church in New

York for about.

279

00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,458

I think he was involved in that church for about 50 years until he passed away.

280

00:20:17,458 --> 00:20:21,416

He said the most endangered species in America was the young black man.

281

00:20:21,416 --> 00:20:27,208

And I was just like, yeah.

282

00:20:27,583 --> 00:20:28,500

Nah.

283

00:20:30,666 --> 00:20:37,333

I remember to poor Raymond's father, Raymond Senior, because felt the guilt because he was

the one that told Raymond to go to the park.

284

00:20:37,333 --> 00:20:38,625

He said, you know, the corn isn't...

285

00:20:38,625 --> 00:20:40,000

There's nothing good on the corner.

286

00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:41,583

Why don't you go hang out in the park?

287

00:20:43,666 --> 00:20:44,541

Man.

288

00:20:46,916 --> 00:20:47,791

Yeah.

289

00:20:48,500 --> 00:20:51,416

But the show will kind of character some of these guys have like you, Steph Salaam.

290

00:20:51,416 --> 00:20:52,666

And I think it was Kevin Richardson.

291

00:20:52,666 --> 00:21:03,625

They ended up getting their, they get a college degree because at that point the prisons

were, you know, affording, the inmates, the opportunity to get a college degree.

292

00:21:03,625 --> 00:21:08,041

they better themselves, which goes to show you the kind of character these guys had.

293

00:21:08,041 --> 00:21:14,166

If they were like hardened criminals that, you know, had wrong intentions, they probably

wouldn't have done that.

294

00:21:14,958 --> 00:21:17,458

I think Raymond Santana got his as well.

295

00:21:17,958 --> 00:21:24,791

And I know Antron said he started it, they discontinued program while he was in the

middle, so he never finished.

296

00:21:25,375 --> 00:21:26,166

Yeah.

297

00:21:29,208 --> 00:21:40,333

What are the odds that Matias Reyes would then, you know, intersect in prison with Korey

Wise and he had admitted it because you wouldn't think that someone that had committed

298

00:21:40,333 --> 00:21:54,000

multiple heinous crimes like Reyes did would have that kind of wherewithal or the change

of heart to have the empathy for Korey Wise because Korey was talking, you know, he's

299

00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:58,916

like, Matthias Reyes was saying, I actually

300

00:22:00,083 --> 00:22:08,791

he's serving time for something that I committed and, the actual documentary was well done

in terms of it started off with a confession statement.

301

00:22:08,791 --> 00:22:09,958

And then you're like, wait a second, who's this?

302

00:22:09,958 --> 00:22:12,875

And it comes back to that at the end.

303

00:22:12,875 --> 00:22:16,166

I mean, that was fortuitous because that led to the exoneration.

304

00:22:16,166 --> 00:22:23,916

mean, unfortunately it was many, many years too late, but at least they, they did find

the.

305

00:22:23,916 --> 00:22:25,583

Keltie party.

306

00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:26,916

Yeah.

307

00:22:26,916 --> 00:22:34,250

And it's crazy is that Matias Reyes and Korey Wise actually across one another in Rikers

and they actually had an altercation.

308

00:22:34,875 --> 00:22:41,000

So that was their second time coming across one another and he recognized them and he went

over and apologized to them.

309

00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,083

He's like, man, it's all right, whatever, man.

310

00:22:43,791 --> 00:22:48,541

And he's just, like you said, he went and confessed.

311

00:22:49,041 --> 00:22:54,625

I think he, and not only did he that he confessed, I think he kept pressing them about it

until they actually listened.

312

00:22:54,750 --> 00:22:57,958

because they were probably like, I think they brushed him off a couple of times.

313

00:22:57,958 --> 00:23:06,625

And I think he actually persisted on confessing before they finally actually looked into

it and found out that his DNA was in fact at the scene of the rape.

314

00:23:06,625 --> 00:23:11,000

It's like, wow, it's crazy.

315

00:23:14,333 --> 00:23:19,041

know, Korey served 11 and a half years, man.

316

00:23:19,666 --> 00:23:29,125

And that's because just about for the pure fact that he was older, he was 16 at the time

and others were charged as youth, but they still serve six and a half years.

317

00:23:29,125 --> 00:23:31,541

That's still a long time.

