(REVISED AUGUST 8, 2018)
Oh, my – I had to completely re-write this post, and will need to put up a new one with apologies to this kind ghost’s loved ones for amplifying what brought them such grief, while laboring over which pronouns – and name – Rodriguez would have preferred I use vs which one his folks might feel better with….
or which identity her FB girlfriends might want to remember her by….
I found Rodriguez’ FB page after making inferences from the news reports alone and writing my first version of this. But she was as beautiful a woman as she was a handsome young man – and adorable little boy – who loved to make others laugh.
So I’ll be referring to Rodriguez as he, as she, AND in the plural, as I don’t know what their preference was, or what it might be now. My bigger concern is how survivors will feel once they find this post, though. So, here’s where I’m coming from, and why this multiply-gendered Black person’s death touched me so.
I call myself queer when its useful to compel a more radical dialogue and make it safer for others to be deviants. That term refers more to my politics than who I sleep with (which is “pretty much anything”, if you were to ask my dad, haha. I sleep with who I love, is all.).
I use my girl name and identify as a woman most of the time though, because its what’s most familiar. But that hasn’t always been the case – I thought for sure I was going to grow a penis until I was 6 or 7 ( I was SO mad when that didn’t come about!). I really didn’t finally embrace my womanhood until I sobered up at 20 and hit 12-step recovery groups, in fact – and boy, did I NEED the solidarity of other women then.
I did figure out as I aged that the apparent need to have a male or female identity – or to reject both for a way of being creative and whole – is not OUR confusion, though, its the World’s. That’s one reason I love my OUT LOUD transgender friends so much, I guess – I so respect their courage and clarity.
For a long time as a kid, though, even into my teens, I thought I was the one who was defective or something. I was pitied in the 3rd grade by Army moms (since all we had was Dad) – they all freaked out over my brother’s hand me downs and dad’s Army hat, got dad to buy me a doll and a dress, and tried to draft me into the Brownies. I went AWOL within 2 weeks. Of course the mainstream Army brats whose socialization they should have been worried about bullied me at school relentlessly after that.
When I protested being raped as a 15 year old virgin, the dude who pounded way past “NO!” “PLEASE NO!!!” “YOU’RE HURTING ME!!!” said, once done:
“Oh I “raped” you? You f**king tease you wanted it. Or are you some kind of dyke? Huh? Are you a lesbo, is that why you haven’t f**ked some dude yet?”
Then he called his friends over before I could get out, and they all laughed at me too. That crap went for my high school years – at least, that was the case whenever I hung with dudes who weren’t Deadheads (now, those guys were my brothers…).
I so hated public school.
Someday, I’ll tell you more about how I was diagnosed and treated on the edge of seventeen, in 1982, at the University of Michigan Adolescent Psych Hospital for not only alcoholism and suicidal depression, but also “gender dysphoria” (they never even told me I was sick that way, but hey, they took credit in my discharge papers for guiding me towards normality…the punks).
But the rest of this is not about me.
Ann Arbor, MI Pride Festival August 2018
This beautiful soul, Rodriguez Montez Burks, doing time for fleeing police in a stolen car, was murdered in the MI Department of Corrections last summer. Rodriguez’ crime, once there, was simply being gay, the papers said.
The prisoner who killed Rodriguez, DeShawn Madden, asked officers to move the “fag” out of his cell, or he’d kill him. That wasn’t necessarily his own hate for gays he was acting on, either – it was most likely the fear of being targeted with sexual violence by other prisoners himself if he was seen as sympathetic to a queer.
I say she wasn’t “gay”, though – this soul was a woman buried in a man’s prison. THAT was what freaked her cellie out. Really, if Rodriguez was at all out in prison (she was pretty, folks) – or if her FB page was still up while she was going in, then that poor kid was probably subjected to all sorts of hell before being killed, too. And I don’t mean by DeShawn.
See, I think DeShawn did what he thought he would have to do in order to survive, and it was only after 3 days of begging for help for it NOT TO end the way it did – with both Black Lives destroyed. He’s the one doing time for Rodriguez’ murder now, anyway, but the MI DOC did the real killing – it’s especially heinous how they went about doing it by diminishing both black lives to begin with. It was the very real racist fascist institution that society has empowered to “rehabilitate” our addicts and social deviants that REALLY killed Rodriguez Burks.
