Crips do bleed: Founder of the Crips is executed

Hundreds gather to mourn 'Tookie' Williams

Staff and agencies
Wednesday December 21, 2005

Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former gang boss Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who was executed in California last week. A series of celebrity speakers at the service, held in south Los Angeles, criticised the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for his refusal to grant clemency to the 51-year-old convicted murderer.

More than 1,500 mourners, including religious leaders and gang members, attended the service at the Bethel AME church. Speakers included the hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, the anti-death penalty campaigner Bianca Jagger, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, and the motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

Williams, who co-founded the Crips street gang and was convicted of murdering four people, was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin prison last Tuesday. He was killed despite a high-profile campaign for clemency in which supporters claimed he had become a reformed character during more than 20 years on death row. At a service lasting for more than four hours, speakers denounced capital punishment. Ms Jagger said Mr Schwarzenegger's actions "revealed disregard for human rights, due process and the US constitution".

Snoop Dogg recited a poem entitled Until We Meet Again, in which he referred to the execution. "It's nine-fifteen on twelve-thirteen and another black king will be taken from the scene," he said. A stanza that read: "I don't believe Stan did it," drew wild applause from the car park outside the church where more mourners - including some gang members wearing blue, the colour associated with the Crips - were watching the service on large television screens.

Williams was executed for the shotgun murders of 26-year-old convenience store clerk Albert Owens and motel owners Yen-I Yang, 76, and Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and their 43-year-old daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin in 1979.

He had always claimed he was innocent, although Robert Martin, one of the prosecutors who sent Williams to prison, recently claimed the evidence had been thoroughly scrutinised by the courts and was "rock solid".

Mr Martin questioned arguments that Williams had redeemed himself while on death row, where he wrote children's books warning against gang life.
There was a high police presence in the area surrounding the funeral. After the service, many of those outside the church dropped to the ground at the sound of what appeared to be three gunshots being fired nearby. There were no reports of injuries or arrests.

The death of Williams - who asked for his ashes to be scattered in South Africa - was an "abuse of power," the Reverend Al Sharpton told mourners by telephone from New York. Mr Farrakhan compared Williams' trial and execution to those of Jesus. Both, he said, were innocent men executed for political reasons. "Every true revolutionary, every man that will not bow down to the forces of this world, will be rebuked and scorned," he said.

He called on gang members to become "natural leaders" of the black community, and urged them to down their guns. Williams "is the patron saint of all those struggling in gang life," he added. Rev Jackson said that, at the end of his life, Williams saw himself as a "healer, not a predator".

Several dozen gang members watched the service in the car park. One who identified himself as "Killowatt the Third" said of Williams: "That's my role model, man. That's the CEO of the Crips."

Other mourners included Al Birdsong, a 54-year-old school security officer who said Williams did not deserve to be executed after more than two decades in prison. "I'm here to pay my respects to humanity, and that goes to Tookie and everyone else they do in ... what if it was your son?" he said.

A message recorded by Williams in prison was played for the mourners. "The war within me is over," he said. "I battled my demons and I was triumphant."
He asked listeners to spread a message to their loved ones, saying: "Teach them to promote peace and teach them to focus on rebuilding the neighbourhoods that you, others and I helped to destroy."

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I'm not sure what to say. This guy did start up the Crips, one of the most violent black american street gangs. Let's not kid ourselves here. He was no saint. I'm sure he did murder people - but if the evidence wasn't rock solid and he didn't kill those people, well I can't agree with that. If he did, then he deserved to be in prison. Not down with the whole capital punishment thing.

On a different level, he must have influenced a lot of young African-Americans to join the Crips. Although he did reform and discourage gang membership, think about how many Crip gang members there are in Los Angeles. Think about the killings, the drive-bys, the drug deals that happened amongst the crips. He started it all - kinda like the guy that created the nuclear bomb.

For those of you that don't know, I actually know a lot about gangs. It was just something that I found interesting to read. I still remember borrowing a book from my the library on "Gang dynamics" and having Brett pay the sh*t out of me. Or how I was explaining to Fergo the difference between different prison tattoos. Knowing obscure stuff like some Crips wear British Knights, because the initials are "BK" which stand for "Blood Killer" (Bloods is a rival gang you see).

As you see, I must have issues. I used to study street maps, and learn which streets certain gangs use to hang out, how to read their graffiti - trust me its hard, understand gang identifiers (clothing, police web reports, tattoos). It wasn't just African-American gangs I was interested in. I was also particualry obsessed with Asian gangs as well - in fact there is triad book on my shelf "The Dragon Syndicate".

And all this makes for interesting party conversation.

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.