During an emotional press conference officials convened in 2023 to issue the apologies, Wu decried how a "systemic campaign" targeted Black men based on a "false, racist claim" in the case of Carol Stuart. The Stuart case, which was chronicled in a lengthy investigation by The Boston Globe before Wu's apologies, shone a light on the racial prejudices that shaped policing and media bias in Boston.
"Our lives have changed completely, in every way. Our bodies are free today, but our minds are still there. We still don't understand many things, we still don't remember many things,"