WEBVTT - Boogeyman [1] 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.120 And at that time, man was just so. 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:07.000 Just to think back, like every that that was everybody 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:14.520 was scared. It was always be careful, you know, everywhere 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.760 y'all go go in groups, you know what I'm saying. 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.680 It was like everybody was scared, and definitely the people 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:22.160 from where we grew up, like like. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.599 Around from where we were from. Everybody over there. 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.720 Scared because that's where they was getting the kids from. 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.720 It it was crazy, man Like at that time, it 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:37.200 was like the Boogerman he because it's literally somebody going 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.840 around taking kids and they will finding them and telling 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:43.960 who they were, following them behind buildings. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.280 That was just our life. When you're living through something 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:53.040 like that, it's kind of like different. It was just 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.520 something we had to deal with. Watch for the Boogerman. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.640 My name is Camera. We are in the atl Atlanta, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.400 Georgia and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia born and Brett. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.560 And I'm Eric Cameron and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, also 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.360 West Side to be exact. Yep, he's the big brother, 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.000 that's the little brother. The area we're from is while 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:14.920 the kids most of the kids were getting missing from 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.039 So the area we're from the West side of Atlanta, like, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.720 so it was almost like you gotta be real, real careful, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.320 like can stay out, you always be with somebody. I 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.000 was real, real little so most times I was with 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.200 him anyway, my big brother. But man, that was that 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.559 was a real trying time because we couldn't hang out, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.800 like I mean, it's a lot different now, man, times 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:34.200 are different. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.240 Like back then everything was about going outside. 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.320 Everything was about going outside, like I mean, now everything's 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.600 about being inside playing on computers and games or whatever. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:47.240 But it was just a different time. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.280 They snatching kids, somebody somebody getting kids, so you stand 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.040 a better chance or not getting snatched if it's more. 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.160 Than one, Like if you're with somebody, it was just 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.920 like unthinkable, like who could who? Who could do this? 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:07.800 It's ten pm? 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:09.560 Do you know where your children are? 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:16.160 It's ten pm? 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:21.079 Do you know where your children are? I still remember that, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.239 like literally remember that. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.600 Talking about keeping your kids safe and what other things 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.000 you could do to keep them safe. And I still 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.440 remember that. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:35.960 That was that, you know, that was I wasn't at 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:36.519 Channel two. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.160 What time that was Monica Copper I think it was 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.240 on Channel two, and they would say that you know 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:43.720 where are your kids? 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.520 It's ten o'clock, do you know where your children are? 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:53.320 That statement became a nightly statement. I was Monica Kaufman. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.800 I'm now Monica Kaufman Pierson. I anchored the five to six, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.560 the eleven, and the four o'clock news at Channel two WSTV. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:02.960 It's the city's oldest television station. 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.560 People needed to know that they needed to keep an 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.519 eye on their boys, in particular because boys were being 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:18.399 literally picked up off the streets. So there was this 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:23.840 fear that unless you reminded people to ask, where's your child? 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.000 Do you know where your child is at this time? 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.600 At ten o'clock? Your child should be in your house. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.880 That people needed to be reminded. There was a monster 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.440 on the prial in Metro Atlanta. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.920 It was scary. It was very scary. 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:49.080 Ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three two one, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:59.200 and I happy in nineteen seventy nine. 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.440 The year is nineteen seventy nine. Jimmy Carter is our president. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.280 The Vietnam War ended just four years ago, and it's 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.760 been barely over a decade since the Civil Rights movement. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.400 My name is Payne Lindsay. I'm a documentary filmmaker. I 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.880 was born in nineteen eighty seven, and I'm from a 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:26.360 small town called Kinnessaul, northwest of Atlanta. In twenty sixteen, 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.400 I made a podcast called Up and Vanished, where I 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.000 spent nearly two years investigating an unsolved disappearance of a 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.920 high school teacher and beauty queen from South Georgia named 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.200 Tara Grinstead. Tara vanished from her home in two thousand 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.720 and five, and the case remained ice cold for more 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.360 than a decade. But six months after I started making 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:49.000 the podcast, something crazy happened. The police arrested two suspects 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.200 in connection with TERA's murder, and for the first time 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.360 in nearly twelve years, this small town community had some answers. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.320 Since then, I've been looking into other cold cases. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.440 What began as just an idea became something more like 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.200 an obsession. A few months ago, I was in my 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.040 office and my business partner Donald mentioned the case. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.880 I'd never heard of, the case of Atlanta's missing children. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.359 I started doing some research on my own time, reading 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.719 old articles and watching news clips, and what I found 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.920 was captivating, a twisted tale that's haunted Atlanta. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:26.640 For over three decades. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:28.120 As far as the. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.600 Documentary goes, I didn't really have a plan but I 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.919 just started talking to people and I made sure I 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:39.120 recorded everything. Okay, let's go back to nineteen seventy nine. 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:45.080 So you think about the late seventies, it's post nineteen 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.720 sixties soul and stacks and all that stuff. Now you're 0:05:48.760 --> 0:06:00.279 sliding into the disco era. This is an era where 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.080 cable is a new idea. Ted Turner hasn't even really 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.800 done his thing with CNN, That's what we're talking about. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.640 There was no twenty four hour news network or news 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.960 cycle at the beginning of this. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.880 This is nearly forty years ago now, so needless to say, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.920 in many ways things are very different. The first thing 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:20.720 I did was trying to soak in as much as 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.480 possible about this time period. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.279 This is Colinda Lee. I'm the vice president for Historical 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.480 Interpretation and Community Partnerships at the Atlanta History Center. So 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.720 certainly what you're looking at by the late seventies early 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.640 eighties is that first generation of African Americans who had 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:43.240 actually benefited from school desegregation, for example, at both a 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.760 secondary and collegiate level by then, right, So people who 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.279 were segregated maybe primary schools and still had those memories, 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:56.320 but were professionals by the early eighties, African Americans are 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.960 prospering to some degree, still definitely hard hit by the recession, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.680 but compared to the ways in which they had been 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:09.840 disadvantaged before, prospering to some degree, largely as a byproduct 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:11.040 of affirmative action. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.880 Calinda described a time of fear and helplessness. All around 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.160 her kids were gradually going missing one by one. To 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.440 kids her age, there was this idea there was a 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.000 real life boogeyman out there, in a sense that no 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.240 one was really trying to protect them. 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.440 I was a child in Atlanta during that time. I 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.200 was a nine year old living in Atlanta in the 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.720 Fourth Ward, which was one of the areas from which 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.800 children were taken, and I remember as a child the 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.360 whispers and chatter among children. If you can imagine this 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.200 real life boogeyman is actually out there, this is really happening. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.800 There was a child who went to summer camp with 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:55.880 me who was one of the children who was abducted. 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:01.240 And there wasn't a sense that anything very serious was 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:06.080 happening to protect us. There wasn't a sense that anything 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.720 about our daily lives was really changing much except that 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.960 we were very afraid, and our parents were very angry. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.280 Every single one of them was not only black, they 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.240 were also poor. The neighborhoods from which they were taken 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:28.160 were the most vulnerable, most impoverished within the city. Many 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.679 of them came from public housing projects, and so all 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:38.920 of that definitely conspired to make folks feel like this 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.320 is something that is happening to the least of us, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:49.440 and nobody cares. Atlanta is ashamed of this, I think 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:50.920 continues to be ashamed of this. 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:51.920 It is not. 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:57.280 Something that people really candidly talk about in the open 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.920 very much. I think that it's interesting that there's a 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.640 way in which I think Atlanta remains ashamed of the 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.800 racial bifurcation. That this really shows up when you talk 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.800 to people about their memories of this time. There's a 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.760 really distinct gap. I do a lot of oral history. 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.640 There's a really distinct gap between white at Lantin's and 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.560 Black at Lantins. I think that it's about a sense, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:28.720 a profound sense of separate realities and separate societies. It's 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.839 startling to me, as a person who again as a child, 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.840 lived here, to talk to people who are my contemporaries 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:42.800 who were living in other neighborhoods living in majority neighborhoods, 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:49.040 who didn't have a sense of that urgency at all, 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.680 who didn't have a sense of that vulnerability at all, 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:57.599 who didn't even know that it was happening at all. 