“When They See Us”: Difficult but Essential Viewing

Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us is the poster child for difficult but essential viewing. It’s must-see TV where you’ll want to look away, but it’s imperative that you don’t. For over four straight grueling hours, this Netflix mini-series reconstructs the gross miscarriage of justice perpetrated against five innocent children and their families in the infamous Central Park jogger case from 1989.

In April of that year a white woman, Trisha Meili (Alexandra Templer), was viciously raped and beaten while going on a run through Central Park. At the other end of the park, that same night, a large group of black male teenagers were taken into custody for being a public nuisance. In one hasty assumption after another, sex crimes officer, and now best-selling author, Linda Fairstein (Felicity Huffman) is soon holding these culprits of horseplay as suspects for rape and attempted murder.

The first image of violence against a young boy comes as a shock when a police officer slams his helmet across the face of Kevin Richardson (Assante Black), a child of just 14 years old, still on the shy side of puberty. But soon the brutality becomes procedural as interrogating police officers abuse and coerce these minors into providing false confessions. It is a sickening sight. Step by step, these officers rehearse the rape’s graphic details with the…