Research paper
Ashai Pierce
C.Colvin
Humanities
July 8, 2019
When they see us
Miranda Rights states that “you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in court” was involuntarily waved unlawfully for the five central park boys. In the central park jogger case, five young African American teenage boys were convicted of brutal rape and the beating of a white woman on a night jog. The boys were in the park playing and wrongfully convicted and sentenced to several years in young detention centers even prison at just fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years old. A former prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, would stop at nothing to convict a black young boy in the park that night. She went against her own oath to protect and to serve. Morally this conviction was all wrong. She did not do the right thing when it came to find the truth about what happened to the woman. She was immoral during the entire investigation. Telling her police and staff to coerce the boy into saying they were the ones who raped this woman. To take these families through this horrific experience and to not even care that you are ruining lives is unethical. From the rational choice perspective, we can understand her actions which should be of self-interest. The bases of her morality are self, which contradicts my belief in what morality is. Using her power to send innocent young men to prison to make herself look heroic is immoral and unjust.
Involuntary confessions, interviewing a minor without a parent present, and refusing Miranda rights are all immoral acts. The institutional theory is based around formal governmental organizations like the Police. In the series, the Police as an institution had a job to do, which was to investigate. Their lack of strong morality and courage to do right cause them as an institution to act immorally. They beat them up, intimidated them to make them say exactly what they want to say, threatened their parents, and even lied to them about the other confessions. Many difference immoral experiences took place in When They See Us. When the police and prosecutor gave the boys the story to say accusing each other of the rape, those boys would say anything to just be with their family again. The police held these boys without food, water, parents present, or even sleep which is inhuman. Telling the minors, they will go home if they just say they was at the rape is also unlawful convictions and is against the law.
The culture that people come from has played an important part in shaping any society. Culture is of vital importance since it assists in the way people live and articulating the manner in which information among people is administered. Miscommunication often arises due to the differences in cultures that exist that leads to people misunderstanding of other cultural contexts (koyuncu 2019). During this investigation cultural differences played a huge part. One child’s father was in the system and wasn’t educated enough to understand what these cops were really trying to do to his son. He allowed his fear of the unknown to alter his ability to understand that what they was asking of his son wasn’t right. That his morals went out the window when his job was threatened. How one more knew exactly what was going on was wrong and how she walked in the jail where her son had been for over 18 hours without her. Culturally the police knew these young black boys were too young and that their families were not as fortunate to have the legal representation needed to fight this kind of case.
Linda Fairsten was the mastermind behind this whole conviction. She was the sex crimes prosecutor for more than twenty-five years and she wanted to prove a point. Even her assistant questioned her time and time again about how morally this conviction was not right and how the details of the night didn’t add up. How those boys were innocent, but regardless of that she was going to make these boys serve time for this crime. Throughout this process these boys were treated unfairly and unjust. This series shows how morality was none existent and how it was thrown out the window with powerful intentions.
Work cited
Koyuncu, Ayse Gozde. “How Cultural Differences Influence Conflict Within an Organization: A
Case Study of Near East University”. International Journal of Organizational Leadership.
2019
When They See Us. Ava DuVerney. 2019