I love her coded language, referring to them as a "pack." Not a "group". But a "pack," like animals. It's the subtle wording that gives away people's true mindsets, and another example of the way bigots and racists subconsciously dehumanize minorities, especially black people. It's really fucking gross.
I watched the Ken Burns documentary after watching this series, and it's really worth watching because they concentrate on different things. This series goes really deep into the way the police beat confessions out of these kids and the trial and the hell the kids went through in jail, while the Ken Burns series really focuses more on the trial of public opinion and how the media was 100% as culpable in what happened to these kids. They briefly touch upon how big of a media circus this was in the netflix series, but the Ken Burns series makes it seem like a media circus on par with, say, OJ Simpson. They have these clips with then-mayor Ed Koch going on record saying that it was a shame that we had to use terms like "Alleged" and "suspects" because everyone knew they were guilty, and talking about how the trial itself was a test to see if the court systems worked (with the implication being that if they weren't found guilty, people should riot).
Anywho, before the kids were called "The central park five," the media called them "the wolfpack." Literally the term for a group of animals. The media was relentless in how they demonized the kids. For example, it's protocol that for suspects under the age of 15, newspapers aren't supposed to print their names. But literally every media outlet ignored that rule for this case, and published their names fully, while hiding the name of the victim. The media not only published the names of these kids, but they basically doxxed them - publishing their names, their pictures, their addresses, the names and pictures of their parents and brothers and sisters, etc. Again, this is extremely against the rules when the case involves minors.
The worst of it all, that the ken burns documentary highlights, is the drastically different response between the coverage of the trial, and the coverage of their exoneration. When they were """"guilty"""" before the trial, it was relentless, near 24/7 coverage of them, "the trial of the century." When the DA found that the sock didn't have DNA that matched, they literally couldn't admit defeat, because this was a country-wide trial now. Everybody in the nation was watching. But when they were free? Not even a fraction of the coverage. Just small blurbs in 3 paragraph articles buried deep within the papers. No front page news. No round the clock coverage. It was hush hush. In fact, the furvor over this netflix series is the biggest public outcry so far, the most indepth coverage of what happened since they were released, and that's a fucking shame. And even more so -- the series isn't getting 1/1000th the attention it deserves. This should be an event that destroys our confidence in our justice system for good, something that should cause riots. ESPECIALLY with all the blue lives matter bullshit. Instead, nobody is paying attention. Again.
I think about the things I've done in my life from age 15-25, and it breaks my heart for those men. The things I was able to enjoy and experience and learn from. The people I met. The friends I made. Relationships I found. I'd have never gotten that had I been locked up jail. It's infuriating to think about what these men were robbed of by a corrupt, racist, deplorable judicial system and generational smearing campaign racists have waged against black America, to the point where racism and bigoted views against us are ingrained in our society like muscle fibers. Systemic and institutional racism is the backbone of this country. Disgusting.
The hispanic individual, Raymond, mentions this in the ken burns documentary. He says he's in his mid 30's, at a time when he should have a career, a wife, kids, and should be moving onto the second stage of his life, but he missed all his milestones in prison, and thus he's stuck. He never advances, he says he's still who he was emotionally at 14. He said he misses the most his relationship with his dad. It's not that they don't get along, but he says from age 14 onward till you become a man, that's when your father imparts morals and values onto you and molds you into an individual, and he didn't get that. He was shaped by the system. He said the saddest thing is that when he has a problem in life, he doesn't go to his father and ask "how do I get through this, how do I grow?" But rather he goes into fight or flight mode and thinks back to how he survived prison.