I don’t even need to know the race or ethnicity of the officers who turned away – even those of color are first the color of their uniform, which in MI appears to be gray – and “Bleeds Blue”. They had a duty to protect both of those prisoners from that outcome; they walked away knowing what would come of it, and are protecting their own at the expense of survivors, because that’s what prison trains otherwise good people to do: first, get used to the violence and the fact we’re not all perfect, these people are “criminals” (ie less than human), you’re doing the world a service anyway. and so on.
The violence done to LGBTQ people in prison is no secret. I corresponded with several dozen gay men and trans women from the AZ DOC attesting to the same thing when I was blogging in PHX several years back – which I documented it all for the DOJ, begging their intervention (no help). They needed to be in Protective Custody or celled alone or with another gay prisoner, or their straight cellies were expected to assault them (then pimp them out to other guys) to demonstrate their own masculinity and protect themselves from similar attack.
Contrary to popular belief, this is precisely the culture of hate the American prison industrial complex has deliberately fostered among guards and prisoners, to “keep the fags in check,” so to speak. Think the suits at the DOC aren’t all saying “how dare they be trying to get their hormones and boobs on the tax payers dime?”, etc etc?
It’s really just like how institutionalized homophobia/sexism/racism etc serve the police state in the “Free World” too. Unfortunately, the criminalized status of those LGBTQ folks in custody facilitates extreme violence and cruelty by causing the good queer folk leading the charge for justice out here to keep our distance from them, afraid of the stigma of “deviance” more than ever now. How will LGBTQ people ever be accepted if we take up the cause of criminals?
I don’t think the MI CJ system is “broken” at all, nor was Rodriguez’ murder a symptom of some twisted “criminal culture” that evolves despite the DOC staff’s best efforts to model good citizenship for all the tortured, invisibilized, dehumanized people we throw into Hell every year. By design, Americans torture and absolutely devastate those we exile from our midst by way of incarceration..and look away even when we hear them screaming for rescue, or see their mothers grieving in the shadows.
We want to believe that this is indeed a just world in which only those people who are truly “dangerous” go to prison, where they get exactly what they deserve. That’s because only in such a well-ordered world can we be relatively sure that the injustice of malicious prosecution or incarceration wont befall us or those we love, too – only the “bad” guys.
The entity truly responsible for Rodriguez’ death is the MI DOC at large, not just the few cops who ignored both prisoner’s pleas to be separated. Frankly, I’m surprised the Feiger firm is only suing for $75K on each count, that’s odd. Maybe they have to file a Sec 1983 suit in federal court to really punish the state.
Rodriguez has no standing for a 1983 federal suit, but their parents do, and maybe other family or a partner could try. Your right to enjoy your loved one’s life was a civil right that the MI DOC violated with deliberate indifference. Even if the case is thrown out early, you will have made an official record documenting that Rodriguez was loved and loving, and that the theft of that life and all the GOOD they could have given to the world was a crime against us all.
Much love to Rodriguez’ family, by the way, for all you have been through and are about to endure as you fight for justice. Your battle may well be the thing that stands between the next gay/transgender prisoner and the fear and hate that wishes to bury them, too. The MI DOC and Attorney General will try to shame you into silence about the state’s crimes – THEY are the ones who should hang their heads, not you. Rodriguez DID NOT DESERVE THIS.
If you are Rodriguez’ loved one, by the way – family or friends – please “friend” me and contact me if you want to help shine the light on the on-going violence that killed him/her. There are so many other gay/trans people being tortured in MI’s CJ system: Rodriguez can help them now, in ways that he/she could never do in life. Rodriguez’ story and family’s MI DOC suit need to be amplified, to put abusers inside on notice that PEOPLE ARE WATCHING THEM!
If you want to help build resistance to the police state and violence of incarceration, connect with these folks
MI Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity (MAPS) Here’s their facebook page .
There’s a nationwide prison strike, coming right up #AUGUST21 (also dubbed NAT TURNER DAY). Write to the local press or chalk Rodriguez’ name all over your own town on Rodriguez’ birthday (AUG 16, 1993), with that hash tag (#AUGUST21 and #PRISONSTRIKE showing support) to draw attention to the living, if you want someplace to start.
