If there were ever some people who REALLY need to sue a certain former president, con man, liar, rapist, etc., it’s the Exonerated Five. You remember the Black and Latino teenagers — Antron McCray, then 15; Kevin Richardson 14, and no relation to the Backstreet Boy; Raymond Santana, 14; Korey Wise, 16; and Yusef Salaam, then 15 — who were wrongfully imprisoned in 1989 for between seven and 13 years, a total of 41 years between them, for an assault and rape that they did not commit. In 2002 a serial rapist named Matias Reyes confessed to the assault, and DNA from semen on the victim's body confirmed that it was him, and the five were, as their current moniker suggests, exonerated. But Trump has never quit claiming they were guilty anyway.
In 1989, Trump took out $85,000 worth of ads, in The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, and New York Newsday, calling for their executions.
“Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.”
Because Trump has always been the same vengeful, racist, bloodthirsty guy. That’s why his base of rubes loves him! Now the Exonerated Five have sued him, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, for his defamatory remarks about them during the presidential debate. The way he says “Black” is so creepy! It’s like the very word is distasteful. “Bleeiiiick.” Here’s the debate, cued up to that ignoble moment:
“This is the most divisive presidency in the history of our country. There's never been anything like it. They're destroying our country. And they come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we're not guilty.”
The teenagers did confess to the assault, during interrogations with no lawyers present, where they claim they were lied to, coerced and intimidated, and they recanted their statements within weeks. They were convicted, but they did not plead guilty. And they were exonerated, 22 years ago.
Still, Trump Tweeted about them in 2013, 11 years after they were exonerated, after a Ken Burns documentary came out about the case. “The Central Park Five documentary was a one sided piece of garbage that didn't explain the horrific crimes of these young men while in park.”
In 2014, after a 14-year court battle with the city of New York, the Five settled for $41 million. Trump ranted at the settlement, publishing an op-ed in the New York Daily News. “Settling doesn't mean innocence.” In 2016 he told CNN that he still thought they were guilty. And in 2019, he was still asserting that the then-teenagers had “admitted their guilt,” and expressed his belief that “the City should never have settled that case.”
The plaintiffs are now between 50 and 52 years old, and have spent the past decades putting their lives back together. Salaam is a New York City councilperson! Last month, in an incredibly moving appearance, they addressed the DNC.
And I’m going to drop Al Sharpton’s DNC speech here too, because it was an absolute scorcher that a lot of people missed, and it’ll fire you up!
The Rev. Sharpton is tucked behind an MSNBC desk most of the time these days, and it’s easy to forget that he’s one of the best orators maybe of all time. FIRE EMOJISSS!! WE WON’T GO BACK!! JOY COMES IN THE MORNING! JOY! JOY! JOY!!!
May they win a million gazillion dollars!
OT, but..
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇𝑉 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑜-𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 (1) 𝐷𝑒𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑠' 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 (2) ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒.
https://xcancel.com/mjs_DC/status/1848374186814620151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1848374186814620151%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
I hate him so much. One of the worst things about him (and they are legion) is how he is capable of reminding people just how much hate they are capable of. Not just the entirely reasonable and incandescent loathing he incites in regular people against himself, but the hate he gives license to from his cult members against anyone they consider “the other”, “the enemy within”. He is a cancer and as I saw mentioned brilliantly elsewhere (I wish I could take credit for it) waiting for the elections results is going to feel like waiting for biopsy results to come back.