New York Honours Central Park Wilding Gang (1)

Last week, the entrance to New York’s Central Park was renamed the Gate Of The Exonerated. There is a long, contorted story behind this.

On April 19, 1989, in an incredible act of savagery, a young woman was bound, gagged, raped and beaten nearly to death while running through New York’s Central Park. Known initially as the Central Park Jogger, she was later identified as Trisha Meili. The crime was so horrific that a brash New York businessman named Donald Trump took out full page advertisements in four daily newspapers calling for the restoration of the death penalty. (The death penalty was abolished in New York State in 2007 but the last execution was in 1963). While it is important to ensure due process and to acknowledge the presumption of innocence, ultimately the Trump newspaper advertisements had no effect on the outcome of this case. 

Five teenagers were indicted and convicted of this unspeakable crime for which they received relatively light sentences – from six to fifteen years. Because four were black and one Hispanic, the usual suspects played the race card with extreme vigour. There were two trials: three defendants, then two, the following year. In 1991, a sixth defendant took a plea unrelated to the rape of Trisha Meili.

In 2001, murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed the Meili rape to a prison officer. DNA evidence confirmed his guilt. This resulted in the so-called Central Park 5 being freed, then exonerated, then awarded $41 million compensation in 2014. Three years ago, Netflix released a dramatisation of their story called When They See Us which affirmed their innocence. This is the same Netflix that has since affirmed the innocence of Casey Anthony. But were the Central Park 5 really innocent?

The story being peddled now is that these were innocent young kids who just happened to be in Central Park at the time. They were arrested purely because of their race, and confessions were extracted from them by racist white police officers. People involved with the case, including then sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein, have seen their reputations trashed, primarily on account of this one-sided documentary. 

In June 2019, the woman behind the Netflix docuseries spoke to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Goodman has a track record for gratuitous lying about some of the most odious people on the planet, including teen killer Cyntoia Brown and double killer Terry Williams. Ava DuVernay played the race card incessantly, but what are the true facts? 

The film gives the impression that the Central Park 5 were the only ones put in the frame for this crime, in fact the police had no fewer than 37 suspects. The perpetrators were believed to have been wilding in the park. If you are not familiar with the word wilding, it alludes to gangs of teenagers attacking people for kicks, including robbing them. DuVernay calls wilding a made up word. Lady, all words are made up!

These gangs were not necessarily organised, but especially black youth in the United States have a long track record for this kind of behaviour. They certainly did that night because Trisha Meili was far from the only runner they attacked.

The race angle can and should be dismissed at once. Eric Reynolds was a black detective who worked on the case. He is one of the few people to have spoken out on it. 

Yusef Salaam has been described as the most outspoken of the group. What he doesn’t talk about is the fact that he was carrying a kitchen knife in the park that night. 

In early May 1989, further charges were reported, for example, on May 7, the headline in the Orlando Sentinel read: 

8 INDICTED IN ATTACK ON MALE RUNNER DURING RAMPAGE IN CENTRAL PARK

The six already charged along with two others were charged with attacking David Lewis, another runner. They were also accused of assaulting John Loughlin who told the police the gang beat him unconscious and stole his radio – ie his walkman.

Ava DuVernay and Amy Goodman have nothing to say about this, instead all the emphasis is put on the teens’ confessions to the rape which are said to have been coerced. These were all recorded and can be found on YouTube and elsewhere, so you can judge for yourself just how coerced they were. As minors, their parents were present too.

As one pundit points out, when Kevin Richardson was questioned about the attack on Mr Loughlin, he corrected his female interrogator about a detail, something an innocent person would be unlikely to do. Perhaps even more damning was the scratch on Richardson’s face which is clearly visible in his interrogation video. He admitted he had been scratched by Trisha, something that was confirmed independently by his co-defendant Kharey (later Korey) Wise. 

To Part 2.