The film is packed with topical material , from references to David Dinkin 's campaign to become the first African American mayor of New York , Tawana Brawley 's discredited claims of being raped by police officers , the murder of construction worker Michael Griffith at the hands of an Italian-American mob in Howard Beach and the death of graffiti-artist Michael Stewart who was apprehended by eleven policeman in a white transit van and choked to death ( the evidence of Stewart being strangled by the police was " lost " ) .