Remember the Central Park Five?

Remember the fear and outrage among the good white folk? Remember the term "wilding"?

A $41 million settlement for five men whose convictions in the 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned, was made final on Friday, with the deal including unusual language that sought to absolve New York City from blame.

The agreement, which awards the five black and Hispanic plaintiffs about $1 million for each year of their imprisonment, includes no admission of wrongdoing from the city; in fact, the city explicitly asserts that prosecutors and police detectives did nothing wrong at the time.

  NYT

We didn’t do anything wrong, but we’re going to pay you $41 million out of the goodness of our hearts.

“In the end, however, that is an issue that would ultimately be determined by a jury at trial,” Mr. Carter added, “absent a settlement of this litigation. We have determined that a resolution of this matter is in the best interests of the city.”

I’m sure you have.

The settlement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, arose from “a moral obligation to right this injustice.”

“This settlement is an act of justice for those five men that is long overdue,” he added.

I don’t think you can call it justice. You might call it compensation, but not justice. Justice was denied years ago.

Four of the men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr. — spent about seven years in prison and each will receive $7.125 million under terms of the deal. The fifth man, Kharey Wise, who served about 13 years, will receive $12,250,000.

In prison for something they did not do, having been tricked into false confessions at the ages of 14-16.

Coincidentally, I just recently watched a Ken Burns documentary on the Central Park 5. If you get a chance to watch it, I recommend it, and I think you’ll find that the prosecutors and police detectives did a number of things “wrong at the time. “

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.