Camp Kilpatrick

In this episode Luis talks more about the time he spent at Camp Killpatrick.
Camp Kilpatrick is a juvenile detention camp located in the Santa Monica Mountains of western Los Angeles County, California. The camp is known for its sports program.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So we see it directly across fromeach other, and we lock our legs
and we're just throwing punches. Ijust throwing blows to the face, to
the body without moving to the man. No trouble. I don't want to
be man. I just want vibebig man like me. No need for
the telephone high I got too muchcan online completing all right. So when

(00:34):
I when I when I first arrivedto Camptol Patrick, this was in two
thousand and two thousand and two.Um, I want to say, uh,
I want to see like July August. Yeah, around July or August
at two thousand and two, Ishow up that Chumptol Patrick. And even

(01:02):
so, the reason why I goto Killpatrick is to play football. You
know. The guy recruited me.He wanted me to play football. So
I get there and the first thingthey put me in there was this There
was this uh there's there's two dormsI think A, A and B,
right, and then they have thislittle this other little housing that's kind of

(01:26):
like the hole and that they throwyou in the hole. And the right
behind that hole there's a little exerciseyard. There's a bunch of weight and
stuff, it looks like an oldas prison when when you look at it.
I used to keep a picture backthere lifting weights, y um.
So you know, when we firstget there, you're kind of like on

(01:49):
an orientation. So they threw mein that hole. So I'm in there
a boy myself in one of thecells. You know, there's a bunch
of other guys there, and um, you know, you gotta do it
for like a week or two andthen they'll they'll send you to the dorm
depending on what sport you're playing,because they had soccer, they had football,
they had baseball, but at thattime it was football season, but

(02:10):
they were also playing soccer. Soone of the dorms for soccer the or
dorms for football. So I goto the Football Dom and you know,
I first get there, I don'tknow nobody. I didn't know any of
the guys there. Like you know, I had been in June Hall and

(02:31):
you know, done a lot oftime and I met a lot of guying
and stuff. But going to thatcamp, but I didn't know nobody.
And there was a lot of blacksin that camp, you know, And
like I said, I did neverreally grew up with blacks. My whole
area was nothing good but his playing, you know, Mexican and Central Americans.

(02:54):
So when I went to Juvena Hall, you know, there's there's these
black gangs members and in my mind, I'm like, I got no pounds
with these guys. You know,they've got no reason to have any pounds
with me. We're not we're notvalival gag members and nothing like that.
We're not knowing from in the samearea or nothing. But you know,

(03:15):
these guys started hitting me up,and you know, they started talking shit
about Mexican you know, it wasit was very racial, you know.
So I started adding a lot ofpounds with black excuse because I felt like,
well, you know, if you'regonna disrespect my race, you know,
then you're gonna have pounds with me, you know, even if we're
not considered gang rivals. You know. So there was a whole lot of

(03:39):
racial pension stuff. And so Igo to this camp and you know,
the race of pension is there,and a lot of these guys they want
to they want to fight, youknow. So you know, you're you're
in these camps, you're in thehalls, is like that's what you're doing,
is you're fighting and if you don'tfight, you're a pump. If

(03:59):
you're a you're getting pumped, youknow. So if you know, you
don't turn those fights down. Soright there, you have to kind of
sneak, you know, to getdown for had to fight. So there's
this there was this pool and uhthis it was kind of like up on
a hill kind of you know,it was like a little slope, so

(04:21):
you kind of like walk up andthe pools up there, you know,
and it was it was a littleblind spot. You don't see that.
You'd go back there and you wouldfight. So, you know, I
got called out a couple of times. I was a big kid and they
would like to top ship like,oh yeah, you're big for nothing.
That you big for nothing, thatyou wonderful. They would call me sist.

(04:44):
So you know, I fired.I fired a few times. We
went up there to the pool,got into a fight all the times.
Like we're in the door, andthe door right and you go to the
back, there's a there's this laundryarea and there's windows, so you know,
the staff to see in there.So what you would have to do

(05:06):
is you would have to sit downand what do you call is you lock
legs, all right, So wesit directly across from each other and we
locked our legs and we're just throwingpunches, like just throwing blows to the
face, to the body without mooning. So let's jet does I you know,

(05:27):
you say it's locked legs and yougo back there and you fight.
So I got into a lot offights, but they kind of respected.
They kind of stopped sucking with me, you know, once they seen that
that I wasn't a pub you know. And and everything started getting better once

(05:48):
we started playing football, because whenI first got there, we weren't playing
it. We were still like youknow, practicing and getting ready. So
we're training and we're training and stuff, and you know, um, it
was it was pretty cool right there, like uh, it was pretty laxed.
Like we used to go to school, Uh in the mornings to go

(06:10):
to school, and then right outof school, will start training, will
do all the all the like weightliftingand running and you know all that,
like doing the doing all the wartermuth and like just a bunch of stuff.
It was a straight little camp book, just training and the food there
it was good and compared to likeJune all and stuff like that it was.

