Join the conversation about THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

The story of the CENTRAL PARK FIVE raises important questions about race and class, the failings of our criminal justice system, the problem of false confessions, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and basic human rights. Join the conversation and share your thoughts.

We are proud to have had Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, as a speaker in an URGENT event a few months ago.  Read about the event here nj.com that says:

"Friends, family and supporters gathered for a memorial at the Garfield VFW on the anniversary of 19-year-old Williams' death. He was shot and killed by police after fleeing out an unlocked door at the Garfield police department, where he had earlier turned himself in on domestic assault charges.

Police said Williams fled to a residential garage and armed himself with tools, advancing toward officers as they opened the bay doors and, ultimately, opened fire. The incident lead to months of protest and the formation of a community group, URGENT Garfield, which sought answers in the shooting and an increase in outreach programs for the city's youth.

Most of the women who took to the lectern Monday night had a similar story to tell.
Speakers included the mothers of Ramarley Graham, an 18-year-old man shot by police in his New York home earlier this year, and Phillip Pannell, a Teaneck teen killed in similarly controversial circumstances in April 1990.

The event also included a reading from Yusef Salaam, a poet and activist who was one of the "Central Park Five," a group of black and hispanic boys accused of the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in 1989. They were later exonerated, and are the subject of a new documentary exploring the case."

Read more here: 
http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/12/mothers_of_young_men_killed_in_police-involved_shootings_join_garfield_mother_at_sons_memorial.html

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned.

Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, The Central Park Five will tell the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.

Watch Central Park Five Trailer on PBS. See more from Central Park Five.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: 
The Central Park 5 Seeks Economic Justice

http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-michael-r-bloomberg-the-central-park-5-seeks-economic-justice#