In this flashback from 2017, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam of the Central Park 5 spoke to VladTV about being implicated in “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s,” noting that they were still in their early teens when they were accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in Central Park in 1989. During the segment, Santana and Salaam describe the process by which the police used corrupt methods to obtain their supposed confessions, while noting that the prosecution insisted on charging the five young men regardless of the actual evidence.
“This whole thing was so manufactured,” Salaam said about the infamous case, “this is something that they wanted us to be guilty of… They knew without a shadow of a doubt that the stories weren’t matching and they still went along with it.” Later on, Salaam notes that there should be an advocate in interrogation rooms to mediate between law enforcement and potential suspects, as it would ensure that every individual was given their fair rights.
