The Tookie Monster
If anything, the recent Tookie Williams phenomenon has sparked three bodies of interest: those who believe he should be killed, those who believe he should not be killed, and those who could give a rat’s ass one way or the other. Although I subscribe to the latter body, I think it is important to put this monumental case in context.
Most people who have paid attention to national headlines the last week or so know by now that Tookie Williams was the notorious co-creator and once leader of the Crips gang in Los Angeles nearly 25 years ago. And, by all judicial accounts, he is a murderer sentenced to die early tomorrow morning. Therefore, I will spare you a long drawn out history of the man whose name sounds more like a Sesame Street character than a murderer.
Williams is on death row for one reason, murder. Convicted of it in 19?? Who cares? What I care about is the lack of compassion and understanding by those who want him dead for those who do not.
Read and read carefully; the majority of people who do not want him to die do not claim he should not die on the grounds he might be innocent, even though he claims he is. It’s widely accepted that even if he never killed anyone directly, his actions and control as the Crips leader never the less killed hundreds across America. Williams had the ability to use his power to change historical events for the good, but instead he ordered the killing of the guilty and innocent alike and chose a road down death row few are likely to return on, literally and figuratively.
Many of his supporters feel he should not die on the grounds he has turned his life around to promote peace, to stop gang violence, and to promote education through children’s books. In essence, the man has become much more useful alive than dead. This logic is respectfully commendable, and if not for our laws, I would support it.
However, there are a few of his supporters who feel he should be given clemency because capital punishment is racist. They claim that more Blacks and Hispanics are sentenced to death than whites. This is just not so. Bureau of Justice statistics on capital punishment show very much the opposite numbers. Last year, of the 59 people put to death in America, 36 were white, 19 were Black, 3 were Hispanic, and 1 was Asian. To boot, of the 59, 58 were men. Based on those statistics, one could argue that CP is biased towards white males. Therefore, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy, BTK, Jeffery Dahmer among a great deal of other nasty villains should have been spared the death penalty. Technically, Dahmer was spared the death penalty, but once put in general circulation, fellow inmates killed him, as they should have.
The fact is that the Tookie monster is a cold blooded killer sentenced to die one minute after midnight, and the killing machine, the Republican party, will not offer clemency to him. Keep this in mind, Swartzenegger has made a comfortable living off of killing bad men on the Big Screen, and Bush has made a comfortable living off of killing bad and good men in real life. In fact, Bush holds the historical record in Texas for the most criminals euthanized under his governance. It is clear, especially within the last three years, that killing has become a part of their party’s doctrine and they will not compromise it for a Black man from LA. See you in the next life Tookie, should there be one.
Most people who have paid attention to national headlines the last week or so know by now that Tookie Williams was the notorious co-creator and once leader of the Crips gang in Los Angeles nearly 25 years ago. And, by all judicial accounts, he is a murderer sentenced to die early tomorrow morning. Therefore, I will spare you a long drawn out history of the man whose name sounds more like a Sesame Street character than a murderer.
Williams is on death row for one reason, murder. Convicted of it in 19?? Who cares? What I care about is the lack of compassion and understanding by those who want him dead for those who do not.
Read and read carefully; the majority of people who do not want him to die do not claim he should not die on the grounds he might be innocent, even though he claims he is. It’s widely accepted that even if he never killed anyone directly, his actions and control as the Crips leader never the less killed hundreds across America. Williams had the ability to use his power to change historical events for the good, but instead he ordered the killing of the guilty and innocent alike and chose a road down death row few are likely to return on, literally and figuratively.
Many of his supporters feel he should not die on the grounds he has turned his life around to promote peace, to stop gang violence, and to promote education through children’s books. In essence, the man has become much more useful alive than dead. This logic is respectfully commendable, and if not for our laws, I would support it.
However, there are a few of his supporters who feel he should be given clemency because capital punishment is racist. They claim that more Blacks and Hispanics are sentenced to death than whites. This is just not so. Bureau of Justice statistics on capital punishment show very much the opposite numbers. Last year, of the 59 people put to death in America, 36 were white, 19 were Black, 3 were Hispanic, and 1 was Asian. To boot, of the 59, 58 were men. Based on those statistics, one could argue that CP is biased towards white males. Therefore, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy, BTK, Jeffery Dahmer among a great deal of other nasty villains should have been spared the death penalty. Technically, Dahmer was spared the death penalty, but once put in general circulation, fellow inmates killed him, as they should have.
The fact is that the Tookie monster is a cold blooded killer sentenced to die one minute after midnight, and the killing machine, the Republican party, will not offer clemency to him. Keep this in mind, Swartzenegger has made a comfortable living off of killing bad men on the Big Screen, and Bush has made a comfortable living off of killing bad and good men in real life. In fact, Bush holds the historical record in Texas for the most criminals euthanized under his governance. It is clear, especially within the last three years, that killing has become a part of their party’s doctrine and they will not compromise it for a Black man from LA. See you in the next life Tookie, should there be one.
posted by Caleab at 10:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home