'Tookie Must Die' -- Why Many Blacks Oppose Clemency for Williams
New America Media, Commentary/Analysis, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Dec 05, 2005
Editor's Note: It's a myth that a large majority of blacks oppose the death penalty, detest police and as jurors won't vote to convict a fellow black. In fact, writes PNS contributing editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson, some of the loudest voices calling for the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams come from black communities. Hutchinson is author of "The Crisis of Black and Black."
• Video: pro-Tookie rally
• Video: Screening of a movie on Tookie's life.
LOS ANGELES--The small crowd of clergy, community activists and death penalty opponents that gathered in front of the Los Angeles courthouse recently was no different than other groups that for weeks have kept up the drum beat for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant Stanley "Tookie" Williams clemency.
There was one very loud exception. A young African-American man shouted that Williams was a thug and a murderer and should die. He was not an agitator or a crank. He represented a body of pro-death penalty sentiment among blacks that has seldom been publicly heard during the great Tookie debate.
I was not surprised when I heard this young man's words, for there are many blacks like him who want Williams dead. The instant I went to bat in my columns for clemency for Williams and against the death penalty in general, the e-mails and comments I got flew hot and heavy. Black critics bitterly reviled me for advocating clemency. They were adamant that Williams must pay for his crimes, and for the murder and mayhem the Crips gang, which he helped found, has unleashed on impoverished black communities.
Their hardened attitude toward Williams flew in the face of conventional wisdom that says that blacks are passionate opponents of the death penalty. They aren't.
During the past decade, even as more whites have said they are deeply ambivalent about the death penalty or oppose it, many blacks continue to say that murderers, even black ones, must pay with their lives. A Harris Interactive poll in August 2001 found that nearly half of black respondents supported capital punishment. Three years later, a Gallup Poll found that black support for the death penalty still hovered at close to 50 percent.
The death penalty debate can no longer be neatly pigeonholed into a black verses white racial divide issue, and with good reason. Whites generally are not at risk from black criminals. Other blacks are. They are more likely to be victims of violent crime or to have friends or relatives who have been crime victims than whites.
The Justice Department's annual crime victim surveys have consistently found that blacks are nearly twice as likely to be victims of murder than whites. The leading cause of death among young black males under age 24 is homicide. In nearly all cases, other blacks will kill them.
Blacks are scared stiff and fed up with that continuing surge in murder violence that tears at black communities. A hint of that came in June 1999. A Justice Department survey that year found that blacks in a dozen cities generally applauded the police. This confounded some black leaders who, like many others, assumed that blacks are inveterate cop haters. They aren't. They are against racist and abusive police officers, and expect and demand efficient, fair policing in their communities.
In Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other cities, community activists have staged anti-murder marches, held vigils and have lobbied city and state officials for tougher gun laws. They have also taken a step that once would have been considered racial treason: They have repeatedly demanded that blacks break their code of silence toward the police and help them identify the young shooters.
Then there's the myth of the "soft" black juror. It goes like this: Black jurors are so hateful of white authority that they will gleefully nullify the law and let a black lawbreaker waltz out of court a free man or woman, even if that person is a killer. This is nonsense. In most big cities, blacks make up a majority or a significant percent of those who sit on juries, and they routinely convict other blacks of crimes, including murder, every day.
It's true that in past years, blacks were the staunchest opponents of capital punishment. They had good cause to be. The death penalty was a blatantly racist weapon wielded by prosecutors, particularly in the South, against blacks convicted of rape and murder on the flimsiest of evidence, as long as their alleged victims were white. The death penalty is still used and handed down in a racist fashion. However, crime fears and rampaging murder rates in many black communities have partially trumped that, and made more blacks than ever regard capital punishment not as a weapon to hammer blacks, but to hammer violent criminals.
Tookie certainly no longer fits the label of the violent predator. He has tireless worked to redeem his life, and those of countless other angry, violence-prone youths. But many blacks have lost friends and loved ones to those gun-toting youths. They are unforgiving and unsparing in their rage at them, and they blame Williams for helping to spawn them. It's unfair to blame one man for the sins of some in the youth generation. But when the body count rises, people look to place blame on someone, and Williams is that someone. It's only a short step from there for them to loudly say that Tookie must die.
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User Comments
jassie on Dec 11, 2005 at 16:38:59 said:
firstly this case of Stanley Williams is being too sensationalize by the media specially there are plenty of celebrities joining the campaign for his clemency. But before jumping on the wagon, shouldn't they be first considering wheter he really deserves to still live? he may have written so many books and speeches but those wouldn't bring back the lives of his victims. Besides street violence caused by gangs never ceased at all. And aren't we suppose to stand up and be responsible of our own actions? Williams committed those crimes without considering the consequences of his actions to the lives of his victims and now that he faces his punishment as the consequence of his actions he plead for his life. I see his plea as a sign of cowardice. I believe it is just right and equal for him to be punished. He took four lives and left a painful wound in the lives of family of the victims. And to pay for that he needs to give up his life, although i still see it is not enough.
