As Donald Trump’s arrest in Georgia continues to headline world news and his mug shot circulates all corners of the web, MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid’s remarks on his jail booking are drawing some attention after she compared Trump’s demonization of the Central Park Five to his recent arrest in a full-circle moment on air.
Reid first recounted how she internalized the Central Park Five case when it emerged in New York during her teenage years, citing the fearmongering Trump weaponized to dehumanize the young Black boys who were wrongfully accused and arrested.
“I still remember he made five teenagers my age to take a mug shot. As a teenager living in New York, I despised Donald Trump because to me he signified the rich white guy in Manhattan that absolutely hated and despised me, my cousins, my friends,” Reid said on MSNBC as the network covered Trump’s surrender in Atlanta on Aug. 24. “People like Trump persecuted Black and brown people in New York. It’s what they did for fun, it’s what they did for pleasure.”
To be clear, the mug shots were taken by authorities. However, Trump did pay for a full-page newspaper ad calling for the group of teenage boys to face the death penalty. Decades later, they were exonerated for the crime.
Reid underscored the significance of documenting this arrest with a mug shot, a part of the booking process that wasn’t conducted when Trump was taken into custody for his other criminal cases.
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“To me, this is justice. The fact that Manhattan didn’t give him a mug shot, I thought was offensive. The feds said, ‘We already know what he looks like, he was the president of the United States.’ Okay, offensive,” Reid stated.
In response to Reid’s remarks, a user on X said she’s making Trump’s arrest about vengeance and claims that she neglects to address any legality in the matter.
However, several others wouldn’t stand for it and provided context for how they processed her comments.
“There are a lot of people who believe that he long ago should have been jailed, that his comeuppance is of his own making and deserved. This is actually a opinion based in facts,” someone wrote in response.
“Where’s the lie though? As someone who grew up in NYC in the 1980s, I can tell you these are stone cold facts,” another person commented.
“Have you noticed? Black people are not being “quiet” anymore. @JoyAnnReid said what she said,” someone else said.
“Joy very clearly meant justice in the sense of karma finally catching up with Trump. It was obvious to the sentient among us,” another X user wrote. “Not to mention: She reminded us all what Trump attempted to do to the Central Park Five, and you don’t even care.”
Now that Trump and his 18 co-conspirators in this racketeering case have all been arrested, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has started on the next step of the trial process — requesting a trial date. She filed a motion requesting that the trial start on Oct. 23. She has said previously that she plans to try all 19 defendants simultaneously.
