Posted on 12/20/2005 4:11:08 PM PST by Pikamax
Heavy crowd gathers in L.A. for funeral of executed former gang leader at 18:39 on December 20, 2005, EST.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Celebrities from hip-hop star Snoop Dogg to motivational speaker Tony Robbins lamented the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams at a funeral Tuesday that drew hundreds to the violence-wracked area where Williams founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago.
Mourners, including gang members flashing hand signs, waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church.
Under heavy police presence, vendors sold T-shirts with Williams' picture, and a large TV set up in the parking lot allowed the overflow crowd to watch the service. Williams was executed Dec. 13 despite clemency pleas from celebrities and others who said he had re-dedicated his life to peace.
"It's nine-fifteen on twelve-thirteen and another black king will be taken from the scene," Snoop Dogg told mourners, reciting a poem about the execution. The line "I don't believe Stan did it" drew wild applause in the parking lot.
Williams, 51, was put to death by injection at San Quentin Prison for the 1979 shotgun murders of a 7-Eleven clerk and three motel owners.
"The war within me is over. I battled my demons and I was triumphant," Williams said in a recording played to mourners, whom he asked to spread a message to loved ones.
"Teach them how to avoid our destructive footsteps. Teach them to strive for higher education. Teach them to promote peace and teach them to focus on rebuilding the neighbourhoods that you, others and I helped to destroy."
Rev. Jesse Jackson decried Williams' execution. Jackson said Williams saw himself in the end as a "healer, not a predator."
"Tookie is dead. We're not safer, we're not more secure, we're not more humane," Jackson said.
Robbins told the mourners he knew Williams only a short time but said he had "so much rage and so much anger" after his execution.
While on death row, Williams wrote children's books warning against gang life. Those efforts attracted supporters who lobbied for clemency, arguing Williams had redeemed himself. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was unconvinced, and refused to spare his life.
Several dozen gang members wearing blue attire associated with Crips gangs watched the funeral in the parking lot. One who identified himself as "Killowatt the Third," 33, estimated there were 20 to 30 Crips-affiliated gang members there to honour Williams.
"That's my role model, man. That's the CEO of the Crips," he said.
Al Birdsong, 54, a school security officer who waited for hours to get into the funeral, said Williams did not deserve to be executed after more than two decades in prison.
"I'm here to pay my respects to humanity, and that goes to Tookie and everyone else they do in. . . . What if it was your son?" Birdsong said.
"He's no different from any other human being. We all made mistakes."
Keelonnie Roberts, 23, said her father was a Crip who used to tell her tales of gang life. Although Roberts never met Williams, she said, "He seemed like a sweet man to me."
Mourner Rick Hayes, 36, of Compton, wore a T-shirt with the slogan, "What does redemption mean . . .," which he had made. If Williams was unable to earn clemency from the governor, "what can a black man do, what can he do in society, to get another chance at life?" Hayes asked.
In his will, Williams asked that his remains be cremated and the ashes scattered over South Africa.
Tuesday's ceremony was not the first public funeral for an executed inmate.
About 300 people attended a San Francisco service for Robert Alton Harris, a murderer whose 1992 execution was the first in 25 years after a death penalty ban and became a rallying point for opponents of capital punishment.
That's enough reason to inject Tookie, right there. The man was the CEO of the Crips and therefore was partly responsible for the destruction of many of our countries black youth.
As a side note, is it true that Tookie's best selling Children's book sold a whopping 350 copies?
Oh, well, it's a free country, so let them have their rant. Justice was done, and anything else now is an afterthought.
Yep. On all points in your post. That quote from Killowatt the Third (nice name, I wonder if the "kill" in it was part of the attraction) speaks volumes on Tookie's legacy. As to his books, I heard the number was 333 sold. Definitely Nobel Prize material...
John Carlson, radio host in Seattle, asked a question something like this:
Which has done more harm to the vitality, integrity and future of blacks in America... The KKK or the Crips?
Plus, we didn't cure cancer, we didn't stop the terrorists from bombing innocents, we didn't raise the SAT scores in the inner cities. But, Jesse, let's focus on what this execution was actually supposed to accomplish, rather than just speaking about pie-in-the-sky objectives. The execution of a convicted mass-murderer is society's ultimate act of retribution. It is civlized people standing up and saying, "What you did is totally unacceptable, and the only punishment commensurate with your violent deeds is the death penalty." It is justice served for the families of the victims, and for society as a whole. What the execution does accomplish is far more important than what it doesn't.
Um, you could try not brutally murdering four people, laughing and boasting about their deaths, and then telling the jury who convicts you, "I'm going to get each and every one of you m______ f______rs."
Lol.
The murdered didn't get any such chance either.
I'd like to know the names of those 300 who attended the public funeral of that hamburger-eater Robert Alton Harris in San Francisco.
I argue that the drug laws of the early 1900's are the one of earliest root cause of the current high rate of murder and incarceration. The Jim Crow laws contributed for many years, but that era is behind us -- what is left of the evil vintage of that era is the racism-birthed drug laws.
At least Williams could have an "open casket." I don't think we can say that for his victims.
"Killowatt the Third", a Crips member, was there. No doubt one of the brighter lights in the gang.
>"He's no different from any other human being. We all made mistakes."
"He had iss-yews!"
...a large TV set up in the parking lot.
Probably Stolen.
They barely filled a church, and 20 gang members showed up.
I like that! Can I steal it for my tagline?
They don't.
Google Australia or Toledo Ohio. You may find some there.
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