Ava Duvernay did what she wanted to do with When They See Us, and that's expose the corruption within the legal system. She did a wonderful job with that film series. I say it frequently that blacks have two strikes against them: One being black, and two, the legal and economic system is slighted against them. Korey Wise was looking out for his friend, and he got caught up. You can take away a lot from the series, but what I got from the documentary was the following:
1. Forgiveness-When Oprah asked the buff, black man if he forgave his father, he straight up said no. The man's father asked him to change his story and admit guilt when he felt he was innocent. He believed his father should've had his back, so I'm not going to discredit his feelings. I do respect him for saying he wouldn't do his kids the way his father did him.
2. Time Lost-Yes, the Exonerated 5 were cleared of all charges and records expunged, but they still served time. How do you repay someone for time lost? Those 5 men can't get those years back.
3. Money-The City Of New York gave them a $41 million settlement, each of them received $8.2 million. If you count taxes and legal fees, I'm sure they each took home between $5-$6 million. I hope they invest that money wisely and just live off the interest. I liked what one of the men said, he said "Money doesn't erase everything we went through." Money doesn't mean a thing in comparison to the years lost.
4. Apology-To this day, none of the men received an apology from the NYPD or legal team assigned to their case. An apology for screwing up someone's life is too much like right, so at this point, I'd probably tell them to take their apology and shove it where the sun don't shine. I think Linda Fairstein should issue a public apology to those 5 men because she was so gung-ho about their conviction, and when the truth came out about the men's innocence, she was looking stupid. She had it out for those boys and wasn't focused on the facts, she wanted to lock someone up for the crime. I am glad her publisher dropped her, and she lost her job (or resigned). She was lit up on social media to where she made her social media acct. private. LOL! She didn't want that smoke.
5. What About The Others?-There are many Central Park 5's sitting in prison for crimes they didn't commit. They deserve justice too.
The worst kind of racists are those in power positions. You can't count on them being fair & objective because they're going to be guided by prejudice. I truly believe most racists were picked on as children and were taught hatred so they go into law enforcement and criminal justice in order to get revenge.
As black men, it's extremely important to move carefully because the last thing any black man should want is to go through what those Exonerated 5 did.
