Dispatches from Trump's America: Why I dislike Donald Trump - the Central Park Five
I suppose that many of my readers - especially those of you who disagree with me about politics - think that I'm just a liberal Democratic voter who's sore because Hillary Clinton lost and The Donald won. Oh, if it were only that simple. Well, it's not.
First, as I may have said in other posts that I've written about Mr. Trump, I have never registered to vote as either a Republican or a Democrat. Ever since I received my voter's registration card in February of 1984, the letters NPA appear next to where it says "Party Affiliation." I've never voted straight-ticket for candidates of either side; I've always been proud of my philosophy of voting on issues, not political parties. As a result, I've voted for politicians from both sides of the aisle.
As I've grown older, I have discovered that my values and political beliefs tend to lean more toward the Democratic Party than to the GOP. I'm liberal as far as social issues are concerned, but conservative on foreign policy and national defense. (The best comparison to see what my political tenets are is this: if I could choose any President to represent my values, it would be Franklin D. Roosevelt.)
So...no, folks. Even though I disagree with all of his policies and actions so far, my dislike of Mr. Trump isn't merely about politics. It's about the man himself.
Take, for instance, his personal crusade to tar the "Central Park Five" as guilty of committing a heinous crime (the rape of a jogger in New York's Central Park) even after they were exonerated - via DNA evidence -- in a court of law.
Per CNN:
In 1989, after five teenagers were arrested for the rape of a woman in Central Park, Donald Trump took out an ad in The New York Times calling for the death penalty. The men were convicted, but later exonerated.
And according to a 2016 article by NBC News writer Benjy Sarlin, Mr. Trump continues to insist that the five men are guilty to this day.
Wading into a racially-charged case from his past, Donald Trump indicated that the "Central Park Five" were guilty, despite being officially exonerated by DNA evidence decades after a notorious 1989 rape case.
"They admitted they were guilty," Trump said to CNN in a statement.
"The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same."
The five men were convicted as teenagers after implicating each other under intense questioning over a brutal sexual assault on a jogger that dominated the tabloids. Defenders said they were coerced into confessing and all five were later cleared by DNA evidence and a separate confession in 2002 from another criminal who took credit for the assault.
How, I ask you, can I respect, much even like, a man who never acknowledges that he made a mistake, that he made it his mission in life to have five innocent men executed, and refuses to apologize to them for his public accusations? I mean, honestly now. If the state of New York can admit that there was a miscarriage of justice and pay $41 million in restitution for the wrongful conviction, why can't the President of the United States apologize to Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise?
As a Hillary Clinton's campaign statement cited by NBC puts it:
"The facts here are clear: These men were exonerated. Another man has admitted to committing the crime, as proven by DNA evidence," the campaign said in a statement. "Trump rushed to judgment on the case, has refused to admit he is wrong and continues to peddle yet another racist lie, a pattern for him and a clear reason why he is unfit to be president."
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2016/10/07/trump-1989-central-park-five-interview-cnnmoney.cnnmoney
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-says-central-park-five-are-guilty-despite-dna-n661941
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