01:920:108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Crack Cocaine, De Facto, New York City Police Department
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Watched the Central Park Five Documentary in class today
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Took place Apr. 20th, 1989→Central Park Five: Yusef, Kevin, Raymond, Korey, Antron (some were
Puerto Rican and some were African American→all males)
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Failing public school system, crime escalated, neighborhoods run down
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Crack cocaine→increased crime→teens had alot of money and gun use→suffered most were young,
poor, working class Black and Brown individuals
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All 5 of them went to Central Park to play→they were arrested in the park when a white woman was
found raped and beaten in the deep forest
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The 5 boys were going to be released from police station until the police saw the injuries of the
woman→told the kids to stay in the station instead→automatically assumed they were connected to
the case (self-fulfilling prophecy)
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No food or drink given to them, they were called liars→purposely done to wear and break them
down
The boys were interrogated→yet none of them knew the woman or what happened to her→detectives
got frustrated and tried to connect kids to raped white women→interrogated the teenage boys
aggressively→they said they did not do anything
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Investigators lied and told each of the boys to come up with a story to be able to leave the police station
(so they told on each other and made up the story since they wanted to go home, despite knowing
nothing about the case)
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Press briefing placed blame on all 5 of the guys on the case w/ the raped woman
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The boys were stressed, tired, and juveniles→just wanted the interrogation to stop
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None of the parents had an attorney brought to their case→they didn’t mention it→they were just
worried about going home)
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Read off list of charges→got to jail (Juvenile Center)--> guys didn’t know severity of case until
then
7 were officially arrested→NYPD was pressured to do something about the case→after they left
interrogation place, all of them denied their involvement in the case
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At age 16→one of them was put into adult facility→it was unquestioned that they were guilty
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Brought up death penalty
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Interracial rape→white women and black men→more publicity for rape and it was done in an open
area in Central Park (not in Harlem or other areas)
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Drew from outcry of most people
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De facto segregation (after Civil Rights Movement) and De jure segregation (Jim Crow Law)
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Interracial rape more covered (dominant and minority relations)
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Selectivity stereotype→emphasized certain treatment of group→specifically African American
males
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Self-fulfilling prophecy→the interrogators believed the boys raped the woman and pressured
them to say one of them did it→change in behavior and the boys blamed each other for the case
even though they had no connection to it.
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All-weather bigot (category that the interrogators fell into--> both prejudice and discriminates)
Professor’s added words about the documentary
Lecture: Day 15
Thursday, March 22, 2018
6:51 PM
Minority Groups in American Society Page 1
