Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 6-4-19

White House And Political News
Trump Calls Meghan
Ava DuVernay On The Central Park Five Case And Why She Treated Trump As A ‘Footnote’
Markle ‘Nasty’ After Reports
She Refuses To Meet Him
It’s just disgusting,” sighs
Ava DuVernay.
The Oscar-nominated film- maker and TV showrunner is discussing the role of Presi- dent Donald Trump in the Central Park Five case, wherein five teenage boys of color—Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, and Raymond Santana—were falsely convicted of the 1989 rape and vicious assault of Tr- isha Meili, a white invest- ment banker, and subsequently spent up to 14 years in prison.
At the time Trump, then a PR-hungry NYC real estate baron who occasionally served as his own publicist, sensed an opportunity for some head- lines and inserted himself into the case, inflaming racial ten- sions with frequent comments to news programs along with newspaper ads, purchased for $85,000, calling the boys “crazed misfits” and urging the state of New York to “bring back to the death penalty,” es- sentially calling for their pre- trial execution. He concluded: “Maybe hate is what we need if we’re gonna get something done.”
Of course, after having their youth snatched from them
During State Visit
Once again, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, made a comment that has many people looking at him with a side eye. This time, he is sharing his thoughts on the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who he has dubbed “nasty.”
During an interview with the British newspaper, The Sun, Trump was questioned about the comments made by Markle ahead of his election in 2016. While on "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore,” Markle called Trump misog- ynistic and said his politics are divisive, and she would move to Canada if he won the presi- dency.
“It’s really the moment I go. We film Suits in Toronto and I might just stay in Canada,” she says.
She went on, “Yes, of course, Trump is divisive, think about female voters alone, right? I think it was in 2012 the Repub- lican Party lost the female vote by 12 points. That is a huge number and with as misogynis- tic as Trump is, and so vocal about it, that is a huge chunk of it.”
She added: “You’re not just voting for a woman if it’s Hillary (Clinton). Yes, you’re voting because she’s a woman, but certainly, because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s paint- ing.”
When asked about Markle’s past comments and his reac-
MEGHAN MARKLE
tion to the news that she would not be attending any events in his honor during his upcoming visit to the United Kingdom, Trump replied, "I didn't know that she was nasty.” Perhaps fearing backlash, he then wished the newlywed, and mother of newborn son, Archie, well. "I am sure she will go excellently (as a royal). She will be very good." No statement from Buckingham Palace about Trump’s com- ment, though the official rea- son for Markle sitting out his visit is that she’s still on mater- nity leave.
The U. S. President also spoke on his expected meeting with Prince Charles in the UK, in which they will discuss the rapidly changing climate.
"Well, we will be talking, we will be talking. I can say we have among the cleanest cli- mate in the world right now. Our air and water are doing very well," Trump said. “Up positively in two years and we hope others can do as well.”
Ava DuVernay and the ‘Central Park 5’, now the ‘Exonerated 5’.
through years in prison, the five men—whose confessions were coerced by police after 30 hours of interrogation—were exonerated for the crime in 2002 when Matias Reyes, a serial rapist, confessed to it, and DNA evidence taken from the victim confirmed it was him(toafactorof1in 6,000,000,000 people). The charges were completely va- cated and the five men were subsequently awarded $41 million from the city in 2014. The settlement prompted Trump to pen a Daily News op-ed railing against the settle- ment, claiming that he was still convinced of their guilt and
that “these young men do not exactly have the pasts of an- gels.”
When They See Us, DuVer- nay’s four-part Netflix series on the famous case, provides a riveting—and maddening— portrait of the five boys, chron- icling their lives from that fateful night in the park through their respective trou- bles reacclimating to society. And instead of focusing on Trump, who is relegated to a couple of news clips, it places the spotlight squarely on the boys whose lives were forever changed by an iniquitous sys- tem and a media all too ready to feed it.
Man Jumps On Stage And
Trump Pardoned Billionaire Conrad Black But Left His Prison Buddy Behind
Snatches Microphone From
As he watched CNN from inside the federal correctional complex in Coleman, Florida, Rufus Rochell couldn’t sup- press his joy at the news of Conrad Black. His old friend, the media tycoon with whom he shared a dorm years ago, had received a pardon from President Donald Trump. Surely this meant that his time would come soon.
Maintaining a level of opti- mism has been Rochell’s pri- mary objective for 31 years now. That’s how long he’s been behind bars. He’s the byprod- uct of a bygone era when being tough on crime was viewed as politically savvy, when a man like him—a convicted drug dealer—could receive a sen- tence of 40 years and no one would think twice about the human cost.
But that was then. Now Trump himself was waking up to the injustices in criminal sentencing and surely Conrad Black, a Trump buddy, would help right his wrong.
ten.”
Black was back in Canada,
where he was born and had built his business empire, when his pardon was an- nounced.
More than a decade ago, he had been found guilty of mail fraud and obstruction, charged with swindling his company of some $60 million. And in 2011, he had leaned on Rochell to help him secure early release by writing a letter attesting to his character.
Black’s sentence was ulti- mately shaved down on ac- count of good behavior. And in the seven years after he was sprung from Coleman, he had resumed his status as a mem- ber of the upper crust and a commentator on world affairs.
He became an outspoken critic of America’s criminal justice system, owing in large part to his own experience. He also was a very public Trump booster, writing a book titled: Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.
Kamala Harris As She
Discusses Gender Pay Gap
Sen. Kamala Harris (D- CA) was in the middle of dis- cussing the gender pay gap on stage at an event in San Fran- cisco on Saturday when a man jumped on stage and snatched the microphone from her to talk about a “much bigger idea.” In video of the incident at MoveOn’s Big Ideas Forum, the 2020 contender can be seen staring up in disbelief as the man approached her and grabbed the microphone.
Karine Jean-Pierre, an activist and the event’s co-host, jumped in to intervene before security even made it to the stage, repeatedly trying to grab the microphone back from the man and standing in between him and Harris. The man, who was later identified by a California-based animal rights
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS
group as an activist trying to call attention to issues sur- rounding animal rescues, was escorted off stage and out of the venue by security.
CONRAD BLACK
“This is your old and forever friend Rufus Rochell, sitting here in prison for the many of years,” he wrote Black the day after the pardon was an- nounced. “I saw on CNN today where the great president gave you a PARDON, that you truly and sincerely deserve. It could- n't have happen to a better per- son... you now can go on with the family and be the great man you are and continue your journey to fighting for others like myself and other deserving ones that many have forgot-
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