Tookie Williams is dead.
I don't know how I feel about this and I know just enough about the case to be dangerous. You've been warned.
But I know Tookie Williams is dead.
On the one hand, this man created one of the most violent, murderous, and heinous organizations to ever plague the country. And, at least in theory, this is not why he was on death row in the first place.
On the other hand, he renounced that same organization and the lifestyle it preaches and reached out to children and teens, hoping to undo the damage he had caused. Eventhough, in theory, this is not why he was on death row in the first place so does it "count towards" redemption.
Four people are dead, allegedly by his hand, and countless more by the creation of his gang. There is no way to know how far these ripples will spread.
Countless children and teens have been touched by his words of peace and strength. There is no way to know how far these ripples will spread.
I don't know...
I don't know how I feel about the death penalty. I know I am not automatically against it. I know I am not automatically in favor of it.
Actor, Mike Farrell, said something along the lines of Williams was a product of the environment in which he had grown up (very loosely paraphrased but the gist is the same.) I have never bought that argument completely because it does a disservice to all the young men and women who grow up in that same environment and do not turn to drugs, violence, prostitution. And yet we know the odds are indeed stacked against these kids.
What about the environment in which Tookie Williams spent the last half of his life? It is generally recognized that the fastest way to turn a petty thief into a hardened criminal is to put him (or her) into gen pop for five years. Prison is as hard if not harder than the streets the criminals come from. Yet is was here that Williams turned himself around. Here where he rejected his past ways, actions and teachings.
Much has been made about the fact that he never asked for forgiveness for the killings of those four people. Much has been made about the fact that he consistently denied committing the murders. If he didn't commit the crimes, should he have asked forgiveness anyway in order to save his own life? I don't know. Did he kill those people or was he truly innocent, as he claimed? I don't know. Did the state of California kill him for committing those crimes or because he created such a bloody gang? I don't know.
Did the state of California execute an innocent man, as his supporters claim? No. Tookie Williams was not an innocent man. Was he a man who had to die? I don't know. Somehow, I just don't think so. I think we got this one wrong. I think we got this one really, really wrong. But I don't know.
Tookie Williams is dead. That much I do know.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
5 comments:
It's extremely hypocritical of these Conservatives who are anti-abortion and anti-stem cell research (Because it "murders" something that isn't even alive yet.) and so trumpet the value of human life to vehemently support the death penalty like they have.
Frankly I think it's enough that he'd have to spend life imprisonment, especially if his stating that he'd repented in prison were words that rang true.
But by Conservative logic, when someone is a killer, they're always a killer.
Using that logic, Jimmy Carter has always been a poor president and isn't worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize for his H for H work.
But apparently that doesn't ring true, because using that logic, Ronald Reagan would still be just the guy who dodged the draft to be in Bedtime for Bonzo, when instead he's an "American Hero" for selling weapons to the Contras who killed and raped nuns.
I 'unno, I'm pissed.
I don't think this is solely a conservative republican issue, nor is it solely a Christian issue. Not every situation in this country can be boiled down to a conservative vs. liberal debate. Sometimes it has nothing to do politics. He committed heinous crimes, he was tried, convicted and given a death sentence. That was a matter of following the law, not promoting one political party over another. I think it's a "greater good" issue, actually. And, yes, I think there are cases when the death penalty does serve the greater good. Yet clearly, there are times when it doesn't.
I personally don't buy the whole idea that you're bad because of your environment. If you don't like your environment, change it. No, you can't do that as a child, but you can do that as an adult. I came from a home in which I was severely physically abused by my mother. I didn't go out and kill people, become drug addicted, a prostitute etc etc. I grew up and made better choices for myself because I didn't like the choices that were made for me when I had no control over it. There are any number of people who grew up in the same environment with Tookie who did not become murderes, rapists, drug dealers, thieves, gang bangers etc. To say that he was what he was because of his upbringing diminishes the efforts of those who made better choices... it excuses his behavior, even on some small level. It says that he couldn't help it because he grew up in a bad neighborhood. Animals can't help their behavior...human beings can.
Do I think that the greater good was served by the execution of this man? I don't know. But I'm not torn up about it either. I did feel unbelievable sadness when karla faye tucker was executed in Texas. She'd killed as a young girl who was drug addicted. She didn't pose any further threat to anyone. The ramifications of her actions are not being felt decades later in generations of kids who are now killing each other. Clemency used to simply just mean mercy. Some people deserve to be shown mercy. I think she was one of those who deserved it. I don't know if someone necessarily deserves to die, but there are those who don't deserve mercy.
In this particular case, there was no question as to his guilt. There were eye witnesses to the crimes, and to his actions following the crimes. I don't have any doubt that he committed them, and the fact that he didn't take responsibility does anger me. The fact that he spoke out against gangs while in jail doesn't negate the fact that the blood of hundreds, if not thousands of people are on his hands because of what he started. I don't think he deserved a cookie because he started to do good things... many people do good things without special recognition. It's what decent human beings do. The fact that he was a criminal doesn't make his redemption somehow more important than the work done by those who never murdered anyone.