318

00:23:32,416 --> 00:23:34,083

I'll see that eight, yeah.

319

00:23:36,750 --> 00:23:37,583

Nope.

320

00:23:40,666 --> 00:23:45,583

the news and everything started first broke, was still, he was serving time for the drug

charge.

321

00:23:46,625 --> 00:23:47,416

Yep.

322

00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:01,083

which luckily for him got bumped down because now his previous record was wiped.

323

00:24:01,166 --> 00:24:02,958

So now he's a first time offender.

324

00:24:02,958 --> 00:24:03,791

Yeah.

325

00:24:04,125 --> 00:24:05,666

All right.

326

00:24:05,666 --> 00:24:07,166

for him, you know.

327

00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:22,291

Well, so these guys have evolved and now several of them are speaking out against

injustice, which is good to see that they're able to kind of make a bit of a career out of

328

00:24:23,208 --> 00:24:30,791

public appearances, talk about their experience in fighting against injustices such as

this.

329

00:24:31,708 --> 00:24:36,166

Yeah, both Korey and Kevin now do work for the Innocence Project.

330

00:24:36,166 --> 00:24:43,041

If you haven't heard of that, they work on similar cases of people wrongly accused of

crimes.

331

00:24:44,833 --> 00:24:45,625

Yeah.

332

00:24:46,666 --> 00:24:57,791

And I know Raymond has also donated some of his funds, because he has a clothing brand,

which reminds me, actually was gonna, I actually gotta go back and revisit his site, if he

333

00:24:57,791 --> 00:24:58,791

has up.

334

00:24:59,458 --> 00:25:04,125

He proceeds from his clothing brand to the Innocence Project as well.

335

00:25:04,291 --> 00:25:11,666

And I know Korey donated a large donation to the chapter in...

336

00:25:11,666 --> 00:25:13,833

I believe the chapter is in, it's in Colorado.

337

00:25:13,833 --> 00:25:16,416

It might be Denver, but I know it's in Colorado.

338

00:25:16,541 --> 00:25:19,916

And they ended up naming their chapter, chapter after him.

339

00:25:21,083 --> 00:25:22,291

Park Madison.

340

00:25:23,375 --> 00:25:28,416

I remember when he first dropped that clothing on a few years ago and I was like, oh man,

I gotta get something.

341

00:25:28,541 --> 00:25:30,125

And something came up and I never got it.

342

00:25:30,125 --> 00:25:32,208

Cause I wanted one of the shirts with their names on it.

343

00:25:32,208 --> 00:25:37,916

And there was another shirt that he had, I believe he had like a cherub on it.

344

00:25:38,666 --> 00:25:40,625

I was like, I wanna get some of that.

345

00:25:41,583 --> 00:25:43,583

Get some Park Madison swag.

346

00:25:43,583 --> 00:25:51,291

Yusef Salaam is now a member of the New York City Council representing District Nine.

347

00:25:52,958 --> 00:25:56,166

He was elected in November 7th, 2023.

348

00:25:58,458 --> 00:26:07,750

And also Raymond Santana has announced his candidacy for New York City's eighth district,

which represents East Harlem and the Bronx.

349

00:26:07,875 --> 00:26:16,250

there'll be neighboring, elected, there'll be neighboring councilmen for neighboring

districts.

350

00:26:16,875 --> 00:26:17,750

Yeah.

351

00:26:19,708 --> 00:26:20,791

That's incredible.

352

00:26:20,791 --> 00:26:21,875

Right.

353

00:26:21,958 --> 00:26:30,666

And I know the documentary left off with civil suit that they filed it actually did get

resolved.

354

00:26:31,625 --> 00:26:33,750

movie comes out in 2012.

355

00:26:33,750 --> 00:26:40,875

They filed civil suits in 2013 and the settlement comes out the year after that, which has

been reported as 41 million.

356

00:26:40,875 --> 00:26:45,916

And then they got additional money after that from the state.

357

00:26:47,458 --> 00:26:48,416

Yeah.

358

00:26:49,583 --> 00:26:50,250

Yes.

359

00:26:50,250 --> 00:26:51,041

Yep.

360

00:26:51,083 --> 00:26:55,041

like I said, this documentary is only some of the story.