There’s a related Solidarity March in lansing on August 23 too -come out and help us build collective resistance to this crap!
LANSING Prisoner Solidarity March!
AUGUST 23, 2018
https://www.facebook.com/events/228130971150468/
And tell everyone that you knew and loved Rodriguez – including the judge and prosecutor and DOC director – the Governor, as well – who sent her to a men’s prison. Tell them she deserved to be treated with humanity and kept safe at all times in the MI DOC’s custody, and they knew or should have known she would be hurt or killed in there, being such a beautiful woman.
Finally, I’m concerned concern about MI DOC’s retaliation against those who blew the whistle on the system for ignoring both the victim and his killer’s pleas for help. One fellow who reported the MI DOC to the media has all sorts of white supremacy tattoos and ugly convictions. Both the dudes who wrote the papers risked their lives and safety saying “HEY, this was WRONG! THAT BLACK LIFE MATTERED!, in fact, were old white cons with shady records. Their actions ultimately protect the rights and lives of ALL prisoners, though; and that took some deep courage. They could have gotten it from both the cops and the other white guys, not only inside, but also once back on the street, they both deserve our presumptive respect – lets have their backs.
This call-out to protect them is a year old (they’ve both been moved since then, but that doesn’t mean they’re at all “safe”). So don’t call the DOC about them now – just be mindful that they’re still in custody, and are likely the family’s best witnesses against the state. Thanks to both of them – they did the right thing.
Remember #AUGUST21 and #PRISONSTRIKE now, please, too – and haunt the governor with Rodriguez’ ghost. he needs to know her name and face and that her loved ones cared.. All the suit seems to be seeking in damages is 300K though. Tell them all Rodriguez life was actually priceless, so they need to pay it forward now and save the living.
Here’s the news of the family’s suit, and the first report from the guys inside.
————From MLIVE.COM ———
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – The estate of a gay man killed while incarcerated in a Michigan prison has sued the warden and several staff for failing to protect him from his “homophobic” cellmate.
Rodriguez Burks, 23, of Muskegon was killed last July at the Alger Correctional Facility by his cellmate, DeShawn Madden, who was convicted of first-degree murder last month.
“Although Madden was charged with the killing of Rodriguez Burks, each and every defendant, herein was the proximate cause of the murder,” the lawsuit states.
The defendants are Warden Catherine S. Bauman, Deputy Warden Robert Wickstrom, prison Administrator Dean Potilla and 18 other staff members.
Inmates and corrections officer knew not only that Burks was homosexual, but that Madden was “homophobic,” states the lawsuit filed by the Geoffrey Fieger law firm on behalf of Burks’ mother, Dequita Burks. She is the personal representative of Rodriguez Burks’ estate.
The lawsuit alleges that both men asked to be separated, and that Madden repeatedly told a corrections officer that if he wasn’t moved, “‘I’m gonna hurt this guy.'”
“However, each of the Defendants named herein ignored the threats and simply left Madden and the decedent Rodriguez Burks, in the same cell knowing that harm would result” to Burks, the lawsuit states.
Burks was found dead in his cell on July 20, 2017, lying face down and suffering from a traumatic head injury, the lawsuit states. Burks’ death came two days after Madden was placed in the cell with him.
The prison failed to have policies in place to identify and protect inmates, especially homosexuals and African Americans, from harm, the lawsuit alleges.
Burks had been sentenced to prison in December 2016 for fleeing and eluding police and receiving stolen property, and was classified as level 4 security, according to the lawsuit.
Madden, a security level 5 inmate, was transferred to Alger on July 18, 2017, from the Marquette Correctional Facility because of overcrowding, according to the lawsuit. Madden is serving a sentence for carjacking, assault with intent to murder and armed robbery.
The lawsuit claims the defendants didn’t protect Burks by failing to transfer either inmate out of the cell, failing to conduct timely checks on Burks’ well-being especially considering the threats against him, and failing to respond to the assault he suffered. Furthermore, it alleges they racially discriminated against Burks, who is African American (as is Madden).
The lawsuit seeks $75,000 in damages for each of four counts, including gross negligence, racial discrimination and cruel and unusual punishment.
