Democratic Convention 2024

C.J. Ciaramella | 8.23.2024 3:46 PM

Criminal justice reform and police accountability were once center-stage in Democratic politics, but four years after the massive protests of 2020, they've been replaced by more law enforcement—friendly rhetoric and quietly cut from the party platform.

At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which wrapped up in Chicago last night, one of the only major acknowledgments of criminal justice issues was an appearance by four of the five members of the Central Park Five—a group of black and Hispanic teenagers who were convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989 but who were cleared in 2002 by DNA evidence and the confession of another man.

Following the crime, Donald Trump took out full-page advertisements in four New York City newspapers calling for the Central Park Five to be executed, and the former president has refused to apologize for it in the years since they were exonerated.

"He called us animals. He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for our execution," one of the men, Korey Wise, said at the DNC. "We were innocent kids, but we served a total of 41 years in........

© Reason.com