Put the needle in. Please.
The Governor is going to make up his mind tomorrow as to whether Stanley "Tookie" Williams will be granted clemency. If he grants it, Tookie lives. If he doesn't grant it, Tookie dies on Tuesday December 13, 2005.
The headline in the San Francisco Bay View, a local African American newspaper reads, "Let Tookie live to lead everyone to redemption." Just below the headline is some commentary by the self described political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Also below the headline is a picture of Tookie's new book, "Blue Rage, Black Redemption." Below the picture, Tookie writes "To say the least, I am a controversial figure with an unenviable gang legacy-Crips co-founder - that will forever haunt me."
Tookie has written a number of "age appropriate" books for children, describing the perils of gang life, and warning young people to stay out of it. His best-selling one has sold all of 330 copies.
His petition for clemency sidesteps the question of whether he actually killed four people in eleven days with shotgun blasts to their heads. Tookie says that he didn't do it. Tookie says that it would wrong for him to apologize to the families of the victims for a crime that he didn't commit.
The problem is, that as a founder of the Crips gang, now estimated to number in the tens of thousands, there are many murders that Tookie must have a hand in and/or knew about. While Tookie says that he has turned his back on gang life and become a new person while on death row, he refuses to cooperate with law enforcement officials who might like to know the circumstances of dozens, if not hundreds of deaths. That would make him a snitch. Tookie doesn't snitch.
Tookie has gotton a lot of support from Hollywood stars like Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. James Foxx starred in a made for TV movie titled "Redemption" all about guess who? The movie is a big hit at rallys to save Tookie.
Much of his support comes from people who, aside from the usual death penalty opponents, argue that even if Tookie did kill those people, he has become a changed man, and doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? Actually, those people often won't admit that Tookie might have killed those people. They believe that his redemption, his turning around his life, his new outlook, and his efforts to educate young minority children that gang life is not the way to go, outweigh anything that he might have done before he changed his mind.
There are other considerations besides "redemption" that enter the picture. According to stories in the newspapers, (specifically the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times) there is a lot of support for clemency in the African American community of south-central Los Angeles. South central is Crips territory. Dire warnings of what might happen if Tookie gets the needle are hinted at by some of the people interviewed. California prisons are also filled with Crips. They are not happy that a brother might be executed. Who knows what they might do?
Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? You might ask the four people who Tookie is alleged to have killed that question. Oh wait. They're dead. They don't have a second chance. Silly me.
Wouldn't having a real gang member as famous as Tookie, telling young people not to do what he did, have a positive influence on young peole who might otherwise be influenced to join a gang? But the whole reason that Tookie is so famous is that he not only joined a gang, he founded one. A real big bad one.
I think that a good lesson for young people is that, if you kill someone, there's a very good chance that you will end up as Tookie did. And if Tookie gets the needle on Tuesday, that's another very good lesson for young people. It says to them that no matter what line of bullshit you come up with, no matter how many influential people intervene on your behalf, no matter how many people are ready to riot in the streets if you are executed, if you kill another human being you are going to die.
The headline in the San Francisco Bay View, a local African American newspaper reads, "Let Tookie live to lead everyone to redemption." Just below the headline is some commentary by the self described political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Also below the headline is a picture of Tookie's new book, "Blue Rage, Black Redemption." Below the picture, Tookie writes "To say the least, I am a controversial figure with an unenviable gang legacy-Crips co-founder - that will forever haunt me."
Tookie has written a number of "age appropriate" books for children, describing the perils of gang life, and warning young people to stay out of it. His best-selling one has sold all of 330 copies.
His petition for clemency sidesteps the question of whether he actually killed four people in eleven days with shotgun blasts to their heads. Tookie says that he didn't do it. Tookie says that it would wrong for him to apologize to the families of the victims for a crime that he didn't commit.
The problem is, that as a founder of the Crips gang, now estimated to number in the tens of thousands, there are many murders that Tookie must have a hand in and/or knew about. While Tookie says that he has turned his back on gang life and become a new person while on death row, he refuses to cooperate with law enforcement officials who might like to know the circumstances of dozens, if not hundreds of deaths. That would make him a snitch. Tookie doesn't snitch.
Tookie has gotton a lot of support from Hollywood stars like Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. James Foxx starred in a made for TV movie titled "Redemption" all about guess who? The movie is a big hit at rallys to save Tookie.
Much of his support comes from people who, aside from the usual death penalty opponents, argue that even if Tookie did kill those people, he has become a changed man, and doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? Actually, those people often won't admit that Tookie might have killed those people. They believe that his redemption, his turning around his life, his new outlook, and his efforts to educate young minority children that gang life is not the way to go, outweigh anything that he might have done before he changed his mind.
There are other considerations besides "redemption" that enter the picture. According to stories in the newspapers, (specifically the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times) there is a lot of support for clemency in the African American community of south-central Los Angeles. South central is Crips territory. Dire warnings of what might happen if Tookie gets the needle are hinted at by some of the people interviewed. California prisons are also filled with Crips. They are not happy that a brother might be executed. Who knows what they might do?
Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? You might ask the four people who Tookie is alleged to have killed that question. Oh wait. They're dead. They don't have a second chance. Silly me.
Wouldn't having a real gang member as famous as Tookie, telling young people not to do what he did, have a positive influence on young peole who might otherwise be influenced to join a gang? But the whole reason that Tookie is so famous is that he not only joined a gang, he founded one. A real big bad one.
I think that a good lesson for young people is that, if you kill someone, there's a very good chance that you will end up as Tookie did. And if Tookie gets the needle on Tuesday, that's another very good lesson for young people. It says to them that no matter what line of bullshit you come up with, no matter how many influential people intervene on your behalf, no matter how many people are ready to riot in the streets if you are executed, if you kill another human being you are going to die.
posted by hans at 2:33 AM
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