Were they there when the crime happened? Did they say anything?
Yes, and no.
So they are guilty.
As far as I'm concerned, if you are part of a group, and you see people being raped, or assaulted, and you do nothing, you are 100% as guilty as they are.
First, there was no evidence they were there. Second, you are under no legal obligation to stop a crime or report a crime. Third, the evidence was clear the police railroaded these kids... which is why the City had to pay them millions when they were cleared.
And that isn't just something made up out of thin air. We used to believe that as a country, and if you were caught with horse thieves, then you were hanged with horse thieves. And rightly so.
We also used to burn witches and whip slaves, what's your ******* point, dummy.
That's why we had a country where everyone left their doors open, and people walked in the parks without fear. Now a girl can't even walk through a park, in the middle of one of the most wealthy cities in the world, and get slaughtered, no one says a word, and we can't do anything to them.
Which is exactly why we have to lock our doors, lock our cars, never go out after sunset, and live in fear.
Uh, guy, there was never a point where we didn't lock up our houses. If we live in fear, it's because the NRA and the Gun Industry has flooded our streets with guns.
So, no I don't give a crap about the central park 5... I think they were all guilty, and should have stayed in prison for life, as a warning to everyone that if you hang around rapists and murderers, you will get, and should get, the same penalty as rapists and murderers.
You see a women being stabbed... you should have called the police immediately, and reported the crime, and who did it.
If you don't..... you are guilty, and trash. And society is better off without you.
The woman in the CP5 case wasn't stabbed, and the five people who went to jail for it were nowhere near the incident. Ironically, the guy who DID do it couldn't be charged because by the time he was identified, the Statue of Limitations had expired. However, he was already serving life in prison because of other rapes and murders.
Now- IF the cops had done their job and not just tried to hang this on the first few random black kids they could bully into false confessions, MAYBE they'd have caught the right guy and he wouldn't have raped and murdered other people.