Requiem- or Celebration- for Stanley "Tookie" Williams

In about 8 and a half hours from now, Crips co-founder and convicted murder Stanley "Tookie" Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection at California's San Quentin prison. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to grant Williams clemency, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which should be renamed "the Ninth Circus Court of Schemiels") refused to grant him the chance even to have his death sentence commuted to life.

In the opinion of this author, Williams should pay for the crimes he committed- specifically the four murders he committed back in the late 1970s. I'm not saying this just because I happen to be pro-death penalty. I'm saying this because that is my opinion period, and if it so happens to be death by letahal injection, so fucking be it. In essence, Williams is responsible for tens- if not hundreds- of thousands- if not nillions- of casualties caused by his gang, the Crips. Now, I'm not saying that the rival group, the Bloods, are a bunch of eagle scouts- they too should pay for the crimes they've committed- past, present, and future. But Stan Williams should have known better. After all, he could have chosen a different path. He could have been mayor of Los Angeles; police chief...even President of the United States, in lieu of committing atrocities in the streets of :Los Angeles, and subsequently, in communities all across the United States. Gangs and the violence they bring forth is like a cancer that keeps growing. Unfortunately, even as California destroys the main head of the dragon, the aforementioned Stanley "Tookie" Williams, we, as Americans- and likely the world community as well- still must live on hair trigger alert. After all, gang violence isn't confined to just the inner cities and slum areas.

As an African-American, I'm of course saddened that another of my kind will die, but as an American, I'm satisfied that justice has been served here. I think of those casualties- the maimings and deaths of mostly innocent people, and even the not-so-innocent killed at the hands of Williams and his cohorts. What lives they could have led, and in the case of the gang members, the lost opportunities to turn their lives around. No kind of children's book decrying the act of gang violence can ever erase what Tookie Williams and his cohorts have done. If Williams wanted to make a difference, he would have one, relinquished his gang affiliation a long time ago, aand two, even as an inmate at San Quentin, shown remorse for his actions. Apologize for those four murders (and likely more, however undocumented, unproven, or what have you...). But instead, Tookie Williams will die with a needle in his arm. To many, it'll be a meaningful one- justice served. For others, a meaingless death. Perhaps members of the Crips will see Williams as a martyr. Maybe the Bloods will celebrate with weed, a few 40 ounce malt liquors, and Hennessey or Courvosier. Or maybe they'll set aside their weapons for a moment to mourn Williams' loss. I don't know.

All I can do is close out this blog entry with lyrics from the theme from "Baretta"


DrPheelGoodman/YouTube/ABC

Keep Your Eye On the Sparrow
by Dave Grusin & M. Ames, 1975
Performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.

Don't go to bed/with no price on your head
No, no/ Don't do it
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time/ Yeah/ Don't do it
And keep your eye/ on the sparrow
When the going/ gets narrow
Don't do it/ Don't do it
Where can I go where the cold winds don't blow
Now, well, well, well.

Copyright 2005, by Darren W. Alexander. All Rights Reserved.
Baretta, Copyright 1975, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.