I am torn. I don't know if he "deserved" to die, but I don't believe he deserved special recognition for learning what it is to be a decent human being. It's directly because of his previous actions that many, many people will never be able to learn the same lesson because they're dead.
I think this is an age old question... show mercy or punish. An eye for an eye, or love thy neighbor? Which is right? It's good that he found whatever peace and redemption he did while he was in prison, because perhaps he found salvation in death.
Does his death serve the greater good? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. But I won't lose sleep over this one.
it's hard for me to know what to say about this one. in my mind what makes this particular case worse than others is that he had the opportunity (and took it) to change who he was.
i'm against the death penalty (though sometimes i want very much to be for it) but it seems that the man that was executed was not the same man that committed the "crimes" for which he was being punished.
There are tims when, to quote a friend, the appropriate communication is "You --- out of the gene pool!" Dark humor, perhaps, that sounds a bit cruel. And yet it expresses one of the reasons for the death penalty -- to perhaps reduce the future possibility of gratuitous violence and murder. I am ambivalent on the death penalty, believeing that there are times when it is appropriate and times when it is not. But as with others, I'll lose no sleep over Tookie.
An example from the UK
Happy slap gang guilty of killing barman in Clockwork Orange-style violent spree
· South Bank attack Girl, 15, gave cue for attack that left 44 impact injuries
· Jury convicts four of manslaughter
Sandra Laville
Thursday December 15, 2005
Guardian
A gang who filmed themselves on a mobile phone kicking a barman to death in a "happy slapping" spree of violence straight out of the novel A Clockwork Orange were found guilty of killing their victim yesterday.
Dubbed the Sargeant crew, the four were convicted of the manslaughter of David Morley, 37, a survivor of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing in Soho six years ago.
They attacked him as he chatted to a friend on a bench on the South Bank of London; witnesses said one member, a 15-year-old girl, had put the last boot into his skull. The gang later watched the attack at home on the mobile phone.
It took an Old Bailey jury 26 hours to find Darren Case, 18, Reece Sargeant, 21, a 17-year-old boy and the 15-year old girl, all from south London, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Morley, who worked at Bromptons bar in Earls Court, west London, was one of several victims of the gang, and it was his death in October last year that brought their attacks to an end.
Details of their lifestyles, in which violence became the drug of pleasure, emerged in court. The girl and her friends were addicted to happy slapping, the growing youth cult of attacking passersby and filming the results on mobile phones.
Like the so-called droogs in Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, they chose the South Bank in London as the hunting ground for their "ultra violence", but added a 21st-century twist with the mobile phone pictures.
Over several months last year they went on "all-nighters", feral sprees of violence on Friday nights when the girl, the daughter of a drug addict mother and an alcoholic father, was allowed out by her foster parents.
"It was because of her they did what they did," a 17-year-old member of the gang told the court. "Because she wanted to film it on the video phone - people being beaten up."
They all dressed in hooded tops, but marked out their individuality in different ways. Case, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, carried a pair of rice flails and always had the left arm of his hoodie rolled up. The girl wore large hoop earrings and carried the mobile phone.
A girl associated with the gang told the court they would plot attacks at Case's home in Kennington, south London, and would drink heavily before they went out for the night.
"It was like a little cult thing when they were all gathered around a cauldron," she told police. "They would say, 'Who are we beating up tonight, are beating up druggies, are we beating tramps or are we going out to beat up people in the street?'"
It was pure chance that Mr Morley crossed their path during one of their weekly forays around Hungerford Bridge in the early hours of the morning.
Six years earlier Mr Morley had survived the nail bomb attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, where he was the bar manager. He was haunted by nightmares about the blast and had asked a friend to meet him on the night he was killed because he felt depressed.
But on the banks of the river Thames, the happy slapping gang managed to do what the Soho bomber, David Copeland, a racist, homophobic loner, had not. Pointing her mobile phone at Mr Morley the teenage girl, known by her graffiti tag of Zobbs, said, "We're doing a documentary on happy slapping. Pose for the camera."
That cue began an assault so violent that Mr Morley was left with 44 impact injuries and a ruptured spleen.
His friend, Alastair Whitehead, watched the girl land the final kicks to his head. "She kicked him like you would kick a football or rugby ball, just swinging her right foot back and kicking him really hard in the head," he said.
"She did that two or three times, maybe more. The image of it will stay with me for ever."
On the same night, six other people were attacked in the space of 56 minutes.
The four admitted being present but blamed each other for the attack on Mr Morley. Sargeant accepted that he had watched it later on the girl's mobile phone and, while on remand, Case bragged about the killing, telling a class of youths at Feltham young offenders institution how he had jumped on Mr Morley until his head had "split open".
Mr Morley's parents, who were in court throughout the trial, said their son had wanted to get on with his life after the Admiral Duncan bombing, despite the nightmares and the physical injuries he sustained. They had never expected his life would be so short.
Jeff Morley, 76, said yesterday: "No sentence will bring our son back to life, but at least the rest of society will be safer while these dangerous misfits are kept off the street. The assault on David was particularly brutal. He was destroyed."
The four were also convicted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. Sentencing will take place on January 23.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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