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LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of people attended a star-studded funeral Tuesday for executed killer Stanley Tookie Williams in the violence-wracked South Los Angeles section where he founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago. Under heavy police presence, mourners including gang members flashing hand signs waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church. A big TV screen was set up in a parking lot for an overflow crowd. Vendors sold T-shirts with Williams’ picture.

Mourners overflowed a church Tuesday for the funeral of executed murderer and Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, listening to eulogies by hip-hop star Snoop Dogg and Rev. Jesse Jackson and a recording of Williams urging peace. As police watched, mourners including gang members flashing hand signs gathered at the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles and in a parking lot where a TV showed the funeral for Williams, who was executed Dec. 13 despite a celebrity-studded campaign for clemency. Snoop Dogg recited a poem, "Until We Meet Again," in which he referred to the execution. "It's nine-fifteen...

LISTEN TO JOHN AND KEN ONLINE - 3PM PACIFIC Listen and comment. How surprised would you be if they discussed today's Tookie funeral?

About 2,000 people turn out to view the body of the killer and writer executed last week despite a high-profile campaign to save his life. For many of the mourners filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit and silk tie bore little resemblance to the man they remembered as the muscle-bound, fearsome Crips co-founder, Stanley Tookie Williams. "When I was a kid, Tookie was the most dangerous man in South-Central Los Angeles," recalled Najee Ali, 42, director of Project Islamic Hope, a Los Angeles-based civil rights group. "Looking at him today, I'm reminded that...

Large crowd expected at Tookie's funeral 20/12/2005 - 14:02:42 Few condemned inmates have generated as much public support as Stanley Tookie Williams, and so much post-execution attention. The final send-off for the former gang leader executed last week promises to be no different. A funeral normally reserved for a dignitary or religious leader was scheduled for today, almost exactly a week after Williams was executed by lethal injection for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Among those expected to attend the funeral in Los Angeles were the US civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who visited...

Actor Sean Penn was among the thousand, or so, protesting the execution of four-time murderer Tookie Williams on Tuesday. As the crowd outside San Quentin State Prison was told after midnight that Williams was dead, Penn broke into tears. “I’ve killed more people in my movies than Tookie killed, but that doesn’t make me a bad person,” Penn said. “Why can’t we see the good in Tookie? He’s written children’s books for Christ’s sake.” Penn admitted he hadn’t read any of Williams’ books, but asserted they must be good because they must have been written with passion. “A person who...

Twas the night before Tookie's execution ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twas the night before Christmas and all through San Quentin, the crips were protesting, and liberals were ventin'. The cyanide hung by the chamber wth care, in hopes that the reaper soon would be there. The inmates were nestled all snug in their bed ; except for Old Tookie, who soon would be dead. And me with my beer mug, dressed warm in my flannell, had curled up to watch it, on the Fox News Channel. I set up my TIVO to record the news station, and thoroughly loved the momentous occasion....

Let me begin by stating that I am in favor of capital punishment. I don’t view it as a deterrent, understand, I consider it the only appropriate punishment for cold-blooded murder. Actually, I have only two objections to it. The first is that the killer with more than one murder to his credit can only be executed the one time. Next, I resent the fact that no matter how much he may have tortured his victims, society has seen fit to send him off as painlessly as possible. I find it bizarre that in a country where mercy killings are...

Martyrdom? By John Leo Dec 19, 2005 “Tookie” Williams, put to death by lethal injection last week in California, was a “legend” who underwent “a meaningful martyrdom that sent a lasting message to the world,” according to old-time leftist Tom Hayden, formerly Mr. Jane Fonda.” Meaningful martyrdom”? What can Hayden be talking about? Martyrs die for a cause. Williams died for executing four unarmed people during two 1979 robberies, shooting a woman in the face, and laughing uncontrollably at the gurgling sounds a male victim made as he died in agony. Opposing the death penalty, of course, means speaking out...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday told officials in his hometown in Austria to remove his name from a sports stadium and stop using his name to promote the city. The governor's request came after politicians in Graz began a petition drive to rename the stadium, reacting to Schwarzenegger's decision last week to deny clemency to condemned inmate Stanley Tookie Williams. Opposition to the death penalty is strong in Austria. In a letter that began "Dear Mister Mayor," Schwarzenegger said he decided to spare the Graz city council "further concern" should he be forced to make other clemency decisions...

The wretched excess of the "Save Tookie" campaign By John Leo AP Rapper Snoop Dogg during a rally for death-row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams last month. "Tookie" Williams, put to death by lethal injection last week in California, was a "legend" who underwent "a meaningful martyrdom that sent a lasting message to the world," according to old-time leftist Tom Hayden, formerly Mr. Jane Fonda. "Meaningful martyrdom"? What can Hayden be talking about? Martyrs die for a cause. Williams died for executing four unarmed people during two 1979 robberies, shooting a woman in the face, and laughing uncontrollably at the gurgling...

