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Essay / Central Park 5 Essay - 1026
This movie really tied together everything we discussed in class and watching it unfold was actually really eye opening. I found it important going forward to make sure I don't fall into that tunnel vision mentality and make sure I follow the evidence rather than fit the suspect to the evidence. Again, I found it interesting, as in the Norfolk Four case and the Central Park 5 case, the police neglected to examine the surrounding crime areas to see if other cases fit the same modus operandi . If police had looked at the surrounding cases, they would have linked the previous assaults to the assault that took place in the park that night. I was amazed at how much the detectives failed to understand how each of the confessions varied depending on who did what and how they attacked the victim. It was Korey Wise in the video who kept raising his hand when asked how big the rock was and he was just moving them back and forth. Police also neglected to examine attack patterns from locations where the group first harassed people in the park. They allegedly discovered that the boys were at one end of the park while the victim was attacked, and there was no way they could have been in two places at once. I also found the media portrayal of the Central Park 5 disturbing at the time, how they were portrayed as vicious young men, who brutally attacked a harmless white woman. Even after each of them was cleared of the crime, the media still portrayed them as vicious men. As we discussed in class, I believe that a lawyer like a magistrate should be available 24/7 when dealing with minors, because I believe these five did not know their Miranda rights and what they were entitled to. If they knew what their rights were, I think this confession would never have happened and none of them would have gone to see