Official Trailer:
When They See Us Netflix series explores the human side of wrong conviction by justice system, suffering through jail term, not able to get a job and have a life after the release, and how the stigma continues to haunt them. Series is based on famous Central Park Five event that rocked USA in 1989. While the event happened in US, functioning of justice system, and social prejudices will easily make us connect since our systems and society are not that different. It is an emotionally draining and a rollercoaster ride, you experience tears, anger, hopelessness, and frustration.
Antron, Yusuf, Raymond, Kevin, and Korey, who came to be known as The Central Park Five, aged between 14-16 years got convicted for a heinous crime they didn’t commit. Even though there is no DNA match, no witnesses to place them in scene of crime, they get convicted based on coerced confessions. First episode focuses on the police procedure, how these boys go through traumatizing time in police stations as NYPD cops terrorize them to coerce confessions. Cops and the press make the conclusion they are the culprits based on their color, black and brown, and build a story around that conclusion. Presumed guilty even though the details of the event were not clear and no DNA match.
Second episode goes through the court drama. Even though we know the end verdict, we get to see how the punishment is given based on coerced confession even though it was clear from the arguments there is no clarity on events, location, and match.
Third and fourth episodes are the hard ones to watch, heart wrenching and heart breaking. It not only shows what they go through inside prison walls, but also what any person faces when they come out of prison. Rules are against them and they are setup for failure. As a former felon, they also face police pressure. While four of them go to juvenile prisons, Korey is put in regular prison. Fourth episode focuses on his struggle to survive as a kid in an adults’ prison. Be warned, there are many painful moments in these two episodes.
We get to see the actual criminal in the fourth episode. While these minors got arrested and terrorized by the NYPD cops, the real criminal walked out of the central park, his shirt drenched in blood and was free to commit some more crimes before he got arrested. But the cops never connected the central park crime with his MO and never bothered to ask that question. They were looking through the prism of color. Actual criminal confesses to the crime in 2002 and the DNA matched.
These five kids (now men) not only get exonerated but also win a lawsuit against the city of New York in 2014. While this is something to celebrate, that justice finally got served, the sad fact is justice system failed and continues to fail the poor and disadvantaged not just in US but in our country too. Towards the end we are left with the thought, not just how we see others and how we are seen, but also how we see ourselves.