Back on Trump's involvement in the Central Park Five case in 1989

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Despite its filming in the 1980s, the specter of current politics hovers over the miniseries of Netflix in Central Park.

"They have to avoid watching TV in the air, that's what they have to do," says his mother, Sharon Salaam (Aunjanue Ellis), during an interview with the future president Donald Trump, in which he states to Bryant Gumbel, of NBC, that he would like to be a well-educated black. "

"Do not worry about that," her friend replies. "His 15 minutes (are) almost up."

This is a strangely cautious exchange that will certainly spark conversation among viewers of Ava DuVernay's new four-episode drama, streaming, which follows a group of black and Hispanic teenagers who have been convicted (and then exonerated) in connection with the rape of the Trisha jogger in 1989. Meili, a 28-year-old white investment banker.

At the time of the brutal onslaught, Trump was a big nabob of real estate in New York who wanted to crack down on crime. Although no DNA evidence has linked the attack to boys aged 14 to 16, this has not prevented Trump from spending $ 85,000 on advertising. 39, a page in four newspapers in the city, demanding their execution.

"Bring back the death penalty. Bring back our police," read the alarming announcements, which Trump has accompanied with an article in the first person. "I want to hate these murderers and I will always do it.I do not seek to psychoanalyze or understand them, I seek to punish them."

The newspapers, along with Trump's news images, are featured throughout the second episode of "When They See Us", although DuVernay deliberately chose to keep his presence to a minimum.

"It was a big question for me to get into the subject," she says. "There is a world in which I cast an actor in the role of (Trump), but this story speaks of the accused boys who became exempt men, so the decision was to do it if necessary and let him speak for himself. himself through clips, which we use very wisely.I found that everything he had to say was not as fascinating and interesting to me as what men had to say. "

The boys – Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise – were cleared into adulthood in 2002 after being convicted of murder, Matias Reyes confessed to raping Meili, which was confirmed by DNA evidence. The city granted $ 41 million to men in 2014, but Trump continued to insist on their guilt and called the settlement "shameful" in an editorial for the New York Daily News.

Sharon Salaam (Aunjanue Ellis, left) and her son Yusef Salaam (Ethan Herisse), one of five young men known collectively as Central Park Five in "When They See Us". (Photo: Atsushi Nishijima / Netflix)

Given Trump DuVernay was not surprised by the story of racist talk, but he was not surprised that people have forgotten – or chose to ignore – his overzealous participation in the Central Park Five affair. .