Tookie Williams may have been patially redeemed.....but I still think he had to go.
He helped to found and create one of the most notorious gangs in American society, The Crips. Although he was caught on these charges he may have had a hand in and/or been involved with other crimes in the Black community. The Crips gang has caused widespread death and despair in the Black community and for that he is partially responsible for the deaths of countless individuals in America.
His death to me is for ALL of his crimes against the country at large. Although I do not like the celebretory tone that many conservatives have about his death, I am not mourning for him.
Although I do believe in redemption and rehabilitation, he still has the blood of thousands of people on his hands in my eyes. Sorry Tookie but ya gotta go. He symbolizes too much of what has caused haywire within the Black community today for me; and a few positive children's books will not make that go away completely.
He got convicted for the murder of 4 people.....That by most standards is heineous and reprehensible. Sure many Blackmen are caught in a dangerous web that is the judicial system, sure racism has ultimately had a hand in his chosen lifestyle but he still had a choice. I had similar choices when I was younger and I made the right ones(so far).
Now Mumia on the other hand is a different and more worthwhile case altogether.
Yes this animal we call the state has wrongly convicted many people who happen to be Black and poor. Yes the prison system unjustly holds many good people for wrongul or "trumped up" charges. Yes racism, and classism create a permanent prison population in America: but CHOICE can make a difference.
Choice is the single factor that separates man from animal in our world. Killing multiple people over property/money is animalistic to me. I've been poor, no I REALLY have been poor and I knew at that time that I would never kill anyone for some small petty amount of money, it was never a road to success in my mind.
Poverty in tne Black community is bad and I understand that there are situations where poverty may force someone to steal or do questionable things; but murder at a convenience store and/or starting a gang movement is not a valid road out of your situation. Try reading a book and/or working your way forward; there are many roads to success and I do not believe for one instant that people like Tookie have no options on the table.
I support the death penalty for heineous and severe crimes like multiple captial murder where the evidence is clear and or proven with DNA and other scientific means. Yes there are problems with the Tookie Williams case but the fact that he was the co-founder of the Crip gang which has killed more than a few people during the 70s/80s/90s and even to this day. This gang also sold and continues to traffic drugs and other illegal items in our country today. This gang perpetuates and instills a deadly cycle within all of the youth who are drawn to it.
Thus Tookie's crimes against the family he may or maynot have killed directly were actually greater social crimes in my view that he needed to be held accountable for. I hate the fact that people are taking his side but these same people are not standing up for or taking the side of countless victims of the violence the Crips gang has caused for 3 going on 4 decades.
His crimes are coutless in my mind.
Where is the community outpouring for the Victims of his actions?????