In 1990, five New York youths were wrongfully convicted of the rape, assault and attempted murder of a jogger in Central Park. It later emerged that the police had manipulated them to obtain confessions that were false. In 2002 the serial rapist who had committed the crime was apprehended, his DNA matched that found on the victim and he confessed. The five young men, who had served over ten years in prison where some were brutalized, were released and the charges against them were vacated, but their lives were altered forever. The story of the Central Park Five has been dramatized in a new television series called ‘When They See Us’. It is on Netflix.

The next time someone tells you even the littlest white lie
Stop them and ask them please to reconsider: Why?
For this is the story of the Central Park Five
Who were forced to lie and nearly paid with their lives
 
Four young children, a young adult who wasn’t even there
Convicted of rape and murder in a manner most unfair
Hoodwinked by the cops, caught in their vicious snare
Condemned by a cruel city and a society that just didn’t care
 
A vile man even advertised that these five kids should die
He simply wouldn’t buy the truth that they were made to lie
That man is now our president - to him we turn a glass eye
Even though he’s committed crimes that he continues to deny
 
Bullied, cajoled, deceived by the law, five children took the fall
A justice this blind, this broken, should we call it justice at all?
When a young girl was raped and killed, on a whole nation it cast a pall
Five young innocents went to prison - no one bothered to answer their call

Five young humans faced the fearsome fury of a million naked apes
This is the heartbreaking story - of not one, but six gruesome rapes