Freedom's Fidelity

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

The Freak Show

Forgive me for posting on this, but does anyone know the names of these people? Jesse Jackson does not. I didn't either, and what's worse is that (thanks to the Hollywood Freakshow) I know all to well who Tookie Williams is....er was. If I felt it was possible for Jesse Jackson to feel shame I would wonder how, of all the people to hitch one's anti-death penalty cart to, he could choose Tookie Williams - a man who made a career of ravaging black communities. But to ask those questions would be to presume Jesse Jackson and the other useful fools possess heart and a conscience, I am not prepared to make that leap. Although I am not a particularly strong proponent of the death penalty, I can say, from the deepest part of my soul, I am glad the fucker is dead. He has shown no remorse, he won't even admit his guilt, he was simply trying to game the system. Did I mention that I'm glad the fucker is dead?

Some reaction from the blogosphere:

Wretchard says we have betrayed:

But when you think about it, every alternative to the Death Penalty is premised on the assumption that jail provides an better way of removing dangerous persons from society. Once the impermeability of jail can no longer be guaranteed -- because holes in the cell walls are being poked by 'activists' -- then it makes sense to execute perps while you can. Of course, there's something nigglingly wrong with this. After some thought I realized what I thought it was. Issues of guilt and innocence; crime and punishment have been distorted by the political process. How else do you have Ramsey Clark defending Saddam and European investigators refusing to provide cooperation because it might lead to the Death Penalty? Crime stops being about criminals and their deeds and becomes yet another battleground in the culture wars. It becomes less about human beings and more about political agendas.

And as usual, a great discussion ensues in the comments.

Atlas is angry:

Ridiculous. This is the national dialog today. Sick.

Cold blooded slaughterer (laughing after the murders), brutal founder of gangs that murder culture, community family, unmerciful, sick, should have been executed 25 years ago when he was sentenced (his victims didn't get that extra 25 years). I usually don't post on such utter nonsense but the hullabaloo made me sick. Syria, Iran's proxy, killed another freedom fighter in Lebanon today, and I have heard virtually nothing on it in the MSM. More on the death of MP and journalist Jubran Tweini's [Final Words: "...Lebanon Never Was and Never Will Be Part of Syria..."] here. We are on the brink of a nuclear holocaust and this is what the geniuses on the left (coast) have cooked up for our daily injection of leftard poison. Nobel prize nominee my ass.

This is the man that mouthed to the jurors "I am going to get you motherfuckers" after his verdict was read (according to court transcripts). And if that weren't enough the victim's families are terrified. They live in fear of their lives, will not release their addresses, have moved to a different state and shun the press. His crime never ends.

Can you just see the pallor over Hollywood? A black day indeed on the left coast. They all must be weeping at Sarandon's house. I can see it. And for those who say it's not a deterrent, I say who gives a shit? He killed innocent people in cold blood, he deserves to die, whether it deters someone else form killing is irrelevant. An added bonus. This is not a thirst for blood, it's a thirst for justice.

But lets hear from some people that have actually had to live through this reign of terror.

Baldilocks:

Leaving aside those who oppose the death penalty for moral/religious reasons, few of you have seemed motivated to move into my South Central LA neighborhood to see what "Tookie" and his Crip co-founder Raymond Lee Washington (who’s burning in Hell right now) have wrought for the last thirty-odd years. And I know that you won’t be choosing to live here anytime soon. That’s understandable; however, don’t tell me that we should coddle these TERRORISTS like "Tookie" and those he created if you don’t have to put up with them. (Okay, you can tell me, but you can expect a barely polite response and that's if I'm feeling generous.)

Secondly—and this is especially for people like Jeremy: black people are thinking, functioning humans who, when adult and without some actual mental deficiency that they can’t control, are just as responsible for their actions as are members of any other race of people. We're not murderers by nature (that is, any more than any other set of humans are). Therefore, we don't need a separate, lower standard of behavior in any area, whether it's education, employment or criminal justice.
When black people do well, they deserve recognition; when they do wrong, they deserve the consequences—no more or no less than any other.

DC Thornton offers some first hand accounts of what it was like growing up with Tookie and his ilk:

* In the Spring of 1981, I was walking home from John Muir Junior High School in South Central Los Angeles. A crowd of older boys in mostly blue garb walked up behind me as I crossed Vermont Avenue and 67th Street. They engaged in light conversation, and then, for no reason at all, they began throwing punches and kicking me. As I took off running for my life, I can remember the malt liquor bottle zooming inches past my head in an attempt to deliver a life-threatening blow.

I was jumped by a group of boys who were being initiated into the Rolling 60s Crips gang.

* Later that year, I came home to the two-story house on West 70th Street between Normandie and Vermont where I lived as a kid. I was privileged to have a small bedroom to myself. That evening I felt a draft, but the French windows were closed. I noticed a small hole in the heavy glass, then I noticed a bullet lodged in the wall across from the window.

I was lucky that night. There was a shooting, possibly related to a fight from either the Rolling 60s or the Eight-Treys. Both are Crip gangs that bordered my old neighborhood.

* In the Spring of 1988, I learned that a childhood friend who I grew up with (his foster parent used to babysit me while my parents worked during the day) was gunned down by the Inglewood Crips in a drive-by shooting. Prior to his death, he had been approached by gang recruiters who wanted him to join up. Having just married and seeking to be a responsible father to his newborn child, he said no to them. They didn't like his answer.

* Ten years ago, my cousin, an ordained minister, was visiting friends. He and his wife had just returned from their honeymoon. As he left, he was approached by a teen who shouted out to him, "What set you from?" My cousin replied that he wasn't with a gang set. The next moment, he was on the ground, wounded from being shot in the left shoulder at close range.

Read the whole post, and this one too from David A, excerpt:

I grew up in SouthCentral Los Angeles. I had my ass kicked when I was 13 years old by a group of about 20 Crips for having the audacity to step on one of their leaders' shoes, ruining his "biscuit shine." I also went to High School at the Capital of the Crip Empire, "Washington High," where playing football, was the only thing that kept me from getting my ass kicked on a regular basis. You see, Crips were football fans, and we won a lot... They liked that. God knows what would have happened had we lost.

I saw first hand what gangs did to my city and to my people, and I would agree with Baldilocks that the Crips were and are a terrorist organization.
....
I have a small spot on the back of my head where hair will not grow. That spot is from a gash I got when I was hit by a baseball bat wielded by one of Tookie's "homeboys," over 30 years ago.

I will never forget my years living in fear of people like Tookie Williams. These were people who could beat you down just for looking at them wrong. I will never forget not being able to wear certain colors, because they were the "wrong," color for my neighborhood.

I will never forget the days I went hungry as an elementary school student, because the gangsters would take our lunch money. So do I feel sorry for Tookie... No I don't. I think he did some good stuff in the final years of his life. Perhaps God will take that into consideration. I can not. So I wont say if he deserved to die, I will only say I will not be one of the one's lamenting his death...

I hope I never think of Tookie Williams again, except maybe as an illustrative example of the waywardness of the Hollywood left, who no doubt live in high-walled compounds with guards and alarms to protect them from men like Tookie. Oh and maybe I'll think of him once more as I pray tonight that cancer does in fact exist in hell and he has himself a rotten nasty case of it.

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