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NEWS & LETTERS, May 2004Stop cop torture!Editor's Note: Kilroy Watkins was sentenced to 30 years for a crime that he didn't commit. He was forced to sign a confession after being beat by an officer with a history of abuse complaints, at Chicago's notorious Area 3 Division. Commander Jon Burge was forced out in 1993 after being investigated for torture, but many of his victims remain in prison, and some of his accomplices remain on the force. Chicago--In this city you have cops that were trained by commander Jon Burge, and part of his systematic torture ring that he used to get over a hundred confessions out of Black men and Latinos for murders that they didn’t commit. My son Kilroy Watkins was one of these men, beaten by Burge hit man Kenneth Boudreau and others working out of the 39th and California, Area 3 Violent Crime Division. From the ‘70s to ‘90s they used electroshocks, suffocation, burns, Russian roulette, and even killed one person, yet no one has held them accountable for their actions. Burge was fired in 1993, and lives in Florida on a full pension from the City of Chicago. Boudreau is doing paperwork for the FBI. As you might recall, the State’s Attorney was Richard Daley, now mayor. The assistant State’s Attorney was Dick Devine. These men can’t come forward while young men sit in jail with no hope of a future? Those that handled the cases knew these people were innocent, knew that these officers were on the stand perjuring themselves, and yet the prosecutors stood by and sent innocent people to prison from coerced confessions for from 10 to 50 years. All for what? Money, power and promotions. Some families paid their lawyers thousands of dollars and still had to see their loved ones off to prison. Where now both parties' lives are destroyed forever. Mr. Mayor, unlike you and your political friends, I don’t know why it is you politicians take the taxpayers' hard earned dollars to house these prisoners when you could spend money in our neighborhoods. You have taken away all that we had. Now our children are just like rats in a maze--nowhere to go. I am a person of God, and I know that no matter how high you go you must come down, and no matter how much money or power you have, it won’t buy you into heaven. As a member of the Enough Is Enough! campaign, I say that something has to be done. Stop the brutality, stop the racism, and mostly stop the torture and beatings! It’s wrong, it’s unjust, and it is unconstitutional to all the human race. I write this on behalf of my son Kilroy and all the men who are wrongfully convicted in the State of Illinois. --Mildred Henry * * * Sumner, Ill.--My name is Kilroy Watkins. I’m now 33 years of age and have been incarcerated for 12 years. During my time, I have rode on a roller coaster that could never be compared to those at amusement parks or carnivals. The mental, physical, emotional and spiritual ride that prison life creates no alcohol/drug substance could ever reach. I seriously doubt if any psychiatrist could properly define the personality disorder that reflects the lows one reaches. Everyone you loved becomes distant and everything you thought you knew, which defines who you were and what you are, becomes questionable. However, for some of us, approaching this crossroad is an awakening; realizing that you are created from a source that’s way more powerful than ourselves. To thoroughly focus on the condition of not just myself but the condition of my race and its history of suffering and struggling in this world, could only leave one with the mathematical conclusion that the movie called THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST is not simply a reminder about some divine being dying for my sin, but more of a warning of what we as Black males must experience for being born in Amerikkka. --Kilroy Watkins |
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