|
Don't Execute Tookie
"His testimony serves as a deterrent for young people so that they will choose another life from what he has lived."
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Cassandra Gonzalez
Stanley “Tookie” Williams faces execution in California on December 13, awaiting Governor Schwarzenegger's decision to grant him clemency. Tookie, co-founder of the notorious Crip gang, was convicted and imprisioned for the murders of four people. Youth Radio’s Cassandra Gonzalez argues why the rehabilitated Tookie should not be executed. “If we take Tookie’s life, we are taking hundreds of young peoples lives right along with him.” Her perspective is one of many points of view at Youth Radio on this issue. (December 6 on KCRW's Which Way L.A.?)
I believe in the Mahatma Ghandi saying "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind".
This is what will happen if the state of California executes Stanley “Tookie” Williams on December 13. Tookie admits that he has committed crimes in the past. And he has assumed responsibility for his wrongdoings.
What matters to me is that now he is rehabilitated. He proves it through his writings about his experiences as a Crips gang member and his thoughts on gang life.
In his book Gangs and Self-Esteem, Tookie writes about his new understanding of the word “respect.” He writes, "I believed because people were afraid of me they respected me. That was one of my biggest mistakes. Respect cannot be earned by using violence to scare people. When people are afraid of you, they want to hurt you before you hurt them.”
His testimony serves as a deterrent for young people so that they will choose another life from what he has lived.
I actually read one of his books to my daughter Savannah to start violence prevention at a very early age. After I finished reading the book, she began stopping kids in the neighborhood when she saw them playing with toy guns. She would say, "No, Dont do that. Guns are bad".
If we take Tookie’s life, we are taking hundreds of young peoples lives right along with him. People like him have been there and done that. They can relate to young people that are caught up in the very addictive street life of gangs, guns, crime, and drugs. Young people just want someone to care about them and accept them. Tookie is one of those people.
We need the older veteranos and Old school gangsters telling the youngsters running amok on the street that they need to chill. In gang culture when a senior from your neighborhood tells you something, you obey out of respect.
Guys like Tookie are role models to young people in the barrios and neighborhoods like me. We look up to these people.
If there is nobody to look up to than we will have a bunch of sheep with no shepherd. And the flock eventually will go astray and die at the hands of the system, the streets, or drugs.
To the Governor: Give Tookie his clemency.
» Online Exclusive: Listen to Cassandra speak at a rally for Tookie at San Quentin State Prison.
|
|