(06:30):
It was some really good food andthey used to feed us a lot,
the cook that worked there. Becauseright there there's actually two camps.
There's two camps. There's Camp Millerand Camp Killpatrick, and they're right next
to each other and the only thingthat that separates them is a wall and
and and there's the kitchen. Thekitchen is feeding both these these camps,

(06:56):
right, so if you go insteadthe kitchen, you can actually go around
and going to the other side,to the to the other camp can't really.
So the guy that was working inthe kitchen, he was Mexican,
and he was real cool, andI remember he used to let us go
into the kitchen and let us cookyou know whatever food like that. We

(07:17):
could put him on the ground stuff. So you know, we would have
come going there and he let usprick some stuff and and we'll eat right
there. And it was good andon a lot of good food and stuff.
The other thing, though, too, is is what was kind of
fucked up. He's, uh,you know, they say we're considered like
a pump and stuff. You're you'regonna get shorted, right, so they'll

(07:41):
put you on shorts, which isbasically like giving you almost no food,
right to give you like a littleas scoop, you know, and then
um or somebody would take the shipman, and so it was, it
was. It was bad. Itwas like like, uh, if you're
not, if you're not the individualthat can really stand up for yourself and

(08:03):
stuff, or you know, they'rethey're they're messing with you. You know,
it's fucked up. But that's whatit is, man, That's what
it is. You have to youhave to survive that, you know.
And I remember once we started goingout to games, you know, it
was nice when we go out,we play and then like they say,

(08:24):
you got the junior varsity and thenyou got the varsity, right, So
the junior varsity plays first and thenand then you once you're after you played
the varsity, right, So soyou could be out in the stands with
your family, Your family could come, you know, and you could be
out there enjoying the whole thing,because this is like a real football game

(08:46):
mostly like Christian high schools and stufflike that. So these were just regular
people out there. Everything went always. It wasn't even like you were locked
up. So you can have yourvisitors and stuff. And then the vice
versa, and I give junior versityis playing where you let the varsity guys
out there in the stands stuff,so that it was always fun. You
know. I was enjoyed going outto the games and playing. And then

(09:11):
well after that, um, Iremember, I remember there was one incident,
uh where when these guys ends uplike, uh, calling me out,
you know, in in the inthe dorm, you know, in
front of everybody. So you know, this this little black dude and he

(09:33):
called me out, and I said, all right, you know, well
we'll wait for the for the rightmoment. But these dudes, you know,
I guess he wants to look goodand he wants to make a big
scene. You know, he disrespectshim out loud. So I polished him
and I pushed him, and heends up like, uh, there's these

(09:54):
double doors, right because it's justlike a little dorm and you know you
got to double doors to come inand out. So and they pushing him.
He goes out the double doors andhe picks up this big ass rock
and he's coming back in with hishuge boulder. This is big. He's
holding over his head and he's gonnasmash it up on me. There and

(10:16):
the woman the staffs, he's seenthem here. So the staffs rushed him
and rushed him to the floor beforehe could hit me with that rock.
So I ended up going to theold I ended up going to the hole,
and I'm thinking, day, andthat's they're gonna kick me out,
you know, because I had acaseworker who has zero tolerance. If you
got into a fight and he'll he'llright you up, you'll get more time,

(10:43):
and then you could get kicked outof the program and you could go
back. Because I came from bootcamp, so I would have gone back
to boot camp. And the lastthing I wanted to do is go back
to boot camp. And so Iremember going to the hole and I'm moment
and like stressed out, like fuck, and that's all bad. I'm gonna
go back, and you know,but luckily there was this female staff she

(11:05):
she was real cool with me,and she came to the hole and she
pulled me on the ole or shegot the ride up, she ripped up
the rite up. It was likeit never happened, man. So and
I tripped out because I never Inever ever expected that. I never thought
that this lady would do that.You know, because she was a very
strict or female, you know,very very strict, and she wasn't like

(11:28):
super nice and nothing. But actuallyI actually worked in the in the front
office, and she was my boss, you know. And you know,
I was always respectful regardless, Iwas always respectful. I was always you
know, a hard worker. Iwas always a good, good guy,
you know. So most of thetime, the staff liked me. They
never had anything against me. ButI never expected this this lady to do

(11:52):
that, you know. So I'msitting in the whole Times and It's like,
what are you doing back here inthat kind of the story, and
She's like, no, no,no, she ripped She ripped up the
whole writing up everything. So Ilet him out and lets me out and
like it never happened. So,you know, I was grateful for that
because that that happened like right beforeI got out. If I wouldn't have
got out, if if it wasn'tfor her doing that, I would have

(12:15):
ended up catching more turn and goingI said, going back to the to
the boot cameras stuff like that.So right before, right before getting released.
It wasn't like in November, youknow, and I'm already's supposed to
get out in December. So yeah, I remember that learning, you know,

(12:37):
I you know, I got lucky, but all the all came back.
Campbells was very It was a reallycool camera there and a lot of
good staff right there. You know, a lot of the time I spent
working out there was there was thisother this other staff remember there who He
would always taking me over to thegym and like that. They had this

(13:01):
little gym with a bunch of weightsbehind the hole. So he'd always take
me in a couple of guys andwe'll go back there and we'll hit the
weights, you know. So that'sall I would do is basically worked out
and and play football and you know, trying to stay out of trouble.
You know, there's always troubled.But you know, if I could avoid

(13:22):
it, I would avoid it.If I had no choice, I had
no choice, you know, Ididn't do what I had to do.
Yeah, my time there was itwas real cool, man. And then
later on I heard about then doingthat that movie you know about Kilpatrick,
and so I would always trip outlike man, I was there. I
was there, man, you know, and it was cool. It was

(13:45):
a good experience,