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.640 I think it's impossible to dissi entangle the race and 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.319 class issues. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.720 I think if the world was designed with all blacks, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.400 we might be pressud of the one that's too short, 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:16.640 the one that might be too tall, the one that's 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.880 ball And I think the same difference if it was 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.880 all whites would be the same thing. I think it's 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:29.440 just a human illness that we have, and we as 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.600 a people never learned to solve it. It's crazy. Even 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.120 in Vietnam it was the same thing. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:39.679 This is Russell Boltazar. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.040 He's sixty nine years old currently living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.720 As a young adult in the late seventies, Russell remembers 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.200 this time period all too well. 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.200 When I left for the Marine Corps, I was seventeen 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.000 years old. They had to flies out secretly in the 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.439 middle of the morning and flies back in the middle 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.000 of the night. Yeah, that's how we used to leave 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.480 here at night. So most of the protesters wouldn't see 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:15.320 us leaving. We were so close together as a team, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.920 and what we were fought, we were bled red. We 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.160 ate together, slept together the whole nine yard. It did 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:25.840 make a difference. But when we flew back to the 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.560 state side and landed on the tarmac, we went back 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:42.520 all separate ways again. I was active duty in the 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.760 Marine Corps at the time, stationed at Campbell's Ure in 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:52.559 North Carolina. My father was living in Atlanta. Patrick, Diane, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.800 and Jacqueline are my three youngest brothers and sisters. They 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:03.440 got invited there doing this to Atlanta. They decided to 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:05.520 enroll in school there. 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.760 Even all the way in North Carolina, Russell remembers seeing 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.200 and hearing the news stories about Atlanta's missing children. With 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.400 his younger siblings having just moved to Atlanta, Russell fulk 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:17.480 concerned for their safety. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:19.439 So one day he called his father. 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.360 I asked him, do you think that it's wise that 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.160 those kids should be there? Maybe they need to be 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:33.160 back in Louisiana. And so he said, well, everything is 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.640 going to be okay. And you know, they were gonna 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.920 go ahead and put him in school and they're going 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:44.160 to be safe. I says well, I don't have a 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.240 good feeling about it, but you go ahead and hamle it. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.480 A few months later, his father called him out of 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:51.760 the blue. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:52.160 One day. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.959 He called me and he asked me, have you seen Patrick? 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.080 What do you mean? Have I seen Patrick? He's in 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.400 Atlanta and I'm in campus. You're in North Carolina and 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.240 he's eleven years old. I think he was just reaching 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.520 for straws, because now all of a sudden he's word, well, 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.480 you know, Patrick thinks a lot of you, and it 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.720 is a possibility maybe got a ticket, caught the bus 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:19.640 and went up there to see us. Says no, Dad, 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.280 I don't think that would have happened. That's kind of 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.920 odd for you to say that Patrick, young as he is, 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.440 will to try to find me in North Carolina, had 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.000 never been there before, to the base at all. I 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.600 was trying to locate me. I just felt that that 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.520 was something for eleven year old. The way we were raised, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:47.760 that Patrick was just I said, I got a bad 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:53.280 feeling you're not gonna find Patrick alive. And I made 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.560 him anger when I said that I have that feeling 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:08.240 that you're not gonna find me. A week later, the 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.760 following Friday, that's when we got a phone call that 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.360 they found him. 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.520 Who called you, my dad? 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:21.240 What do he said? 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:27.200 Said that they found him your brother dead. He was 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.480 stabbed several times. They claimed that he got beat with 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:40.760 a round object and strangled. And I told him, I says, well, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.720 I'm going to talk to my company commander and see 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.240 if I can come out there to be with you. 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:47.800 And that's what I did. 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.480 Saint Anthony's church was crowded with Patrick Baldassar's family, his friends, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.240 and classmates. The shock of his disappearance ten days ago 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.320 had barely sunk in when they learned Friday that his 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:17.359 body had been found. Patrick's fellow fifth grader sat quietly, attentively, 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.440 wondering why their friend had been taken from them. It 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.640 was to these youngsters that Father Patrick Bishop directed his remarks. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:25.960 He spoke of a good fear that teaches children to 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.920 avoid danger, and he spoke of a bad fear, terror 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:30.320 but can't be understood. 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:31.600 And he made a plea. 