Making a Martyr out of a Murderer Blogged under Social Commentary by Dell on Tuesday 13 December 2005 at What will it take for black folk to truly start valuing themselves, and start working in unison to destroy those who devalue them? I ponder that question right now as I reflect on the article I read this morning, L.A. Crips Gang Founder Executed in Calif., by AP writer Kim Curtis. Being that I have only half way followed the Tookie Williams drama, reading this article today brought home the magnitude of psychosis and self-hating behavior so many of us black...

The execution of Crips Gang founder and convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams on December 12th generated an inordinate amount of hysteria from anti-death penalty forces, not to mention the mainstream media coverage, which, as always, skewed leftward. The vigil that took place outside San Quentin on the night of Williams’ execution was attended by such ubiquitous liberal celebrities as actor Mike Farrell, folksinger Joan Baez, and professional race-baiter Jesse Jackson. Brows were beaten, tears were shed, and Governor Schwarzenegger was lambasted for denying Williams clemency. Apparently, all it takes is writing (or more likely having ghost-written) several children’s books and...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sunday, December 18, 2005 PRESS CONTACT: Jasmyne Cannick (Local Media) (323) 839-0216 jasmynecannick@hotmail.com LaNiece Jones (Int’l and Nat’l Media) (510) 568-5899 lajpr@aol.com Viewing to Take Place on Monday, Memorial Service Slated for Tuesday LOS ANGELES - There will be a public viewing of Stanley Tookie Williams on Monday, December 19, 2005 from 3 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the House of Winston Mortuary located at 9501 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. The memorial service for peacemaker Stanley Tookie Williams will take place Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 12 noon. The service will take place at Bethel...

One of the most frightening places I've been in the middle of a power outage is a tiny room inside the walls of San Quentin State Prison. I was padlocked inside the small room with a man I had never met before, a man who was to be executed within days for the brutal murders of four people. I was there to interview Stanley Tookie Williams. He shook my hand, introduced himself and we began to talk. An hour later, a heavy storm felled a power line and the lights in the visiting area suddenly went off. My first reaction...

Sacramento -- Amid the uproar over last week's execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, state lawmakers for the most part were notably silent. California politicians largely avoided the death penalty debate as advocates and opponents argued in newspapers and on television over whether the Crips co-founder and eventual anti-gang crusader deserved to live or die, and whether capital punishment was justice or barbarism. A petition asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare Williams by granting him clemency was circulated among legislative Democrats, but only nine -- out of 73 in the Assembly and Senate -- signed it. As five Democrats prepare to...

In what would turn out to be a horrible blow to the children’s book industry, a murdering gang-founder exhausted all options and was put to death early this week. Judging by the accounts of this murderer’s supporters, you might have been led to believe that Jesus had been accidentally given thelethal injection instead of Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Not even the murders of four innocent people, which he later laughed about, and a co-founding of the most deadly gang in US history would decelerate glowing testimonials from celebrities, a glorifying documentary about his life, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Despite...

Death Penalty ReduxThe execution of Tookie Williams has brought new life to efforts to undermine California’s death penalty law. AB 1121, a two-year moratorium on executions introduced by Assemblyman Paul Koretz will be taken up by the state Assembly on January 10, just a week before 75-year-old convicted killer Clarence Ray Allen is sentenced to die. Koretz argues that the moratorium is necessary to assure that innocent people are not put to death while the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice reviews California’s criminal justice system. But California’s death penalty review process is already the most rigorous and...

ON THIS WEBSITE, YOU WILL FIND THE KWANZAA CELEBRATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Kwanzaa is celebrated by many families and communities from December 26, 2005-January 1, 2006. For more information on organizing a Kwanzaa Celebration for your family or community, go to the OFFICIAL KWANZAA WEBSITE ========================================================================= There was shocking and heartbreaking news for those planning to attend the Kwanzaa Parade in Los Angeles. Former Los Angeles resident and businessman Stanley Tookie Williams, who had lived in San Francisco for the past 24 years, had recently been chosen "King of Kwanzaa" for the Los Angeles Parade. He had told friends...

Klaus-Dieter Dubon, a retired Bavarian notary and children's literature expert has unearthed new evidence that Adolph Hitler wrote a book for children during the final months before he took his own life in the waning days of World War II. The book entitled Where All the Flowers Go, is said to be a beautifully woven tale that warns children about the dangers of growing up to be fascist dictators. It is believed that Adolph had intended for the royalties to go to nonprofit agencies that help troubled youths who might otherwise grow up to invade neighboring countries.