If it were so easy! That all of USA's jurisprudence always reflect the prejudices, especially of racism towards the blacks.
On the night in question, this gang of black youths went on a wild spree of mayhem in Central Park. Each pointed to other to mainly escape from trial due to the mayhem. Yes, the DNA of a voluntary admission of guilt by someone else later proved that they were not the culprits on the rape, but the circumstantial evidence was there to connect them to the rape. When you are in a bank stealing money, it is natuaral to suspect the theives for a missing piece of any valuable object from the bank.
The so called black leaders who infused racism to this case (Rev. Sharpton, the self styled black leader was in the forefront) and even paraded Ms. Tawana Bradley, whose claims of rape by a white man were later proved to be absolutely false.
While all these allegations / counter allegations were going on, a real tragedy also happened in Brooklyn. A poor black girl was savagely raped by a black man and despite pleas for help only one man, Mr. Donald Trump sent money.
This is the danger of seeing everything with a racist slant. Unfortunately ACLU and other organizations like that behave in the interests of the minority, with the agenda of pocketing the donations. Sensationalism helps.
I am giving two links here: The first one is a series of essays by the noted lawyer Alan Dershowitz who teaches law at Harvard. Please read about the above mentioned case there (pp490) and if you have time also read all the stories. Please note his comments about Mr. Kunstler. They portray a very balanced view of a non too perfect (but better than most) judicial system in America:
America on trial: inside the legal ... - Google Books
The second is the criminal profile of the USA. Please pay particulat attention to black on black crime and white on black crime. This shows you why the blacks represent themselves dispropotional to their population in american jails:
Bureau of Justice Statistics Homicide trends in the U.S.: Trends by race
Eliminating racism and prejudice is an educating process. If one attempts to do it with social reengineering policies (although policies treating every citizen as equal are necessary), it becomes a blunt instrument, damaging the society in a lot of places. India's quota system is one example.
Regards,
KRS
Our adversaries will surely like to define us that way. But I hope we can rise to the challenge.
If Kunstler is right then there is no hope. If we don't even realize our prejudices what is the chance of rising abve it. I think he was only urging us to dig deep, bring the lurking monster out, and vaquish him.
Here a little bit of history to understand what he was talking about. I am sure people who have lived in North America for a while will remember the events of that Spring of 1989 evening that came to be known as Central Park Jogger case. A 28 year old female jogger was brutally raped, beaten up and was left for dead. She survived.
Five black teenagers were arrested, charged, coerced to confess (which they later recanted), convicted, and thrown into prison. The nation sighed relief, satisfied that justice had been done.
There was one man who believed in their innocence and that was Kunstler. He tried his best to defend them, but he was willified. The newpapers screamed the five roamed the park like a pack of wolves looking for victim. The nation was in no mood to let these five wolves go. They are as guilty as the color of their skin was black. Kunstler's own two teenage daughters were upset with him for defending the five monsters.
Some 13 years later, confession from the actual perpetraor which was then corroberated with DNA evidence proved the innocence of the five wolves. By this time Kunstler, the only man in America who believed the five, was dead for about 6 or 7 years.
We need to first face our deeply burried prejudices headon. Otherwise, there is no hope of redemption. Each of us must do some introspection, why is the so called brahminism reviled by almost everyone outside the brahmin fold? If all we can do is rationalize, then we have not faced our prejudices.