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.160 There are things in this life that are dangerous, things 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.240 that we need to protect ourselves from. You can't let 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.880 it change your way of believing about people. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.960 After the mass, Father John Adamski read a poem. Written 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.400 by Patrick's classmates. It ended with these words, there was. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:54.000 Not a word about how you died. It is no 0:15:54.160 --> 0:16:00.440 wonder that we all cried, Patrick, we miss you and 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:06.000 wish you knew how much your schoolmates agreed for you. 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.400 My mom's and daddy is from the little town of 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:41.320 Broughbridge and Cecilia, Louisiana, And this one particular gravesite has 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.680 my grandmother and my aunts and brothers, and the majority 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.840 of the family, my mother and the past, all of 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.880 us has always made a point whenever one of us 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.720 past made sure we went back to that same graveyard. 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.480 When I drove back to Atlanta to pick up his body, 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:05.880 I stayed there till the wake was over, what they 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.080 called as a memorial. Basically, once they closed the coffin, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.440 I talked to arrangement with the funeral director and they 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:18.840 flew the body here. I drove here and waited till 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.040 this body showed help. I made arrangement one of the 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.959 funeral directors here in a little town of Broughbridge. We 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.679 did the funeral services there and buried him there. I'm 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.720 gonna tell you a little something about that. Okay, during 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:37.760 that era, now we're still talking about the segregation, integration 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.240 going on, and everybody trying to get us to merge 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.960 together as black and white. Well, there in that town, 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.800 being in the South, there were two churches. These two churches. 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.720 One of the churches it is white. The other church 0:17:53.400 --> 0:18:01.320 it's black, same denomination of church. In between the two churches, 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.639 it is a cemetery, white Saberita to the front and 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.440 black Sabit to the black. The cemetery has always been 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.600 set up like that. When the hears showed up, it 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.720 showed up in the front door of the white church. 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:20.000 I'm standing at that particular church to me, church's church, 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.920 and no problem. They met us outside of that church 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.520 and told us that they couldn't do it. They couldn't 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.440 do his services in that church. And I went over 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.400 and talked to the minister about it. You will have 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:36.280 his funeral in that church. And this guy that was 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.280 driving the hearse got so angry because it was he 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.600 was a white driver. I think the rule was that 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.359 you do not take blacks in that church, and they 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.720 were and he was trying to hold faster. That didn't 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.960 want to bring him over to the white church to 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.560 get buried to do his service, and he was upset 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.840 because I was demanding for it to happen that way, 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.720 and he mashed on the gas, was kicking rocks, spinning 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:04.120 in a parking lot. If Patrick bought in the back 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.639 of the hurts, I was trying, I wouldn't trying to 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:12.200 make any problems for anybody. You told me no, why not, Well, 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.680 you couldn't tell me why you're gonna do a service here? 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.560 I might here raising hell for Patrick to get him 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.320 to be buried. They did his service in the church. 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.280 He's one of the first black kids that ever went 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.119 had a funeral in that church. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.120 It has proved to be the police department's most baffling problem. 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.560 Eight children kidnapped or killed in the last year. There 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.840 have been massive searches. Civic groups have tried to help out. 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.399 Parents of the children have gotten together to see what 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.840 they could do. Former police officers have donated their time 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.439 to the investigation. But still nothing. 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.600 And I remember I still remember parents organizing to stand 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.439 at the bus stop with the kids and wait for 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.560 them to safely be on the bus and that kind 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.760 so the anxiety that that produced. And remember this is 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.119 a time when we were we were free ranged children. 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.879 We were come home when the street lights came on children, 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:15.680 so that was a very big deal. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.960 I am so sorry that what happened to my child 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.480 and what happened to these other ladies' children happen. But 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.639 what I want you to do is to hang in 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.800 there and try your best to see to it that 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:32.320 it doesn't happen to yours. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.959 The mothers of missing and murdered children sat in at 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.639 city Hall to demand that a full investigation be launched. 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.760 So imagine the grief not just of losing your children, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.240 but then having to demand that there be full attention 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:47.680 to this. