Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152740
could've been just as easily snatched up and put into a system that sees criminality in their skin. We visited the crime scene and pushed through the shrubbery down toward a little stream, now renovated with a jogging path, where Matias Reyes attacked Trisha Meili. It was solemn. It was sad. The research was endless. I had created photo reference books—a hundred-page book for the precinct alone. A book that had side-by-side images of Central Park, then and now. A book of just Harlem streets. A book for each child and their homes. A book on the crime scene. A master history book where what was worn entering the courtroom each day could be pinpointed. The protesters, the signs they were holding, the paths they walked. A book on Spofford Juvenile Detention Center Rikers. A book on everything, but the spiritual guide was the "feels" book—the energy of the people. The community deserved to be shown with true depth, respect and honesty. People were living rich lives despite a society that had left behind large swaths of its population. Areas of Harlem looked bombed out at the time, but human beings carved out areas embedded with love and respect in spite of the neglect by the city. With the boys, their diversity, individuality and the depth of their humanity needed to be shown. All their homes were constructed on a stage to give that control, no detail spared. It was so important to Ava, Bradford and I to show each of these boys intimately. Seeing the humidifier in the room that Mom brought in when the children were coughing. The plane ticket on the wall from when their dad E F G H I