Posted on 12/20/2005 11:27:20 AM PST by LouAvul
LOS ANGELES (AP) - In the kind of funeral normally reserved for a dignitary, religious leaders and celebrities traveled to violence-wracked South Los Angeles to pay respects to the man who helped found a deadly street gang, then spent the years before his execution denouncing the gangster life.
Stanley Tookie Williams' funeral was scheduled for noon Tuesday, almost exactly a week after he was put to death for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Williams, who in the 1970s co-founded the Crips gang not far from the church hosting his funeral, wrote from Death Row children's books warning against the gang life.
Those efforts attracted numerous supporters who lobbied frantically for clemency, arguing Williams had redeemed himself. Among those expected to attend his funeral were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who visited Williams shortly before his death, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg.
The service was to include a five-minute video tribute by documentary filmmaker Jonathan Stack and speeches by motivational guru Tony Robbins and actor Jamie Foxx, who portrayed Williams in the TV movie "Redemption: The Stanley Tookie Williams Story."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
This funeral won't resemble Reagan's.
What? No Bill Clinton on the guest list?
They have heroes, they (the left) want a hero with a past with which they can identify.
Our own Palestinians.
When I saw the word "celebrities", I was thinking of Hollywood stars or politicians, not the same old collection of race warlords. What a disappointment (g).
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I feel a riot coming on. Someone start the Popcorn.
Disgusting. Honoring a quadruple murderer like some sort of hero is beyond shameful.
But, what do expect from people like Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson?
I dare a plumbing Freeper to swing by during the funeral to install a urinal over the grave....
What's the fuss, folks. No one but the idiot morons in Hollywood and Black racists will be there. This guy is no sleeping with the fishes, and rightfully so. This is a non story!!!
I wonder how many people turned out for his victims' funerals?
Anything that makes Sean Penn cry has to be at least a little funny.
After the service, Robbins and Foxx will be leading the gang over to the Magic Johnson Theater on MLK and Crenshaw for a viewing of "Munich."
A friend of mine is against the DP for religious reasons. But I asked her if SHE would go to the funeral. She said, "I'm a Christian, but I ain't no Saint..." Seriously, we talked about Tookie. She thought he was a cold blooded killer who should have died a natural death in prison, proceeded by a lonely burial. She found it hard to find pity for his soul, but she did not think it our right to take a life, just as it was not Williams. I can respect that.
Yes--going to the funeral is a bit much, even for that crowd.
They cameras will be there, that's what offends most of us I bet.
Complete horsehockey! He wouldn't quit the crips, denounce them, or debreif with the cops. He just said he 'regretted' it. (He was sorry he got caught and convicted, IOW.)
I hope all the 'clelebrities' have a good cry over this scumbags death.
What? No memorial drive-by shooting?
Did this clown write this column in anticipation of violence?
All calm here.
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