Ken Burns is a liberal. I have to say that from the onset. Now I can say that Ken Burns is amazing when he makes documentaries about the Civil War or Mark Twain. This documentary the Central Park Five not so good. I am aghast that Mr. Burns conveniently makes these five young punks out to be the victims. No they were anything but victims. They were the aggressors all over the park that night. One of them even said that he beat a man.The five punks were on a roll in the park, and they were committing a myriad of crimes. Back then this was called "wilding".A term for punks who go around hurting citizens just because they can. I have no time for punks who attack citizens that they do not know, just because it gives them something to do. I feel for the young woman. But of course she was a white woman so she does not matter in this documentary. If you are a liberal and you feel empathy for punks running amok, then this is for you. I am on the side of no empathy for punks.I feel empathy for the woman who almost died.

"The Central Park Five," by Ken and Sarah Burns, is a documentary based on events that took place in 1989 in New York City. It is about the attack and rape of Trisha Melili, a late night jogger, and the arrest of five men who were arrested in the park the night of the crime. It shows the interrogation of these boys for hours on end without contact with their family and the evident persuasion by police for them to create a false story in order to "be released." Unfortunately for the five, this story was held against them and as a result they were convicted of various charges including rape in the first degree and were sent to prison. Years later the actual rapist came forward and the five were cleared of their charges.This film in made up of original footage, interviews with four of the five men, family members and a handful of people alive during the crime or involved in some way in the trial. It portrays the brutality of the police, a faulty justice system and the effects of false accusation as well as racism on people's lives. The utilization of obscure clips and footage, adds to the overall dark and unfortunate feel toward the boy's situation. By using real footage and voice clips of the interrogations and the trail, the film becomes more personal and allows the view to feel like they were there and have a connection to these men. This is an excellent film that is used to remind society that the justice system is not sound and that the community needs to be aware so that people's lives are not ruined like these five men. It is also a tribute to their innocence and give them the recognition in society as human beings not rapist.

Central Park Five is very interesting documentary that is about a 1989 rape case and trial that occurred in Central park where five teenage African-American and Latino boys were convicted for sexually assaulting a white woman. Having spent 6-13 years each behind bars. A serial rapist confessed to the crime. Nevertheless, these boys were falsely convicted of a crime they did not participate in, and were stripped of their lives due to the corruption of police interrogations, and racism. As I watched this film I was compelled with the amount of pathos that Ken and Sarah Burns used in the film. From all of the stories of how the kids felt when they were going through the trial and the interrogations to all the images of and footages of them in these interrogations. Watching the videos and seeing the expressions on their faces really made me feel for them. But on top of all of this, the film made me really upset with the way that the police system was at the time. Having no real evidence that the five guys were connected to this case, they were able to persuade the kids to say what the police wanted to hear. The police did the wrong thing and everybody knows it. While listening to the interviews you can tell that the stories did not line up and some of the kids were nervous enough that they were unsure of what they were saying and second-guessing themselves. On top of that the police assumed they were the guilty party when they found them. Now as the film says there were other people in and around the park at the time, but they got a party of five African American teenage guys, that were walking around. Now how does that not fit profiling? Or how about racism? That is racism mostly at its finest, they found a group of "sketchy" African Americans and arrested them, and eventually convicted them with no real proof that they all did it. This made me upset, no I'm not African American but I feel like most people that it was unjust for them to do this and racism is not right in anyway, and it would get under anybody's nerves. Luckily the right guy did come out but only 13 years after the fact. But they did give the guys money for the time spent in jail so isn't that fair for them? not at all they took away the main part of a persons life. They took away there late teens and most of the there young adult years where most people learn the most of who they are and how to live in the world. These are times that will never be able to get back and nobody will ever be able to repay them with that experience.

Depressing and tragic, "The Central Park Five" examines the 1989 case of five black and Latino teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of assaulting and raping a white woman in Manhattan, New York. After spending over a decade in prison, the group were released when a serial rapist, feeling sympathy for the group, confessed to having actually committed the crime."Five" was directed by Ken Burns, a somewhat overrated documentary director who specialises in safe, thin, lethargic movies about important topics. Burns does well to bring up a variety of weighty issues - police coercion, journalistic incompetence, endemic racism, failings of the law enforcement and judicial systems - but he's never able to delve below surfaces. His is always a sanitised view of history, and "Five" in particular is petrified of admitting that the Thin Blue Line has always been a repressive force, designed to maintain class hierarchies.Unsurprisingly, New York's Bloomberg administration would do its best to stop the release of "The Central Park Five", even going so far as to demand footage and interviews be blocked and/or investigated. Burns refused to cave in, though, citing New York State shield laws protecting journalists from compromising their sources. Currently, the United States has the largest prison population in the world. C. Ronald Huff, director of the Criminal Justice Research Center, estimates almost ten thousand wrongful convictions per year.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Murder On A Sunday Morning", "Punishment Park", "Paradise Lost" and "Capturing The Friedmans".