Race plays a huge role in these two cases. People who were prosecuted, are different races. For Glen Ridge Rape case, 3 White teenagers were convicted for raping and assaulting 17 year old girl, who was mentally challenged. The girl had an "I.Q of 64, according to the prosecution, and reading comprehension of an 8-year-old" (14). But at the end of the trial, none of the defendants had to serve the maximum sentence of prison. For the rape case in Central Park, it was 4 African American and 1 Hispanic teenagers. They did not commit any kind of assault or rape to the jogger unlike the teenagers from Glen Ridge. However, at the end of the trial, they were found guilty even though the DNA evidence did not match the defendants. They all received the sentences in prison.
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Why are these two cases so important?
Indeed, the cases involve the harmless, fragile female as the victims, but we also see the fragility in people of color. In Central Park Jogger Rape case, the 5 teenagers were only prosecuted because of their presence in the park that night. During this time of the year, the term "wilding" was very popular (15). Wilding means "randomly attacking anyone they found" (15). So police believed that these 5 teenagers were wilding and did this horrible damage to Trisha Meili, the jogger even though there were no clear evidences that they did it. However, there were clear evidences in Glen Ridge Rape case. Besides the evidences, the victim was mentally challenged girl who was able to comprehend at the level of 8 year old. But the case was prolonged and finally, when the teenagers are in their mid-20s, they were sent to prison. Plus, they did not have to finish the terms. It is said that blacks are 72 percent more likely to be pulled over by police than white drivers. Although, this statistic does not match with the cases, it shows the connection (16). Not only this statistic, but there are more such as "in New York City, 80 percent of the stops made were blacks and Latinos, and 85 percent of those people were frisked, compared to a mere 8 percent of the white people stopped" (16). It is clear that people of color do not live under the same environment with the White people.
There was this disturbing fact that I found in the Internet that said, "Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers, leading to higher number of youth of color incarcerated. Black and Hispanic students represent more than 70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement. Currently, African Americans make up two-fifths and Hispanics one fifth of confined youth today" (17). This can pretty much summarize the two cases. In Glen Ridge rape case, there were about 13 White teenagers who were in the basement to rape the girl, but only three of them were caught. But in Central Park Jogger case, African American and Hispanic teenagers who did not cause any assault were put into prison. Four of them had finished their sentences completely. So what can we learn from these two cases. First, people have to be aware that the race plays a huge role. For that reason, people need to fight and support for anti-racism. Whether you are people of color or White, they should both help each other to seek justice in the country.
Created by: Jung H. Lee
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