Stop The Violence

by  

Enough is Enough

On Friday March 5, I was on my way to my son’s house. I arrived at the 95th St. El station and was handed a flyer asking people to come to a forum sponsored by the Enough is Enough Campaign at the Christian Hope Church at 8849 S. Greenwood on March 11. Led by mothers of incarcerated sons, Enough is Enough seeks the release of prisoners whose incarcerations are based on confessions signed after allegedly torture and abuse at the hands of the police.

A participant a the Enough is Enough rally displays the group's flyers.

The group is currently gathering evidence about alleged wrong-doing by former police officer Jon Burge, Cook County States’ Attorney Richard Devine and the current mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley.

“Daley is the dirtiest dog of them all,” said Joan Parkins, coordinator of the campaign. The group believes that when Daley served as Cook County State’s Attorney, the police tortured, beat, burned and used electrical shocks on over 100 Blacks and Latinos. The victims were then railroaded into prison, the group maintains.

Colette McCoy, an activist involved with Enough is Enough, told me how two young men were chased onto their own front porch by the police and then beaten with clubs and fists. They are currently being held on a $40,000 bond apiece just for walking through their neighborhood without ID, McCoy said.

One young man, Robert Hawkins, had served his time fully and was released on house arrest when out of nowhere the judge supposedly decided that he should return to Vienna Correctional Center, according to Cherie Hawkins, Robert’s stepmother. She said there was nothing his parents could do when the police came to the house and picked him up. Even his probation officer wasn’t informed.

Because of this alleged routine beating and harassing black youth, Watkins and the other mothers of torture victims are asking for supporters to help them stop children from being hurt this way.

Parkins has other issues with the mayor as well. She gave me a long list of allegations Enough is Enough wants investigated. The group wants to remind people of the mayor’s obsession with power and the allegations of corruption, including the recent Hired Truck scandal, the circumstances of Burge’s firing, recent nightclub disasters and fires in Chicago, the Meigs Field Demolition and other scandals.

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