Trump's DC occupation scratches an old itch: He's running the Central Park Five playbook on a massive scale

Trump’s DC occupation scratches an old itch
He's running the Central Park Five playbook on a massive scale

By Sabrina Haake
Contributing Writer
Published August 17, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) In 1989, Donald Trump purchased full-page ads in four New York newspapers, including the New York Times, calling for the return of the death penalty after a white jogger was brutally attacked in Central Park. Five Black and Latino teens were arrested for the assault, and after confessions later determined to have been coerced by the police, they were convicted — even though there was no physical evidence linking any of them to the crime.

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After the case was finally solved, it became symbolic for systemic injustice, police brutality and racial profiling. Trump never apologized to the five men, and he has never acknowledged what would have happened to them had his death penalty campaign succeeded. In October 2024, they filed suit against Trump for allegedly defaming them in his presidential debate against then-Vice President Kamala Harris, and in late June, a federal judge rejected the president’s efforts to have the case dismissed.

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Trump once again used inaccurate claims to portray a city overwhelmed with soaring violence when he announced on Monday that he was deploying 800 members of the D.C. National Guard and taking over the Metropolitan Police Department to rein in “complete and total lawlessness.” His misleading charts, which featured selectively outdated crime statistics, were so patently wrong that he was fact-checked live by CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR and the BBC. Even the Justice Department’s data shows that violent crime in Washington is at a 30-year low.

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The president’s addiction to hate and division, promoted through blatant and unabashed falsehoods, has persisted since the days of the attack in Central Park. When then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch called for public healing, seeking to unite rather than divide the city, Trump refused to have it. His ad shot back: “Maybe hate is what we need…I want to hate these muggers and murderers…They should be forced to suffer…Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will.” ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/17/trumps-dc-occupation-scratches-an-old-itch/