Recap of The System Is F'd Up - Part One Written by Brandi Abbott The episode starts off with how Priya, Jess, and Keith became F’d up. We get a nice taste of Priya, Jess, and Keith’s chemistry together as well as a bit of backstory. They all worked together in Reality TV production, and clicked instantly. Priya and Jess knew they wanted to keep working together and more than that, they wanted to make their own shows and maybe change the world a little bit. The idea for the podcast came to Priya when she was watching "The Staircase," a true crime documentary series about the trial of Michael Peterson. Particularly, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Crime Lab bloodstain pattern analyst, Duane Deaver piqued her interested as he seemed more interested in theatrics than forensic science. If you watched “The Staircase”, you know it eventually turns out that Deaver is full of shit, and Priya wanted to know how often something like this happens. She began researching the SBI Crime Lab, and it quickly became obvious that Duane Deaver was just the tip of the corruption iceberg - that there was a much larger issue with the entire system. “The Staircase” sort of touched on this when they quickly covered another man affected by Duane Deaver’s shoddy forensic science. The more Priya researched, the more she realized how much bigger the story was and how many people’s lives could have been (and were) affected. Priya went to Jess and told her she had found their show. Jess was completely shocked at the extent of the corruption and they immediately tried pitching it as a television docuseries, but they realized that because of everything they wanted to do (expose corruption, and highlight issues with the SBI Crime Lab to hopefully enact change), F’d Up might be better suited as a podcast. Plus, in doing a podcast they realized they could invite their friend Keith over and tell him everything they learned. In this way, Keith will be hearing everything for the first time on the podcast and will be learning and gasping along with listeners. Another man “The Staircase” quickly covered was Greg Taylor, a regular guy from the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Priya tells us that Greg liked to “party” by which she meant, he used to partake in drugs. One night in September of 1991, Greg left a friend's house to procure drugs - on his way, he ran into an acquaintance named Johnny Beck who wanted to get high as well. At some point that night, they ended up parked in an industrial complex near a cul-de-sac. While Johnny was getting high, Greg became worried a cop may see them so he drove off-road and the truck accidentally ended up stuck in the mud. Greg and Johnny were forced to abandon the truck and decided to walk back - that’s when they saw something weird in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Greg thought it might be a mannequin, but Johnny thought it might be a body. Johnny was right as it turned out to be the body of a young woman named Jacquetta Thomas. Greg, a white guy, wanted to call the cops, whereas Johnny Beck, being a black man with a lifetime of racial profiling just wanted to get out of there. They ended up catching a ride from a woman, who happened to be driving by, and continued partying with her until early morning. Greg needed to get home and get cleaned up before going to work, so he called his wife to come pick him up. Greg and his wife planned to get his truck back from where it was stuck, but when they arrive at the cul-de-sac, they found that the area was swarming with police - it appeared to be a crime scene at that point. They decided to just get Greg to work and go back for the truck later. At work, Greg mentioned this to his boss and his boss wanted to check it out. Greg’s boss, Greg, and his wife headed over to the crime scene. At the crime scene, Greg approached the cops and told them he needed to get his truck. A detective told Greg to meet him at the station so they could talk, but didn’t let Greg take the truck. Later at the station, Detective Johnny Howard was questioning Greg and the questions seemed a bit more serious than the standard “what did you see?” type questions one would reasonably expect if caught in this situation. However, Priya tells us that because Greg was innocent and his entire knowledge of police was from cop TV shows, he was happy to help and it never occurred to him that he could be a suspect. He trusted the system and believed it was in place to help the good guys like him. She goes on to tell us that the police asked Greg if Johnny was black or white. Jess tells us the detective was creating the narrative he wanted and that Greg was getting really confused - as anyone would be. Keith asks why Greg hadn’t asked for a lawyer and Jess and Priya explain that he attempted to contact an attorney, but that when Greg couldn’t get in contact with him, he didn’t try anything ...
