"Between Wrongful Convictions and Rape Culture"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Defense lawyers in an evolving Brownsville rape case are now claiming that there's video that clears five young men of allegedly gang raping a young woman in a dark playground last week. The case has gripped the city's attention and there's a lot at stake in how it turns out.

The case has reminded some of the infamous 1989 Central Park 5 case, where young men were wrongfully convicted of brutally raping a jogger in Manhattan's Central Park. If you haven't seen Ken Burns' documentary or followed the story of how the young men fought for their freedom and ultimately sued the city, you really should. The story was in the headlines again recently when a teacher was allegedly fired for teaching her class about the case.

That case and story taught us all a lot about how the media and the criminal justice system can so willingly destroy the lives of young boys of color. Complicit in throwing those five boys under the bus was almost every major news outlet at the time, the mayor, the police department, prosecutors, a sizable portion of New York City and the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.'