Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns

3 reviews

rjlrobinson05's review

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emotional informative reflective sad

5.0

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books4em's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.0

This book is very informative about the Central Park Jogger case and the racism that is deeply embedded in the criminal justice system. The author did both the case, the survivor, and the wrongfully-accused justice via her detailed analysis of the crime and the aftermath for the Central Park Five.
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cupofbooksreviews's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.0

From having watched the limited Netflixdocumentary series ‘When They See Us’, I knew the basic facts and understanding of the Central Park Jogger case and the five innocent teenagers who were sadly failed by the law and judicial system on numerous accounts. From my knowledge of this case so far I thought I would be able to take the information in quite swiftly and read through this book at a steady, average pace, but no, I was wrong. This book took me a lot longer than I thought it would, due to the unimaginable events that took place and the amount of emotion I started to show from reading this book. I had only just reached the thirteenth page of this book and my blood was already boiling. It’ so awful knowing that this wrongdoing happened to these five innocent human beings and is horrible to think how many other innocent beings there have been/are currently in prisons and serving for a crime that they did not commit. 

I must admit that I’m not educated that well when it comes to American Presidencies and I was super shocked to read about the cheap shot George Bush took towards Michael Dukakis’ candidacy, which helped him win the election. I wasn’t at all surprised to learn about Donald Trump’s actions during these events, that he took out full page advertisements in daily newspapers demanding for the return of the death penalty. Even after they were announced innocent, to this day Donald Trump still hasn’t apologised.

In the Epilogue, we learn that the victim in the Central Park Jogger case, Trisha Meili, has written a book which was published in 2003 called: “I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility”. This book is about her life before the brutal attack which left her on the brink of death and her remarkable path to recovery. I am very intrigued to learn more about Trisha Meili and her road to recovery after her horrific attack.

An incredibly written book from the basis of Sarah Burns’ documentary on the Central Park Joggercase, which I will definitely be watching in the near future. This is a very informative and detailed story about the case, the trials and the sentences wrongfully given to the five innocent boys accused of the brutal attack on Trisha Meiji.

These five innocent beings will not be able to gain back the years that they had lost due to spending them in prison, they will not be able to forget the horrible experiences that they saw and/or were a part of. This book will leave you with so many questions about others out there in this world who have been pronounced guilty when they’re actually innocent. This book will leave you with a heavy heart, but I believe everyone should read this book to learn about this wrenching case.

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