What will it take to turn the gang members of the USA toward their government rather than away from it?
Tookie Willims was a nobody. He was a nobody from the day he was born in the Deep South, in New Orleans, until the day he turned into a savior of the people he once lead in hate and anger he was nobody. He was nobody when he killed and then he was somebody. He was feared. He was wanted by the law and protected by his gang members. He was revered in a set of values that are estranged from that of what most Middle Americans call 'Family Values.'
"Originally, most Crips activity took place on or around school campuses, and these gangs created a reputation for violence and extortion. Although a predominately Black gangs in most areas across the nation, many other ethnic groups have adopted the Crip name because of the on-going notoriety of the Crips and their rivals, the Bloods."
Would this nation rather find a way to recapture the hate Tookie started or reverse it?
A 'legacy' will speak from the grave. An example of an opportunity for redemption behind bars will live as long as we as a society don't fail again.
Jury Rejects Alibi Testimony
In contrast to the overwhelming evidence presented to the jury which established Stanley 'Tookie' Williams' guilt, the defense consisted of Williams' step-father, two inmates that were housed in jail with Williams, and Williams' girlfriend. The testimony of these various individuals was soundly rejected by the jury.
A police expert tied a shell casing from one crime scene to a slide-action 12-gauge shotgun owned by Stanley "Tookie" Williams, but there were no fingerprints, no pictures, no bystanders to finger him. And no DNA that could bolster or silence his claim of innocence.
A quarter-century later, the trial that landed the Crips gang co-founder on death row draws renewed focus as his Dec. 13 execution date nears. While his backers highlight his tale of atonement and anti-gang outreach from prison, debate over his 1981 prosecution is bound to play out in the Capitol on Thursday as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger entertains his case for clemency.
The state's lawyers will underscore the savagery of the crimes, his refusal to admit to them and the repeated rejections of his state and federal appeals. In response, lawyers for Williams likely will argue that the kind of "snitch" testimony relied upon in his trial has led to numerous exonerations, that the evidence was weak and appeals courts never really considered his innocence claim.
"What the federal courts have done is looked at a host of legal questions, such as whether Stanley Williams had inadequate representation, and questions about the jury," said Jonathan Harris, one of the lawyers who will speak for Williams.
"The question of Stanley Williams' guilt or innocence is not properly before them."
LIES SO pervade the campaign waged to "save" convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams that Williams and company don't even bother to cover their tracks when they say things they know aren't true.
It's a dimension of crime and poverty and decay and politicians who blame the victims for the problems that are swallowing up their lives.
I've worked in the 'Inner City.' I am not looking for hero status either. It was a darn good living and the values that I brought with me I received from a Middle Class life with the option of opportunity on my side. I simply make a statement of personal insight. My identity is not important. The identity of the gangs, their source of status and all the decades of attempts to stop the violence and return hope to the 'USA Inner City' has failed.
When I first was exposed to the reality of the West District of Newark, New Jersey it was with a quasi gang member whom was respected on 'the street' for his martial arts skills. He wanted this 'white woman' to know what she otherwise couldn't get her mind around. It wasn't difficult but only dangerous to venture into the streets of Newark and find people who know no world greater than a few blocks all their lives. Know no advantage for the lack of 'after school' jobs at the local retailers. Know no social life except what is presented by an economy of the drug culture.
It's enough already. I saw thirteen year old children pregnant in a Muslim entitlement to virgin status by their adult husbands. They still play with dolls while carrying the next generation of disadvantaged. What kind of parents are these? What kind of gender identity do they have? What level of violence do they grow up understanding as a way of life? What do they inherit they pay taxes on? What have we done as a society that has helped? And why is there still segregation?
The 'values' of gangs afford the members an identity they can carry to their prison cells and evidently now to their graves. The very society that deprived Stanley Tookie Williams a life is insuring it does not ever have to change it's ways by killing the Co-Founder of one of the most notorious gangs admired until today for it's legacy of violence and lifestyle.
