Following the release of Netflix Ava Duvernay-directed limited series “When They See Us”, social media has been outraged with the details surrounding the case of the Central Park 5 and is calling for a boycott of the books released by prosecutor Linda Fairstein.
The explosive series shows the excruciating details of the Central Park Five case where a group of innocent teens was sent to serve time in New York state prisons for the rape and assault of the Central Park jogger in 1989. The truth of the boys’ innocence was revealed in the early 2000s. But following Ava’s revealing mini-series, social media is demanding book retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble to stop selling the mystery novels written by the CP5 prosecutor Linda Fairstein.
The series shows how, at the time of the case, Fairstein was utterly convinced of the guilt of the five Harlem boys, despite the complete lack of physical evidence that might tie them to the Trisha Meili assault. Now, three days after the series’ premiere, #CancelLindaFairstein is trending on social media. In addition to asking the book stores to remove her novels, her publishers, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House have also been called out.
The boycott started after many saw the fourth episode of “When They See Us,” where prosecutor Nancy Ryan (Famke Janssen) confronts Fairstein (Felicity Huffman) about the poor job her department did in the case. Ryan stacks the books Fairstein successfully published while the Central Park Five served six to 14 years in prison, to which she responds –– “Thanks for buying the books,”.
Fairstein stands by the initial verdicts despite serial rapist Mattias Ryes confessing to the crime in 2002 and the convictions against the five young men being vacated. Her bold wrong and strong attitude has Twitter calling for her cancellation with DuVernay herself weighing in on the brewing controversy.
“Linda Fairstein actually tried to negotiate. I don’t know if I’ve told anyone this, but she tried to negotiate conditions for her to speak with me, including approvals over the script,” DuVernay tells the Daily Beast. “So you know what my answer was to that — and we didn’t talk.”
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