a world blinded
more likely than not, tookie williams will be killed by lethal injection tonight at 12:01. this man shares responsibility at least in part for the degradation of the younger generations. by founding the crips, he helped to bring even more self-destructive and violent behavior into the lives of millions of individuals. indirectly he's part of the reason why i suffer daily, watching my kids make terrible decisions in hope of being accepted by their homies. in his later life, he has renounced the gang life and worked to help others avoid. however, he will never be able to undo the damage he's caused.
despite all of this, i do not believe he should be killed by the state of california. his personal redemption aside, the destruction of his life will not atone for the lives of the four individuals he is convicted of killing. it will not make our society better. it will not undo all the evil he did in his younger life. it will only serve to fuel the fires of vengeance and hatred. when will we learn that forgiveness is always better than retribution? that rehabilitation is incomparably better than punishment? that we do not teach citizens that murder is wrong by doing the same to them? and in the words of mahatma gandhi, that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind?
4 Comments:
i agree wholeheartedly. l.a. may break into violence tonight. his death will result in zero amount of good. the entire situation is pulling at my heart and brain. i just don't understand the logic behind all of it.
By
jasembera, at 9:34 PM
sam -
i don't know if you realized this, but my bumper sticker stole it from gandhi. hope that clarifies things.
wonderer -
there are myriad reasons why the death penalty is a bad choice. too many for me to go into on a comment. but if you read up on the issue, i think you may discover some stuff you didn't know. and by the way, i doubt you'd ever want to spend the rest of your life in a penitentary. it is not the laid-back, fun place that some people (who have never been there) tend to make it out to be.
By
martha, at 4:23 AM
I highly doubt that Tookie was ever 'reformed.' Let's take a look at some of the things this 'reformed' guy did in prison:
In 1981, Williams was caught beating up an other inmate with his fists, and ignored orders to stop. In 1982, Williams refused to an order to line up...and told a guard "you'll get yours boy, I can do anything now because I know what the gunmen will do...one of these days I'll trick you boy." Twice that same year, Tookie attacked guards with chemical substances. In 1984, Tookie was back to beating up another inmate...and didn't stop until a guard fired a warning shot. Also in 1984, Williams was caught making out with a female visitor. He told the guard then "you are looking around too much and that's not your job. I have dusted many officers on the street, one more would not make any difference." Sounds reformed to me. But there's more...1986...he beat up another inmate. 1988..he was stabbed in retaliation for a stabbing he ordered of another inmate. 1991...Tookie was again caught beating up another inmate. Same thing again in 1993. Get the idea? (Source)
While I am still unsure of whether or not the death penalty is appropriate in all cases. I think that if anybody deserved to die, he's up there on the list.
By
Otis, at 6:41 AM
maybe i wasn't very clear in my post, but i don't really care whether or not he was reformed. really the only person who knows if he honestly changed was tookie himself. my point was that regardless of what kind of person he was, he did not deserve to be killed by the government. nobody does.
By
martha, at 3:03 PM
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