361

00:26:56,375 --> 00:27:04,791

But Ken Burns said that he was hoping that if this film would help spur the city to settle

and they got the result.

362

00:27:04,791 --> 00:27:06,541

Looks like it did, yeah did.

363

00:27:09,708 --> 00:27:12,000

And his daughter also directed this film.

364

00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,000

She's written books about Central Park Five, so...

365

00:27:17,333 --> 00:27:19,083

other ways to tell a story.

366

00:27:19,291 --> 00:27:20,083

Right.

367

00:27:21,916 --> 00:27:30,541

Yeah, I was so glad to hear that the evidence came out that they didn't do it because I

remember, like I said, it was so triggering.

368

00:27:31,958 --> 00:27:41,041

there was one thing that I clearly remember where they kept the wilding, the wolf pack

roaming through the, was like, what the heck, like, really?

369

00:27:41,041 --> 00:27:45,291

It's like, these guys are like my age.

370

00:27:45,291 --> 00:27:46,916

Like, I'm not a pack of wolves.

371

00:27:46,916 --> 00:27:48,083

Like, what?

372

00:27:48,416 --> 00:27:49,041

Yeah.

373

00:27:49,041 --> 00:28:00,000

It's so hard to keep seeing word thrown around over and over and narrative repetitive,

just over and over and over again.

374

00:28:00,375 --> 00:28:11,708

It's like, our current in office the full page ad and then you see all the other people

talking about it, know, Koch and...

375

00:28:11,708 --> 00:28:16,208

this person and that person and all the people on the street are just basically a book at

them.

376

00:28:16,208 --> 00:28:21,291

then in the court of public opinion, they were guilty before the trial even started.

377

00:28:21,583 --> 00:28:22,708

Definitely.

378

00:28:24,083 --> 00:28:25,125

But, you know.

379

00:28:25,125 --> 00:28:29,291

cautionary tale, know all the facts before you make that decision.

380

00:28:29,625 --> 00:28:30,541

Yeah.

381

00:28:31,041 --> 00:28:31,916

Yeah.

382

00:28:32,458 --> 00:28:38,791

I'm wondering if like a case like this, I mean, there's travesties of justice all the

time, Travis.

383

00:28:38,791 --> 00:28:49,250

And in this day and age, the technology to capture DNA evidence has evolved, has improved.

384

00:28:49,833 --> 00:28:55,250

More people have, everybody has, a lot of people have a camera in their pockets in the

form of a cell phone.

385

00:28:55,250 --> 00:28:57,125

So there's more surveillance.

386

00:28:58,791 --> 00:29:05,708

So I'm wondering like if this would have happened in the past year, how would it be

different?

387

00:29:06,666 --> 00:29:08,125

You know, that's just.

388

00:29:08,125 --> 00:29:12,541

there's still institutional racism and abuses of power, so...

389

00:29:12,541 --> 00:29:18,916

case, would hope that there would be, I hope that there would be someone that may have

captured something in Central Park.

390

00:29:19,125 --> 00:29:24,916

Even though it's at night, the Central Park, you know, there's tons and dozens and dozens

of people and there's that many people.

391

00:29:24,916 --> 00:29:26,958

I mean, you have 30 teenagers going into there.

392

00:29:26,958 --> 00:29:34,125

At this point, a lot of people will be recording something or like, Hey, you know,

unfortunately people like to film when people get beat up or whatever.

393

00:29:34,541 --> 00:29:35,333

Yeah.

394

00:29:35,333 --> 00:29:35,833

Yeah.

395

00:29:35,833 --> 00:29:40,208

let's just say these guys were maybe involved with harassing someone or something like

that.

396

00:29:40,208 --> 00:29:42,666

Like, well, at this time, this is what we were doing.

397

00:29:42,666 --> 00:29:44,708

We were pushing around this guy.

398

00:29:44,708 --> 00:29:47,875

I was not, we were not raping this woman, you know?

399

00:29:49,041 --> 00:29:50,583

Exactly, that's my point.

400

00:29:50,583 --> 00:29:54,833

It's like, times today, exactly.

401

00:29:54,833 --> 00:29:57,291

that was the big issue because were trying to map it out.

402

00:29:57,291 --> 00:30:05,666

And they were like, well, they're saying that it happened over here, but clearly, if you

look at it, there's no way they could have been over here when they were over here with

403

00:30:05,666 --> 00:30:06,375

these guys.

404

00:30:06,375 --> 00:30:08,291

And it's like, what?

405

00:30:09,166 --> 00:30:17,416

But yeah, digital timestamps and cameras everywhere and technology, it's impossible for

them to be way over here when they're right here.

406

00:30:17,583 --> 00:30:21,166

I mean, we can clearly see it, but technology would support that.

407

00:30:25,166 --> 00:30:28,541

mean, the young woman that was raped, she was using a Walkman.

408

00:30:28,541 --> 00:30:34,875

Now she'd probably be using her phone, listening to music through AirPods or whatever.

409

00:30:35,291 --> 00:30:41,666

And maybe she has Find My iPhone or some sort of technology where it's like, okay, she was

literally right here.

410

00:30:41,708 --> 00:30:43,375

These boys were right here.

411

00:30:44,541 --> 00:30:45,291

Mm-hmm.

412

00:30:45,291 --> 00:30:47,333

Could be case closed.

413

00:30:47,666 --> 00:30:48,333

So.

414

00:30:48,333 --> 00:30:50,083

defense lawyers have more to work with.

415

00:30:50,083 --> 00:30:51,458

Yeah, absolutely.

416

00:30:51,458 --> 00:30:52,041

with these days.

417

00:30:52,041 --> 00:30:53,916

Yeah, this was 1989.

418

00:30:54,125 --> 00:31:01,583

well before cell phones were, yeah, it would be like a cinder block.

419

00:31:01,791 --> 00:31:04,166

Pretty much, pretty much.

420

00:31:04,333 --> 00:31:05,083

Yeah.

421

00:31:05,083 --> 00:31:06,083

Yeah.

422

00:31:10,041 --> 00:31:10,916

Yeah.

423

00:31:13,708 --> 00:31:23,666

Yeah, this story was also made into a four-part limited series for Netflix in 2019.

424

00:31:23,666 --> 00:31:27,541

That was a co-written and directed by Ava DuVernay called When They See Us.

425

00:31:27,541 --> 00:31:38,000

I highly recommend people to watch it, but I'll caution them that it's a very hard watch

if you choose to watch it.

426

00:31:38,291 --> 00:31:40,458

Even this documentary was intense.

427

00:31:40,458 --> 00:31:42,916

Two hours of this was pretty intense.

428

00:31:43,500 --> 00:31:44,708

Watch a four part series?

429

00:31:44,708 --> 00:31:46,458

I don't know man.

430

00:31:47,083 --> 00:31:47,333

Gotta

431

00:31:47,333 --> 00:31:49,958

series, man, it had me in tears.

432

00:31:50,750 --> 00:31:53,291

Like literally I'm bawling out.

433

00:31:55,291 --> 00:32:03,250

But yeah, I think it was relevant because I think a lot of people don't realize how easy

it is for something like this to occur.

434

00:32:03,583 --> 00:32:09,375

You look at it, how could that happen when all of the evidence, it happened?

435

00:32:09,708 --> 00:32:14,625

We look at all the time, people always say, how could this happen?

436

00:32:15,958 --> 00:32:17,291

We let it happen.

437

00:32:18,291 --> 00:32:19,250

That's how it happens.

438

00:32:19,250 --> 00:32:24,791

they have a clear agenda and they're focused on, you know, pushing something through.

439

00:32:24,791 --> 00:32:30,000

Like, you know, they had Mateus in custody while the trial was going on.

440

00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:35,708

And his DNA is in that file, you choose not to look at it.

441

00:32:35,708 --> 00:32:37,666

Like, he's a serial rapist.

442

00:32:37,666 --> 00:32:40,125

Like, why would you not even consider looking at it?

443

00:32:40,125 --> 00:32:41,708

Just off the fact that he's a serial rapist.

444

00:32:41,708 --> 00:32:44,416

Like, maybe there's a hunch that he could have done it.

445

00:32:44,416 --> 00:32:45,250

We don't think he did.

446

00:32:45,250 --> 00:32:46,791

We think these kids did it.

