A brief (5 pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman Font, 1-inch margins) paper linking concepts from the class, specifically from M.P. Baumgartner’s Social Organization of Law to the movie Central Park Five.
. I expect a minimum of 2 scenes from CP5 per concept from Baumgartner. I expect you to define each concept from Baumgartner and explain why your scenes highlight the concepts you are using them for, and I expect you to take one of the concepts and argue it explains what we see in the movie better than the other 2, and show why.

Here is Baumgartner‘s concept Culture, Social Organization, Morphology, Stratification: the concepts explained with central park 5 event. Here is Central park five biography who they are. For the whole movie you have to buy it in the youtube linked below. I’m including the money to the paing price. The movie price is 2.99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUfwUgRwKq4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Central_Park_Five

Baumgartner’s concepts

Culture: What we believe to be right, true or beautiful

• Media and tabloids – framework that they used for headlines –“wolfpack”, “wilding”, “savage”, “thugs”
• Donald Trump taking an ad to bring back death penalty and bring back police
• DNA did not lead to the boys (race as culture) – culture as social similarity
• Where the trial was held – Midtown Manhattan (who the jurors were – more white, richer) – jurors related to the victim more than they did to the boys
• Where crime took place (Central Park) – murder happened in Bed-Stuy that didn’t get as much attention — “Central Park was sacred/holy” (Koch quote)
• Media labeling NY as capital of racial violence
• Public feared young Black teenage boys because of media images; community turned against the boys
• Victim was a white woman; Bed-Stuy murder was intra-racial; CP5 was interracial

Social Organization – the degree to which people work together in support of a common goal

• How police coerced confessions
• Media forced police to be more aggressive in their questioning
• Lawyer difference – Yusuf’s lawyer fell asleep, was a divorce lawyer, other boys had public defenders
• Public defenders defense: My guy didn’t do it, but the others did.
• State: Here’s one crime, all of the 5 were involved.
• Media helped the victim
• Police separated boys from parents, used parents’ disabilities against the boys
• Creating the narrative of the 6th perpetrator because DNA didn’t match any of the 5
• Police controlling narrative/timeline
• Bringing in homicide (bringing in the best)
• Got victim to testify even though she didn’t remember the event
• Police drawing link between previous crimes and this
• Protests – people coming together on behalf of the boys
• Police and DA took advantage of the situation to advance their own careers
• “Your friend can come with us” (Korey Wise)
• Jury deliberating for 10 days
• Location of crime affecting media coverage
• Detective worked CP5 and Reyes case, ignored DNA
• DA working the investigation with police
• Even after exoneration, media brought back what police said – people didn’t want to believe the evidence
• No sign of remorse during parole (police working against them)

Morphology: how well integrated is someone is

• Jogger’s friends and family knew her jogging route
• Victim was 28 year old wealthy white woman, police focused on her case over others
• Protesters said focus on the victim’s boyfriend, police ignored that
• Santana said he was new to community (moved from Harlem to Bronx) – felt culture shock – means he wasn’t well integrated
• Wise’s friendship with Salaam as a form of integration that hurt them
• Wise was an outsider (delinquent acts
• Victim more integrated into community through taxes (financial investment)

Stratification – inequality in terms of wealth, power, and status

• NY divided into 2 classes (upper and lower)
• Drug wars – focused on heavily Black areas – which is where the boys were from
• Meili (victim)’s dad was a senior manager at Westinghouse
• Difference in age between the CP5 and the victim
• Status difference between boys and victim (victim portrayed as a hero/angel)
• Confessions made more real because they came from a lower social status
• Victim and the 5 were strangers – the boys “weren’t supposed to be” at Central Park
• Police didn’t hide the boys’ faces from the cameras
• Boys’ families didn’t know their rights
• Boys and families came from lower income, so couldn’t pay for better private criminal defense attorneys
• Boys were labeled as a danger to society, so prosecution went unquestioned due to Black people being labeled as “an endangered species”
• Manhattan homicide took over investigation from Central Park precinct – higher status detectives
• Security difference compared to prosecutors and the boys
• 6 murders a day, but this case was different
• Victim’s status as a White woman, the 5 were Black boys (adolescents); law enforcement acted with urgency
• Dominant social message was that no one cared if these kids (or Black/Brown kids in general) lived or died
• Police creating timeline of the crime despite having it wrong
• Boys interrogated 14-30 hours
• Social class + labeling meant police didn’t look for evidence, relied on the confessions
• Family dynamics – mothers came to the boys’ defenses, fathers didn’t