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"Central Park Five" Blasts Donald Trump For Hypocrisy Over Due Process
Santana Raymond, a member from the Central Park Five, slammed Trump on Twitter.
In light of domestic abuse allegations in his administration—and the exit of political aide Rob Porter— Donald Trump took to Twitter to discuss the need for due process in the law. As the New York Daily News reports, a member of the "Central Park Five" responded, asking where that same due process was when he was harangued by Trump for a crime he didn't commit. Santana Raymond took to Twitter to blast Trump on his hypocrisy.
"You should have spoke like that back in 1989...#thecentralpark5, you called for the #deathpenalty, we were 14 & 15 years old.. #kids."
In 1989, Trump famously took out an ad in New York City newspapers calling for the death penalty against the Central Park Five.
The case of the Central Park Five involved five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were convicted of raping and attacking a white, female jogger in 1989. The racially-charged case made headlines, with even future-President Trump weighing in on their guilt. In 2002, a serial rapist confessed to the crime while behind bars and the men were let free.
The case has become a marker to highlight problems of racial profiling and coercive interrogation tactics in crimes. In 2014, the New York City awarded the five men $41 million for wrongful imprisonment.
To this day, Trump has yet to apologize for his assertion of guilt on the men.
Another member of the Five, Yusef Salaam, spoke to MSNBC about the tweet.“The Central Park Five, their families. We were not able to move on with our lives. Our lives were completely destroyed and devastated," he said. “Any kind of dream or idea or goal that we had in life was quickly erased by this accusation,” he said.
White House aide Rob Porter stepped down last week after allegations of multiple incidents of domestic abuse surfaced. In an essay for Time, Jennifer Willoughby, one of Porter's ex-wives, spoke out against Trump's stance to defend Porter. "The words 'mere allegation' and 'falsely accused' [are] meant to imply that I am a liar," she said in the essay. "That [Porter's other ex-wife] Colbie Holderness is a liar. That the work Rob was doing in the White House was of higher value than our mental, emotional or physical wellbeing. That his professional contributions are worth more than the truth. That abuse is something to be questioned and doubted."
[Photo: Getty Images]