The gangs of the USA provide what society has been unable to provide, an identity for as long as they are alive and a legacy after their death. The legacy propagates itself and insures the gangs will never abate. Gangs are a warrior culture. They don't seek legitimate reasons for being they are justified in society injustice. As a society we need to stop the 'carrot and mule' attempts to 'bring them out' of their born into or found identities and lifestyles. We need to provide an example of redemption beginning with our mercy in Mr. Williams case and work toward every gang member in prison to communicate with their family in the Inner City to reverse the trend of this movement.
When societies fail their citizens, behaviors erupt. Those behaviors take on many identities depending on the assets, personal resources and opportunities of that member of a society. And make no mistake, Stan Tookie Williams is a member and product of this society no different than his gang and it's subsequent successes of culture and lifestyle. There is no control in how those behaviors erupt. Prisons are a warehouse of reasons. Prisons in the USA today lack the ability to stop repeat offenders and provide rehabilitation. The prison of the USA are defined by their sentenced and released products.
And as a reminder to the disgusting resolve of USA prisons let's not even venture into the scandals of our military and it's current behaviors in detainment and torture.
The reasons to stop the execution of Stan Tookie Williams is related to the rehabilitation of his life and his legacy and how that will be interpreted in a culture that believes it lives the only life it's members are allowed. To execute the Co-Founder of 'The Crips' will be to cement it's legacy to hardened gang members who see no change in the society that gang was founded and looks to the extremes of our own examples as reason to continue to resist.
The Inner City has to rehab itself. The Nation of Islam tries to bring this 'anger of the streets' to resolve but in a recent example of frustration knowing this execution was on the horizon it is members of our society, dressed as "The Nations" members destroyed an inventory of a liquor store. Is that the avenue of redemption we want for our society? Vigilantes, and there is no mistaking the actions of those young men was in example of anger carried out in their own form of social justice, or do we want it defined by a man who can order the disbanding of "The Crips" out of respect for the respect he showed our justice system?
Stan Tookie Williams is the greatest asset to date this country has to reach into the Inner City and bring it out of it's hopelessness. Do we use our assets wisely, stopping all the lies to save his life? Or do we still continue to try to stop such lives from erupting by killing it's finest example into a legacy of 'I told you so' to the leaders of the 'street gangs' that now occupy territory that belongs to yet realized American Will and Economy?
There will be a hope on December 13, 2005 or there will be death. It's a tragedy in the making greater than any hope the people that occupy the most depraved and deprived lives this country has to offer live everyday.
Gangs understand death and how it happens from a very early age. They understand violence and it's benefits. They understand all to well how growing up fast and living hard is a method of survival and status. But the one aspect to their lives as Americans they never understand. Truly understood or valued, is the concept of life and how hard it is to grow into a learned lifestyle of work and diligence with acceptance into a society without the image of glory tatooed on their skin.
Stan Tookie Williams is ours. It is time we show mercy and grant clemency as an example to those that value him and will be touched by his example. If there is a chance he can reverse what he started then grant him life in prison without a chance of parole, turn back the desperate lies that pleaded his only legal chance and make this country 'handle' their toughest members to bring hope to the lives that we seek to reach rather than turning them further from us.
We need to be better than our current legacy to those people. We can always 'house' them in prisons we continue to build and not close down. But, when will be we ever again be given a chance to give them pause to the message we can send by stopping the legacy of death that awaits the Co-Founder of the Crips on December 13, 2005? If he lives and tells 'The Truth' to power we will have a reason to say as a society to every gang member, "We wanted to try and this is how we are trying. Now, the rest is up to you." Will one human life spared achieve that? We don't know until we try.
Tookie Williams should live. We should show mercy to the hardest of the criminals to come out of our Inner Cities. We need to stop the Culture of Death the gangs wear as a badge of honor.
