EK behind, OK ahead?

Gang founder finds new motivations in treatment program

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Apr 27, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

Jim Clark / Portland Tribune

David Patrick Kennedy (middle), who founded a whites-only gang while he was in prison, now is speaking about his experiences to students at Madison High School, where he also ran into his fifth-grade teacher (right), a woman he once put in a headlock.

As the founder of the whites-only European Kindred prison gang, David Patrick Kennedy has a reputation as a violent racist who commands respect from fellow criminals. But Monday afternoon, Kennedy told more than 100 Madison High School students that he is not proud of his life and that no one should look up to him.

“I’ve had to step back and ask myself, ‘Why am I getting nowhere with my beliefs, even though I’ve got the EK behind me?’ ” Kennedy, a convicted felon who has served more than nine years in the Oregon prison system, told five classes that gathered in the school’s library.

Kennedy is questioning his life as part of a residential drug addiction treatment program he entered three months ago. The program is run by Volunteers of America Oregon, the state chapter of one of the largest nonprofit social service organizations in the country. The school trip was arranged by Greg Stone, the director of the Men’s Residential Center where Kennedy now is living.

After serving as the center’s director for around 17 years, Stone said he knows that Kennedy could easily backslide and wind up doing drugs and committing crimes again. But Stone is so impressed with Kennedy’s current efforts to turn his life around that he has brought him to speak at several Portland schools over the past two months.

Not only is Kennedy working to learn how to live a crime-free life, Stone says, he is getting along well with the blacks and Hispanics at the center.

“David is doing very well, even though his background is more hard-core than many of our other clients’,” Stone said.

Madison teacher Matt Sten agrees. Sten (the brother of city Commissioner Erik Sten) arranged Monday’s talks and a previous appearance by Kennedy before his psychology class.

“David’s life story is like a horror movie, except it’s real,” Sten said.

Before answering questions from the students, Kennedy talked about learning racist beliefs from his father, a motorcycle gang member who taught him that “might makes right” and who murdered his mother before his eyes in a jealous rage.

Kennedy said his father’s friends introduced him to alcohol and drugs at an early age, leading to a longtime methamphetamine addiction he now is trying to shake. After dropping out of school, Kennedy repeatedly was arrested and convicted of crimes ranging from robbery to assaulting an elderly woman during a home invasion burglary.

While serving time at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Eastern Oregon, Kennedy founded the European Kindred. The gang spread outside the prison system when members released into the community recruited new members and continued committing crimes.

“When we formed the EK, one goal was to get together and help people on the outside. Instead, we got together and planned more crimes. When you get a bunch of criminals together, that’s what usually happens,” Kennedy said.

But now Kennedy says he wants to associate only with people who are clean and sober and looking to be law-abiding citizens. A major motivator is Kennedy’s 3-year-old son, whom he might not see again if he goes back to prison. He and his girlfriend also are expecting another child later this year.

“My father taught me racism, and I want to break that cycle with my son. I want to teach him violence is a no-no and don’t judge people,” he told the students.

VOA ran first halfway houses

After being arrested last November for violating parole, Kennedy and his parole officer agreed he should enter the Men’s Residential Center.

Now in its second century of operation, Volunteers of America serves more than 2 million people a year across the United States. It is a nondenominational, faith-based organization that aims to help the underprivileged, the abused and people who need a second chance.

VOA was founded in 1896 by social reformers Ballington and Maud Booth, who envisioned a movement dedicated to “reaching and uplifting” the American people. It has worked consistently with families struggling with the effects of poverty.

One focus of the organization’s mission has been working with convicts. In its early years, Volunteers of America established the nation’s first system of halfway houses for released prisoners. Today, it runs numerous programs throughout the country that house and treat parolees with alcohol and drug addictions.

“The focus on prisons is part of Maud Booth’s influence. She understood that the problem doesn’t go away just because you’ve locked someone up. Eventually, almost all of them are going to return to our communities,” said Greg Meenahan, development director for Volunteers of America Oregon.

The organization’s Oregon chapter also was founded in 1896. Today, it generates revenues of more than $11 million a year. Major funding sources include organization-generated revenues, charitable donations and government contracts for social service programs. The money provides services for children, seniors and drug addicts at risk of returning to prison.

County helps fund center

After living at the Men’s Residential Center for around three months, Kennedy said he wishes that he had received such treatment earlier in his life. As he told the students, the program has helped him realize the futility of viewing the world as a racial battleground where only the strong survive.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit