Reply #7: I would have emphasized that if I thought he was innocent. [View All]

[Yollam]

Given his history as founder of America's worst street gang and the overwhelming evidence against him, I don't think that to be the case.

And since when is California "particularly" racist?

BTW, if anyone framed him, it was his fellow BLACK gang members who unanimously testified that he was the killer, not "America".

The reason the media is not interested in the debate about his innocence is that the debate has already been settled numerous times, in the courts.

The celebrity argument is the only one he has left.


I acknowledge that there is an infinitesimal possibility that this thug was not the killer in these cases. It's the number one reason I don't believe in capital punishment - the judicial system can never be foolproof - but I see this man's conversion as an especially convenient and self-serving one.

You say that you'd be more inclined to believe Williams than disbelieve him, "given the history of racism in the US". How about "given his own history as a murderous gang leader", or "given the testimony of his own compatriots, which hasn't changed in 26 years"


Even this man's kids' books sound hollow and pat to me.

"I grew up poor and wanted a lot of things that other kids had," Williams wrote. "Most of my homeboys were poor too. We would gang-bang to get what our parents couldn't afford to buy us. But now I know it's better to have less of the things you want than to get them by stealing, selling drugs or hurting others."

"As a teenager, I didn't know the meaning of power. I thought that by using violence to scare people, I was proving that I had a lot of power. But when you use your power to make someone do something they don't want to do, or to hurt someone, you are abusing your power. The people you hurt will someday hurt you. They may call your parents to tell them the bad things you've done. They may call the police and have you arrested. They may even use a weapon on you."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/04/MNGOLG2JH71.DTL&hw=tookie&sn=003&sc=858

Tookie had a ghost writer for these books, and the way it's written I find it hard to see any genuine feelings of remorse for what he's done or any real empathy for his many victims.


BTW: Tookie uses being poor as an excuse for being a thug in his books, but the man he killed worked the graveyard shift at a 7-11 and lived in a cheap studio apartment, and somehow didn't feel the need to go around robbing and killing people.