Al-Tariq Shabazz on Dec 11, 2005 at 12:52:09 said:
Tookie Should not die by the hands of the government and it's amazing how we speak of guilt when the brother has denied his guilt and when there are many holes in the government’s case. Mumia Abu Jamal is on death row also should he die simply because he has been convicted in a court of law, that's absurd. We must not use the excuse that we are tired of being victimized because we've been victims for 400 years at the hands of America and we have not been so adamant about the extermination of America. Tookie is now "putting in work" in a positive way for the betterment of our people. If we would have given up on Malcolm Little There Would have never been Malcolm X. We should be as merciful as we want our creator to be on the last day.
charles whitney on Dec 10, 2005 at 04:41:37 said:
I think it ridiculous that people think that the world will be a better place just because of the death of 1 man. I believe that such people subconciously are pointing the finger because in their hearts they have succombed to the same hate that has driven African American men to kill themselves in an attempt get their way. What I think is sad is that the clergy and men of "faith" are in on it. Have they forgotten about the chronicles of 1 St. Paul previoulsly Saul who killed Christians and became foundational in Christianity. Personally ,and I am sure that not all the protestors are christian, I feel it it the confusion that Christianity brings to the human mind that allows these type of reactions by those who would deem themselves holy and doing what God wants them to. Let me ask you something..If God wanted someone dead...why would he need your help?
Don Raziel on Dec 08, 2005 at 21:48:03 said:
I will not beg for a pardon of Tookie's life or will I approve of his death penalty! I will say the scars that a kid left on society have been erased by a man and that man whom erased those scars will forever be embedded in the social value system of my persoanl beliefs. You die a man on the 13th of November for the crimes that a child did,but you leave a contribution that will be spoken of for a lifetime. I think in that Mr.Tookie that you live forever in a since. Thank you for the lives that you changed from taking the journey you now have to complete and we are the ones who owe you a debt not to let other children go that route falling into the manipulative belly of confusion.
Lakota Firewind on Dec 08, 2005 at 05:37:40 said:
He should die.As founder of the "Crips",he bears the respnsibility for all the murders that have been commited in the name of "Crips".Quit making it seems he is innocent of any wrong doin.The whole gansta image is out of comtrol and he helped create it.How many kids would be alive today and have a decent life if it was'nt for poor ole Tookie and the rest od these gang bangers shootin anyone they feel like?
Shawn/From Japan on Dec 07, 2005 at 11:02:37 said:
I use to be a San Diego crip in High school back in 1986, I was force to join the gang or be beatin after school. The crip gang was extremely terrible, but killing "Tookie" isn't going to remedy the pass or carnage. I forgive "Tookie" because he's made a drastic change in his life, and has discourage youths from continuing this gang. He's made a positive change, that means that other gang members can do the same. We want to use "Tookie" to heal youths by his example of failure and redemption.
brian young on Dec 07, 2005 at 02:25:53 said:
there was a time when lynching was the rule of the land foe my people. Now we are killing ourselves and the black leadership is silent...jesse can talk about terrell owens, but another black teen will die today...black leaders are comfortable in there homes and fancy cars and clothes. the blood that in the street is at thier doors. CBC, the black church, and other so call black instititutions that are suppose to end this chaos in the streets. we can talk about what white people have done, but not control our own neighborhoods. even down to the images we project to the world, wanna-be thugs and gangster from people who are the descendants of slaves. we shame our pass. and guess what facts and figures dont matter cause another brother or sister will fall at our own hands....shame on black america, shame on me and you...
Eric on Dec 06, 2005 at 22:40:57 said:
The man has done his time and has sincerely sought redemption for the salvation of his soul and spirit. No one can sit and argue that the man is more valuable dead than alive. He's making and will continue to make strides curbing the gang problems in our cities. He's much more useful alive than dead. That idiot governor isn't even calling the shots on this one. The federal government knows that a brother like Tookie could really make changes for the better as far as black youth are concerned. They want him dead, 'cause that will be one more soldier down and out who they don't have to worry about.
Just as the Belgians placed Hutu against Tutsi in central Africa, the white establishment in this country played on the divisions of the Bloods and Crips and now they're destroying each other just like in Rwanda. Same scenario throughout the African Diaspora. Let Tookie stay alive so he can be used as an instrument for good since he's already done his bad.
HOTEP
Henry Parker on Dec 06, 2005 at 11:33:19 said:
Would they call for Tookie's life if he was white?
BlackFolks are always harder on each other than
someone else.