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.080 We are paying people to maintain the safety of the 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.000 streets of the city of Atlanta. If the safety of 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.000 the city of Atlanta is not maintained, then the people 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.119 that we are hiring to do that job need to 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.800 be looked at carefully. If that job is not done, 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.560 then we need to look towards why we are paying 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:08.400 people not to do a job. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.600 Part of this crowd agreed that some of the criticism 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.960 of the police was accurate. Tell them, explained there was 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.560 no attempt to show the city as insensitive. Just to 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.160 show how long it took Atlanta and the city administration 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.080 to become outraged. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:31.000 That fracture I don't think was ever fully healed within 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.480 the Atlanta community. There was a sense that maybe, you know, 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:39.119 some folks felt safe or felt safe enough based on 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.760 a degree of economic privilege, and again that these folks 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.240 who were most marginalized already anyway, just were kind of 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.600 left to fit for themselves. If you look at these 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.640 profiles of the children who were victimized, many of them 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:59.679 were in foster care situations. Many of them had, you know, 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.399 very difficult and unstable home lives, be it because of 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.479 a parental failing or not because of poverty. You know, 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:09.879 some of them went missing doing things like you know, 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:13.440 being ten years old and out bagging groceries to try 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.080 to get a little bit of change to help their families. 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.880 So you really get this really palpable in my mind, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.159 still a very painful portrait of these kids who are 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.640 incredibly vulnerable, who were then taken up in this way 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:34.120 and go missing and then found in these gruesome circumstances. 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:45.159 If at all, as we finally got the kind of 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.920 attention that parents were lobbying for for children, it only 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:54.040 really escalated the fear. There wasn't a real sense of 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.560 reassurance because nobody was being captured, and the ways that 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.760 policies were instated to deal with them, like the fact 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:04.960 that one of the first official actions that was taken 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.720 was to institute a curfew, which would in many ways 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:12.080 and for many people, suggest that the people who are 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:16.879 in the communities that are most victimized by this have 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.800 somehow engaged in some wrongdoing. Right, so you have to 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:23.080 get home early or you're going to get picked up 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:24.600 and taken to a detention center. 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:28.879 The curfew took effect at eleven o'clock last night and 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.200 will be in effect every night for the next ninety 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:33.280 days from eleven pm until six am. 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.160 People are afraid to let that children go out to play. 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.520 People are afraid to send their children to the store. 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:40.959 They're afraid to let the children go down to the 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:45.000 community playgrounds and play in the afternoons and evenings. 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:46.600 So I think now. 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:48.760 We will get the support because there are number of 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:52.280 parents that need to take more time out with their 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:56.280 children and keep up with our children. So if parents 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:58.960 won't do it, we some of us have to try 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:02.240 to enforce some type of curfew so the children will 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:04.000 be off the streets by eleven pm. 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:07.000 Police have been instructed to explain the conditions of the 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.560 curfew before enforcing it. However, when police get the word 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:13.720 to go ahead, they will first take the child home. 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:16.600 If the parents are home, then they will be cited. 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.160 If the parents are not home, or if the child 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:21.400 does not give a home address, then he or she 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:23.520 will be taken to a juvenile detention center. 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:27.240 I asked Eric Cameron how he felt about the curfew 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:29.120 as a kid, Like the. 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:32.720 Curfew came and right in the mix, so the kids 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:35.360 gein't killed like it was a curfew, Like we had 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:38.080 to be in at seven o'clock, six o'clock, I'm crazy 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.240 like that that came along right in the midst of it. 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:43.879 You know, we understood that it was something going on, 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:47.520 kids getting missing, and I can distinctly remember walking as 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:50.680 groups and we will see calls the lights of cause 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:53.199 and we would literally just take off, you know, just 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:54.680 like somebody coming to get you. 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:59.040 We always felt like that there's not a sense of support. 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:04.199 So people were wounded and then kind of rewounded. And 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:06.240 then in the midst of all of this, there's a 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:11.080 sense of from some folks, a sense that part of 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:16.320 what having racial solidarity means, because race relations were still 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:18.800 very fraught was that you have to support the African 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:22.240 American mayor, you have to support the African American chief 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:26.280 of police, and so you shouldn't be out here protesting 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.040