Inmates at a northern Michigan correctional facility where a prisoner was allegedly killed last week by his cellmate say prison staff ignored requests from the pair to be separated ahead of the killing. The issue between the two, the prisoner sources say, was the victim’s sexual orientation, making the case the latest example of what advocacy organizations call a systemic failure to address the plight of LGBTQ people behind bars.
Rodriguez Montez Burks, 23, was serving a 2-10 year prison sentence at the Alger County Correctional Facility for fleeing and eluding officers in Livingston County last year when he was killed on July 20. The Muskegon native had nine months until he was eligible for parole.
Michigan State Police were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing at the time of this printing, but two inmates who stay in neighboring cells tell Metro Times they heard Burks and his cellmate repeatedly request bunk reassignments in the days leading up to the killing.
“Old boy was like, ‘Hey I am not gonna be locked in here with a fag,'” says inmate Todd Wentworth. “And the guard was like, ‘It’s not our problem.'”
The suspect in the killing has not yet been named, but corrections officials say he has been isolated. According to Wentworth, the prisoner had been transferred to the Alger maximum security facility from a supermax facility and bunked with Burks two days before he killed him. He had replaced Burks’ former cellmate, who sources say was also gay.
“This gentleman told [the guard] very clearly, ‘Look I’m gonna hurt this guy if you don’t move me out this cell,'” says inmate Edward Spear. “Burks also told [another staffer], ‘I can’t lock with this guy; we’re having issues, we can’t do this.'”
According to a 2011-2012 study from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, LGBTQ prisoners are more likely to experience mistreatment, harsh punishment, and sexual victimization behind bars than straight or gender-conforming inmates. Special safeguards do not exist for such inmates, though, under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, inmates are identified as possible victims or aggressors and bunked in a way that is intended to mitigate harm. Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz says prison staff also do what they can to accommodate cell reassignments if a prisoner feels their safety is in jeopardy.
Yet, inmates say it was not one, but two prison staffers who failed to act on both prisoners’ requests for a reassignment last week at Alger. In addition to asking a guard to separate them, inmates say the pair appealed to the resident unit manager as she made her rounds throughout the facility the morning of the killing. Wentworth says the unit manager was unsympathetic.
“She was like, ‘You’re not here for convenience.’ Basically, we’re not moving you ’cause you wanna move — this ain’t the Holiday Inn,” he says.
Wentworth says that exchange occurred at 11:30 a.m. At 11:40 a.m., he heard shouts from the cell across the way and then silence. He believes Burks was strangled, though he later saw streaks of blood on the floor and heard medics describing puncture wounds to the young man’s lungs.
Burks was pronounced dead around 2 p.m. An official cause of death had not been released as of this printing.
MDOC’s Gautz could not speak to whether the inmate was gay or if prison staff failed to properly respond to requests for cell reassignments, but said “every aspect of the incident” would be investigated by an inspector at the prison or, if necessary, MDOC’s internal affairs department.
“If it [is] determined there was a work rule violated, an officer or any staff member could face repercussions,” says Gautz.
The inmates MT spoke with say they plan to file grievances against the officers who failed to heed reassignment requests, though they did express concern that their complaints would go ignored or lead to retaliation from prison staff. The advocacy group Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity (MAPS) says that kind of response is not uncommon within the Michigan Department of Corrections.
MAPS spokesman Alejo Stark points to a case last year at the Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, where he says inmates reported that a guard was sexually harassing LGBTQ prisoners. MAPS says the complaint was denied due to “insufficient evidence” — despite the fact that seven inmates, one of them heterosexual, testified to the problem — and the guard was returned to the same unit where the reported harassment occurred in violation of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.
“The same people you are asking to investigate the situation are the same people that are repressing you inside,” says Stark. “The guards are actively dissuading people from filing grievances because ultimately they know that you’re filing grievances against them … and their job is on the line.”
As inmates who say they know what happened to Burks go through what they call the painstaking process of trying to hold MDOC staff accountable, staffers at the prison have apparently grown more willing to move gay inmates for their safety.
Wentworth tells MT that since Burks’ death, a gay inmate “so scared for his life” has had his request to move to a protection unit of the prison granted.
Solidarity Rose 