MovieChat Forums > The Central Park Five (2014) Discussion > Ken Burns makes a pro-vicious thug, anti...

Ken Burns makes a pro-vicious thug, anti-victim documentary

posted 11 years ago by RoboSlater
20 replies | jump to latest

Ken Burns’ overrated documentary about the 5 Black and Hispanic men –- Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Kharey Wise, Raymond Santana, Jr., and Yusef Salaam –- who were originally convicted of the Central Park "wilding" of 1989, in which a jogger (known as the "Central Park jogger") and Wall Street investment banker, Trisha Meili, was gang-raped and brutally beaten to near-death. Ken Burns wants you to believe that the men were wrongfully convicted and were innocent victims in all this. And to do so, Ken Burns will gloss over the fact they are thugs who brag about having watched and enjoyed the "wilding" they claim was performed by 5 others.

Is your heart breaking for them yet?

Toward the beginning of the movie, the five men brag about how they watched "another group of kids" like them beat the crap out of a White man in Central Park. They talk about it like they enjoyed watching it, and of course, they did. None of them did a single thing to stop it. We find out later that they were in fact were beating the crap out of various White people in Central Park. A NY Times reporter sympathetic to them whines about the fact that their lawyers didn't use this as a defense at trial: that they couldn't have raped and beaten this woman nearly to death because they were too busy doing it to other people.

They naturally get sympathy (and typical grandstanding) out of the-then corpulent and less-accepted (the way it still should be) Al Sharpton, but decent people aren't sympathetic to these savages.

Filmmakers can turn out to be scum too.

They should be in jail still.

If you're a liberal who voted for Obama, you'll like this mindless drivel...

[–] urbanclassics 11 years ago

Hey RoboSlater - you're ignorant. Get it Ignore Rant!! I was 19 when this happened and remember how mad I was that these kids did this.

Now 20 odd years later - I'm pissed and confused about what these kids went thru.

[–] flimflamsam 11 years ago

you bandy the term thug around like you knew these guys, hell I grew up in the burbs, upper middle class, and saw plenty of wasps do ignorant things like attack random people, rob and steal, sell drugs, you're obviously very biased so e.a.d.

I hope you've got an army of raisins because I've got a major scoop

[–] Discussion2019 (5) 5 years ago

No; you never saw anything like what these thugs did, and repeatedly confessed to and bragged about having done.

[–] nitchricky-1 11 years ago

They did go to jail. Or did you miss that part? Haven't you ever heard of time served??

Whatever petty, hooligan behavior they were guilty of as teenagers has surely been excused - and then some - by their time in prison. But they were certainly not guilty of murder, and served time in prison that far exceeded any shenanigans they were up to 30 years ago.

Your arbitrary association with Barack Obama is rather telling towards your racist leanings, as neither he nor his presidency have anything to do with something that happened in the 80s. Why you brought him up, I have absolutely no idea.

I've also noticed that in other posts you seem, albeit incorrectly, to think that the media is on their side. Apparently you don't remember much about what really happened back then, as the major news outlets had all but crucified them once they were in custody.

Further to the point, a 6th party, completely unaffiliated with the other 5, confessed to the crime. I'm not sure why someone would do that if the 5 were actually guilty of the crime. However, I am sure that your racist, conspiracy theorist mind will come up with some kind of hackneyed explanation to sew it all up.

Please go back to the hole you crawled out of.

[–] drnossal 7 years ago

Yeah, beating a man unconscious with a pipe is just young tomfoolery.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

[–] Discussion2019 (5) 5 years ago

"Your arbitrary association with Barack Obama is rather telling towards your racist leanings, as neither he nor his presidency have anything to do with something that happened in the 80s. Why you brought him up, I have absolutely no idea."

There was nothing arbitrary about his mention of Obama. You support this lying propaganda flick, and you're a fan of Obama.

You assert that his mention of Obama exposes him as a "racist," before asserting that you "have absolutely no idea" why he would mention Obama. clearly, logic is not your strong suit.

[–] GuyWhoSezThatsNotGood 11 years ago

Toward the beginning of the movie, the five men brag about how they watched "another group of kids" like them beat the crap out of a White man in Central Park. They talk about it like they enjoyed watching it, and of course, they did. None of them did a single thing to stop it.

First of all, they don't "brag" about it and they don't give any indication they "enjoyed" it either. Second of all they were punk teenagers. Of course they're not going to intervene. They had a moral responsibility to intervene but that kind of moral responsibility is not self-evident; it's something you have to cultivate and develop.

You mention the race of the victims and the "criminals' repeatedly. Do you have a race issue here?

[–] Discussion2019 (5) 5 years ago

"First of all, they don't 'brag' about it and they don't give any indication they 'enjoyed' it either."

Not in the Burns propaganda movie, but in real life they certainly did brag to acquaintances, and made it clear they enjoyed it: "I already got mines" (Raymond Santana). "It was fun" (Yusuf Salaam).

"Second of all they were punk teenagers. Of course they're not going to intervene."

They couldn't have intervened. When they claimed to have "witnessed" a gang attack in the park, and spoke of the attackers as "they," they were talking about themselves in the third person. It was one of their attacks.

[–] kshri 11 years ago

don't feed the troll

[–] jimmyberluti1 11 years ago

kshri is a troll.

[–] Merely 11 years ago

Idiot.

[–] Burnsider 11 years ago

Watch out Robo. You'll be crucified for speaking the truth. The fact is, the crimes that these five people DID COMMIT should have gotten them life in prison or even the death penalty. That one particular rape was committed by another Hispanic man is besides the point. The Central Park Five ruined their own lives as well as their victims.

[–] bootblack987 11 years ago

Toward the beginning of the movie, the five men brag about how they watched "another group of kids" like them beat the crap out of a White man in Central Park. They talk about it like they enjoyed watching it, and of course, they did...

I just watched the documentary and saw nothing which would make one think that they enjoyed watching these attacks. Your comment, "...and of course, they did..." How do you know what they thought or felt? Unless they said so themselves that is? (Which they did not.)

None of them did a single thing to stop it

If you saw a group of twenty people beating up someone in a remote area late at night and you were with a friend of two, would you try to stop what was happening, or would you avoid confrontation fearing that the same beating would happen to you shortly thereafter?

We find out later that they were in fact were beating the crap out of various White people in Central Park.

Could you please provide proof if this accusation? Thank you.

[–] drnossal 7 years ago

The five accused here were convicted not just of the rape and violent beating of Melli, but also assaults on other people in the park on the same night. The other jogger, who you rarely hear about, was named John Laughlin. He was beaten senseless with a pipe. Sound familiar?

Several other defendants were convicted for assaulting and robbing people in the park that night. Their names were Jermaine Robinson, Antonio Montalvo, Michael Briscoe and Antonio Escobar. Each received prison sentences of six to twelve months for various crimes. Those sentences have not been vacated, nor have those individuals received any settlements from the city of New York.

Ironically, the other assaults were vacated too, even though Reyes didn't confess to that. That fact alone tells you everything you need to know about this travesty of justice, the city of New York was so eager to whitewash the whole incident (pun intended), they even threw out convictions that had no basis for appeal.

See Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, Part 58, Indictment 4762/89.

Before passing judgment, you really need to familiarize yourself with more than just a biased account presented by a filmmaker with a long track record as a white apologist. Nothing wrong with hearing Ken Burns' point of view, you just can't accept his version as absolute fact.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"