From the Sunday L.A. Times
He’s a murderer. He should die.
Our real heroes don’t kill black kids
A pootbutt’s scary life in outer space L.A.
It’s foolish to execute a man who represents a real opportunity to break the cycle of gang violence.
That’s my view too. It’s like Alcoholics Anonymous. Sometimes the only person who can drag someone back from the brink of destruction is someone who’s been there. Why? They speak the language, they know the territory. They can connect when no one else can. A gangbanger won’t listen to a middle-aged Anglo telling them the gang life can destroy their life. But they will listen when the founder of the Crips says it.
If Tookie’s sentence is commuted, lives will be saved.
You do realize that Tookie killed 4 people, right?
And that the chances of him being innocent are zero, considering it was his shotgun.
And that whatever you’ve been told about Tookie, he has never resigned from the Crips, nor has he renounced them. He still associates with Crips within the jail. When I say “associates”, I don’t mean that he’s spending his nights trying to get them to quit the gang.
So what you’re left with is a guy who is in jail, has never admitted the crime he committed, and who started a gang that is estimated to be responsible for somewhere around 10,000 deaths.
He’s on death row, and suddenly, “Hey. Don’t do drugs. Go to school. Can I get out yet?”
That’s not rehabilitation.
-John