We love you, Rosie

We love the feud between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump, but we wonder why she hasn’t mentioned Trump’s full-page ad in the New York Times following the notorious Central Park Rape. For those who think the latest American Idol winner is old news, here’s a reminder: The Central Park Rape–or “wilding” as the unbiased NY press put it–took place on the night of April 19, 1989. A female investment banker, jogging through Central Park, was raped, beaten, and left to die. Five black and Puerto Rican teens were arrested, and after a long grilling by the police, four of them confessed. Whipping up the racist frenzy (and yes, it was about as stereotypically racist as a case could get–the woman was young, white, upwardly-mobile, and, in the public’s imagination, pretty; the boys were, well, black), was Donald Trump who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times and other papers.

Below is the ad:

“BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

“What has happened is the complete breakdown of life as we knew it.

“Many New York families … have had to give up the pleasure of a leisurely stroll in the park at dusk, the Saturday visit to the playground with their families, the bike ride at dawn – or just sitting on their stoops – given them up as hostages to a world ruled by the law of the streets, as roving bands of wild criminals roam our neighborhoods dispensing their own vicious brand of twisted hatred on whomever they encounter. At what point did we cross the line from the fine and noble pursuit of genuine civil liberties to the reckless and dangerously permissive atmosphere which allows criminals of every age to beat and rape a helpless woman and then laugh at her family’s anguish? And why do they laugh? They laugh because they know that soon, very soon, they will be returned to the streets to rape and maim and kill once again – and yet face no great personal risk to themselves.

“Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes … Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will … I am looking to punish them … I no longer want to understand their anger. I want them to understand our anger. I want them to be afraid.

“Let our politicians give back our police department’s power to keep us safe. Unshackle them from the constant chant of ‘police brutality’ which every petty criminal hurls immediately at an officer who has just risked his or her life to save another’s. We must cease our continuous pandering to the criminal population … send a message loud and clear to those who would murder our citizens and terrorize New York -

“BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY

AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

Trump’s wish came true. The ad inflamed the public’s rage, the boys were convicted and served prison sentences. Only they were innocent.

Lynell Hancock, in the Columbia Journalism Review, sums up the aftermath:

What re-opened the case and all its old wounds was another confession, this one backed up by DNA tests. Semen found inside the victim and on her sock had always been explained as belonging to a sixth mystery member of the young gang. It turned out to belong to a man named Matias Reyes, a thirty-one-year-old serial rapist. Reyes had a brutal record; he was infamous for gouging out the eyes of his victims.

In prison for a murder and a series of rapes, Reyes confessed in January 2002 to beating and raping the jogger in 1989, all alone. The kids, now young men who have all served their prison sentences, did not know him.

If Donald apologizes, says he was wrong, hires all five young men for The Apprentice, then maybe we’ll let him kiss our fat, hairy Jewish ass.