447

00:32:46,791 --> 00:32:52,875

But on a hunch, let's just look over here just to check and make sure nobody even looked.

448

00:32:53,083 --> 00:32:55,958

Or if they looked, they kept their mouth closed about it.

449

00:32:56,333 --> 00:33:08,750

No, the whole culture of them getting coerced confessions like this automatically doesn't

be conducive to, let's actually get the facts here.

450

00:33:08,750 --> 00:33:10,291

Let's make the facts line up.

451

00:33:10,291 --> 00:33:12,041

No, no.

452

00:33:13,041 --> 00:33:15,333

You hold up your hand to a locomotive.

453

00:33:15,375 --> 00:33:16,583

Exactly.

454

00:33:17,125 --> 00:33:18,333

I look forward to seeing what Dr.

455

00:33:18,333 --> 00:33:19,416

Salaam has to say.

456

00:33:19,416 --> 00:33:21,458

I've always wanted to hear him speak.

457

00:33:21,458 --> 00:33:29,250

I've seen him on interviews and different things of such, and he's a very well-spoken

person.

458

00:33:29,541 --> 00:33:36,500

the one thing that I got from learning about him, his faith is what got him through.

459

00:33:36,500 --> 00:33:38,500

prayed a lot, he read a lot.

460

00:33:38,708 --> 00:33:39,875

prayed a lot, read a lot.

461

00:33:39,875 --> 00:33:43,791

And that's what sustained him, even though it was hard, but that's what helped sustain

him.

462

00:33:43,791 --> 00:33:47,958

But I hope he probably talks a little bit about that when we get to see him speak.

463

00:33:47,958 --> 00:33:49,416

Yeah, looking forward to it.

464

00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,291

It comes out like, goes wild.

465

00:33:56,125 --> 00:34:01,666

Because I know that every now and then when one of them will make an appearance, sometimes

they'll bring one or two of the other ones with them.

466

00:34:01,666 --> 00:34:03,416

So I'm hoping.

467

00:34:05,916 --> 00:34:06,916

Yeah.

468

00:34:07,916 --> 00:34:11,208

I mean, they might not actually speak, but just to be there as a support.

469

00:34:13,208 --> 00:34:15,250

Yeah, that would be cool.

470

00:34:15,958 --> 00:34:22,291

Hip Hop Movie Clubs produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie and Dino Wright Feat music by

Boogie.

471

00:34:22,333 --> 00:34:33,625

Join us on April 24th at the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas at SteelStacks in Bethlehem,

PA for a screening of Hustle and Flow in 4K starring Terrence Howard, Mane and Ludacris.

472

00:34:34,250 --> 00:34:35,250

Mane?

473

00:34:35,666 --> 00:34:37,791

Tickets at SteelStacks.org

474

00:34:40,250 --> 00:34:41,250

man.

475

00:34:41,625 --> 00:34:42,708

man.

476

00:34:44,125 --> 00:34:45,708

Man.

477

00:34:46,625 --> 00:34:48,875

I was not expecting that.

478

00:34:49,875 --> 00:34:51,666

I can't even hold it.

479

00:34:54,875 --> 00:34:55,875

man.

480

00:34:56,416 --> 00:34:58,625

thank God for the levity after a heavy topic.

481

00:34:58,625 --> 00:34:59,666

I know.

482

00:35:01,375 --> 00:35:03,416

Thanks for watching the Hip Hop Movie Club show.

483

00:35:03,416 --> 00:35:06,291

Ring the bell so you get notified when we post new content.

484

00:35:06,291 --> 00:35:08,666

It's the sound of a power up for us, so thank you.

485

00:35:08,666 --> 00:35:11,083

If you enjoyed this episode we have more where that came from.

486

00:35:11,083 --> 00:35:13,375

the thumbnail it's about to come on the screen.

487

00:35:14,375 --> 00:35:19,208

And remember, don't hate, exonerate, if not guilty.

488

00:35:19,208 --> 00:35:21,666

Of course, if not guilty, exonerate.

489

00:35:21,666 --> 00:35:23,458

Yes, absolutely.

490

00:35:24,833 --> 00:35:28,958

Yup, Justice, your mind and your conscience and your record, get it done.