“I don’t want to ‘Central Park Five’ these boys,” said A.T. Mitchel, founder of Man UP! Inc. community group. “This story does not add up. The community has to be careful not to rush to judgement.”
The outrageous case of an alleged rape in a Brownsville park continues to be fluid and is evolving by the minute. Word on the street and in some media is that there may not have been an actual rape, but consensual sex, with disturbing undertones and overtones.
Although there was a condemned two-day delay in notifying the public, this past Sunday the NYPD announced a horrific rape, allegedly by five youths, in a Brownsville, Brooklyn park, on the previous Thursday night.
The police department stated, “On Thursday, January 7, 2016, at 2110 hours, the victim, an 18-year-old female, was with her father inside Osborne park … when they were approached by five Black males, one of whom was armed with a gun. The male with the gun pointed it at them and told the father to leave the area. The father complied, and each one of the five suspects raped the victim. The father returned a short time later with two uniformed police officers, and the suspects fled the location. The victim was removed to Kings County Hospital where she was treated and released.”
Sunday, cops released a grainy surveillance video of the five males in a bodega before the alleged rape.
Because of the 14- to 17-year-old ages of the suspects, even though they are charged as adults and the NYPD has released their names, the Amsterdam News has chosen not to publish their names.
All the teens are local to the neighborhood. A 14 year old, two 15 year olds and a 17 year old were hit with rape, forcible compulsion, two counts of criminal sex act and sex abuse charges.
As community pressure mounted, within 24 hours two suspects were turned in by their mothers, and two others walked into the 73rd Precinct. Tuesday, the 17-year-old fifth suspect was taken into custody at Samuel J. Tilden High School.
“Our community is outraged regarding the alleged rape which occurred last week,” said Inez Barron, City Council Member for that part of Brownsville. “We are looking to have a full disclosure of the events as the case unfolds. Also, we are very disturbed by what appears to be an unreasonable delay by the NYPD in notifying the community that a crime of this magnitude had been reported to them. Neither my staff nor I received any notification that this major crime had occurred, even thought it was within the confines of my Council district. This is unacceptable. Local residents within two blocks of the Osborne Playground have told me that NYPD did not canvas the residents as to whether they had seen or heard anything regarding this crime. Certainly our entire community was at risk while these alleged assailants were at large. I have arranged a meeting with representatives of NYPD and local elected officials of East York and Brownsville to address this matter. We will examine whether the correct protocols were followed within the appropriate timeframe in this instance.”
Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton acknowledge that the delay was an unacceptable error.
The Amsterdam News asked the police department for a statement about a video that they have said proves the case against the teens. They did not respond to the request for comment.
Kenneth Montgomery is the attorney for the 14-year-old boy. Wednesday, he told the Amsterdam News, “I think the D.A.’s office is really trying to figure out what they actually have. My client is not accused of any sexual contact at all, and all the I.D. procedures were a ‘no hit’ for all of them. It sounds like the DA.’s office needs to investigate what is going on with the complainant and her father. This is a horrible situation.”
The lawyer added, “The video seems to shows someone who wasn’t forced. Her demeanor is something that the DA’s office might want to look at before they decide to go forward.”
D.A. Thompson’s office did not respond to an AmNews request for comment by press time.
A published report revealed that two of the youths stated that they had consensual sex with the seemingly inebriated young woman, after seeing her father first having intercourse with her. The same New York tabloid added that one of the teens recorded video of the 18-year-old woman grinning with her pants down and her father standing close by.
Community members told the Amsterdam News Monday of the rumor that when the boys came across the father and daughter in the park already engaged in a sex act, one of the teens asked if they, too, could participate.With consent given, the story goes, two of them did just that. The father, swaying and possibly intoxicated, went off down the block.
The police department maintains as of press time that the teens happened upon the father and daughter drinking in in the park, brandished a gun, chased off the father and all five raped the daughter.
The father walked to two delis, demanded to use a phone without stating why and was consequently refused both times. He eventually came upon a police cruiser and said he had been chased out of the park, leaving his daughter with the five youths. No gun has been recovered. A family member of one of the accused told the press that the video proves that the whole story “is a lie … she was in the park [having sex with] her father.”
The mother of one of the suspects told the press that the alleged victim “was laughing, and they walked up on her like that … She was out there having sex with the man that said he was her father.”
Thompson’s office stated that none of the accused were identified by the alleged victim, but after appearing in Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday night, four of them were remanded on bail set between $10,000 and $50,000.
Lawyers Montgomery and Spencer Leeds called the case weak—Montgomery stating that his client had not even been accused of sexual contact and Leeds saying that the rush to judgement was politically motivated, acquiescing to a public furor to make arrests in what was thought to be a heinous assault.
Activist Mitchell concluded, “Once again I reiterate the fact the importance of not rushing to judgement in this case until more of the facts are unveiled. We must be careful to not ‘Central Park 5’ these adolescent young men. They should not be victimized by the media nor the public until they are proven guilty of wrong doing. Right now, that is obviously the case when you hear of some video evidence that may reflect something other than forcible rape. All the facts are not in yet. People have been presumed guilty already, but we must be careful. We have to give the benefit of the doubt. These young men are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.”
Montgomery told the paper, “It is horrible that the police department released the names of these alleged suspects, and that the mainstream newspapers make no effort to conceal their identity because they are teenagers. This is only happening because they are young Black teens.”
Asked further as to why the names and addresses were sent to the media just before or just as four of these minors appeared in court, during this ongoing investigation, the police press department responded, “The names were released to the media because they were charged as juvenile offenders. When charged as a juvenile offender, your name can be released.”
Brooklyn Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo called a press conference Monday at City Hall. “These young men between the ages of 14 and 17 could have had their whole lives ahead of them,” she said. “But now their lives and the lives of their families are destroyed.”
Joy Simmons, deputy chief of staff for Brooklyn Councilwoman Inez Barron explained the city’s response should not be based on “emotionalism.” “It hinders our capacity to solve massive problems,” Simmons said. “People scream ‘Oh, this is horrible!’ but we keep having conferences and we vent and we scream, but there’s not enough focus on the right kind of action.”
Mitchell agreed. “They have to be given due process,” he said. “The case, though, sheds light on a number of burgeoning issues, such as the situations facing our young people, father-daughter relations and the community response to these types of crimes.
“We already know our young people need lot a lot of attention to prevent these type of incidents. When we first heard the story, a lot of men are questioning how a father could leave his daughter in the park at this time of night with a group of armed kids. But, no one would know what they would do in that type of situation. But then, it does speak to the fact that we are supposed to protect our women and children. When Prince Joshua Avitto was killed in the elevator in 2014, the community immediately mobilized to identify the killer. We have to protect and police ourselves. We have to have street justice. When our community responds that way by Monday, we had four of the five suspects turned themselves in. That would not have happened unless for the swift community response. The pressure that is put on out there is necessary and valuable. Whenever anything happens involving our young people, women and children, whom we hold in high regard, the community is going to get involved. We love our mothers, grandmothers and daughters, and if anything vicious happens to them our community responds.
“Street justice has it’s place where we will cough up our scum. Sometimes we may have to make strong moves on individuals to do the right thing. In this particular case, no doubt the people who know what happened will hopefully unveil the truth.”