Anthony Moore- Oakland on Dec 06, 2005 at 07:59:31 said:
Look... bottom line. This man killed people on two occasions that he was convicted on. He is indirectly and directly responsobile for 10's of thousands of black and brown deaths here in California and accross the country as wannabes emulated the blue and war turf battles. I'm generally not for the death penalty but if anyone deserved to meet their fate with the needle, Mr. Williams would probably fit that.
darryl crosby on Dec 06, 2005 at 03:08:47 said:
I'm a black man who is against the death penalty. The Tookie Williams case has been interesting in large part because I have a hard time getting upset at his impending execution. I am against the death penalty because it is not used with any consistancy. Race and class surely have a lot to do with who does or does not get executed. There is no evidence that it decreases violent crime. And as a people we should celebrate life, not death.
Every one seems to have an excuse to kill, whether it's the president in Iraq, state sponsored executioners, or thugs in the street. The lust for revenge is the same for the citizen wanting the state to execute a convict as it is for a gangbanger wanting to avenge a homie. Taking a life is either right or wrong. I say it's wrong. And no deterrant either.
I'm not totally familiar with all the facts, but anytime a black man is convicted of a crime in America, there is always the possibility that he is innocent. I also understand that Tookie formed the Crips as a teenager, a juvenile. Can you hold a grown man responsible for crimes of his youth? If Tookie hadn't formed the Crips someone else would. Youth gangs are a universal byproduct of disenfranchised youth. That's why you have Chinese gangs, Jamaican gangs and gangs of rampaging muslim youth (in Europe).
Why am I ambivelant about Tookie? Because I understand the pain his organization has caused to real people and because he really is no different than any other "human being" on death row. I am fortunate not to have lost (many) close freinds to street violence. I know others in the black community are not so fortunate. I'd like to refrain from being too self rightious. I also think we spend to much time trying to save our favorites. We should act to abolish the death penalty from our hearts, our streets and our courts, not focus on celebrity inmates unless we believe them innocent.
Should Tookie be executed. No. Not because he's Tookie but because as long as we use violence to solve our problems we can expect violence in return.
Vernon Muhammad on Dec 06, 2005 at 00:43:29 said:
These blacks who propose the death penalty, I wonder if they take in consideration the 400 years of slavery that produced a people who were deprived of everything except the ability to breath oxygen and when the slave master decided to deprive them of that he exercised that as well.
Most of these blacks also probably oppose reparations , the effects of psychic trauma have left all of us destroyed and in need of ressurection. Abraham Lincoln so-called freed the slaves physically with a stroke of a pen, but mentally we were never repaired now today we walk around as though education has produced such scholarly and righteous human beings who say forgive and forget. What really proves that we still exhibit the effects of slavery, we continue to put bandages were major surgery is needed.
Theloneous Massai on Dec 06, 2005 at 00:17:43 said:
Two comments:
It never ceases to amaze me how different perception is from reality, especially in regard to Black people. Unfortunately many Blacks in media help create and promote these bogus images, either through ignorance, greed or self hate but regular everyday Black people remain invisible to the world.
The statement "many blacks have lost friends and loved ones to those gun-toting youths. They are unforgiving and unsparing in their rage at them, and they blame Williams for helping to spawn them." Unforgiving and enraged describe perfectly how many Black people feel toward other Blacks and many, if not most, non-Black peoples. The invisible regular everyday Black people are really tired of being victimized and exploited. Racism will eventually drive any Black with the means out of America and this county will have to deal with the stereotype monster it created without other Black to buffer the pain they're causing.
Robert on Dec 05, 2005 at 23:41:54 said:
Any black person who supports the death penalty just simply refuses to acknowldge the racist irrefuteable facts involved with this issue. The fact that both federal and state officials allowed Geronimo Pratt to be in jail for over 20 years for a murder they know he did not commit allows me to believe this man was framed to some extent.
You can not look at the formation of the Crips and Bloods without realizing the hand the federal government played in thier formation.
Tookie was not bringing railroad cars with guns into the inner cities(HBO specical)nor was he running the Counter Intelligence Program.
The key to the murder rates going on among blacks is to rid the inner cities of the drug problem. That is hard to do though since the CIA and other agencies are part of the problem.
Isiah Heyward on Dec 05, 2005 at 22:43:33 said:
At first I was thinking may be he shouldn't get the death penalty but if he were white we black people would want him dead no matter what the cost. People need to understand that most of the problems in our community was generated from the gangs. Look now on the east cost we were already killing ourselves and now we have another issue to kill over. A simple color of a rag. I really dont see a white man running around my hood wearing blue or red. 100% of the time it's little Raheem and Tyshawn. So Tookie needs to pay with his life for every dead body the blue rags have slaughtered on the streets around the world.
yomi on Dec 05, 2005 at 17:47:48 said:
actually, i think some people deserve to die,considering the damage they do consiously to other people who my not even know them.
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