Agreeing with Hayes, Ali wrote that the black parents’ “public lack of remorse and contrition towards the victims helped turn public sympathy against the defendants” and scuttled a deal offered by the D.A. — probation with no jail time.
Meanwhile, Hicks, of Community Advocates, who is also a former director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission, says that while some black parents may have been out of touch when they insisted “their kids do nothing but homework, run track and go to church,” other parents had “the same street-culture attitudes that their kids showed.”
Adds Hicks, regardless of the light-touch media coverage, “Gang involvement is all over this case . . . They have the right kids. There might be more out there, there were as many as 40 kids, but these kids were involved in the beatings.”
TRACY MANZER, THEPRESS-TELEGRAM reporter who covered the case more thoroughly than any other reporter in California, says that while the black teens were lauded as scholars and athletes, even by some media that never checked their facts, Judge Lee will see a different side in reports from probation officers who are interviewing teachers, coaches and others.
While one girl was touted as having received a USC track scholarship, USC’s track coach told Manzer that her grades hadn’t been good enough. Moreover, several of the kids have records of assault and threatening behavior. All of this goes to Judge Lee for sentencing consideration.
Manzer says that before the verdicts, she made an effort to avoid “[trying] the suspects in the paper,” but is now researching a story on the teens and their families.
Community activists on both sides, contacted by the Weekly, were disappointed over the lack of national coverage of what was, essentially, a man-bites-dog tale. Most believed that, had it been a white-on-black crime involving a mob of 30 white kids, the media would have been all over it.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, one of the rare national columnists to write about it, argued early on that it was unprecedented to see such young girls charged with such a vicious crime, making it a national story. And on January 27, Times reporter Joe Mozingo described the case as having caused a big stir, writing, “As the case went to trial, it resonated beyond Long Beach, generating heated discussion on talk radio and drawing national media attention.”
But in fact, the lack of national attention was one reason the story interested Steve Holmes, Washington Post deputy national editor for domestic affairs. He told the Weekly he saw it as a national story and was intrigued by the black-on-white aspects of the hate crime. Yet like The New York Times, the Post ran a single story.
Doug Otto, attorney for the three white victims, continually urged his clients not to follow the news, and worked “like crazy to keep them off the news.” He needn’t have tried so hard — few were interested.
