Tookie Dies, So Arnold Can Live

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-gumbel/tookie-dies-so-arnold-ca_b_12159.html

Tookie Dies, So Arnold Can Live
Andrew Gumbel

Nobody should be surprised that Arnold Schwarzenegger has denied clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Politicians rarely suffer for taking the toughest possible stance on questions of criminal justice, and Arnold is in quite enough trouble with his Republican Party grassroots not to want to go looking for more -- which is what he would have been doing if he had decided the one-time leader of the Crips deserved a second chance at life.

That said, the five-page statement released by his office today is staggering in its callousness and cynical disregard for anything other than the need to find arguments to bolster a foregone conclusion. Tookie Williams' clemency petition was based on the argument that he is a redeemed man -- as evidenced by his output of speeches, articles and children's books over the past decade urging young people away from the destructive gang life he led, and by the peace protocols he has authored that have been used to broker truces between street gangs from New Jersey to South Africa. He has been nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize, notably by a group of Swiss parliamentarians, and earlier this year was awarded a Presidential Call to Service Award for demonstrating what George W. Bush, in the citation, called "the outstanding character of America."

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It says something about the quality of Schwarzenegger's argument that he had to go foraging in a book dedication to find even a hint of dirt against the man he has decided to send to the gallows tonight. The argument is absurd, anyway: Williams is merely espousing the well-worn line that men of color imprisoned by a predominantly white social order are worthy of support, regardless of the circumstances. You don't have to agree with Williams' point of view to see there is absolutely no criminal intent in it.

The real truth of Schwarzenegger's document is inadvertently demonstrated by its very absurdity: that there are no good arguments to deny the genuineness of Tookie Williams' redemption. That, in turn, tells us just how political the clemency decision is: Arnold has a career to resuscitate, so Tookie has to die.

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who are racists. Remember the rw talk show host who said crime would be donw if all black babies were aborted? Same mindset in operation.

Californians overwhelmingly support capital punishment for the worst violent offenders.

Arnold's in deep shit in popularity polls right now, so he had no (politically expedient) alternative to allowing the execution to go forward.

If he had granted clemency he would have made himself vulnerable to accusations of being "soft on crime". With Williams dead, he can fire the same accusations at any opponent who supported clemency.

Democracy Now. She interviews Angela Davis--who's so eloquent that I was close to tears. Every person mentioned by Arnold from the book dedication, as evidence of Tookie's bad influences and his lack of penitence, is black. The governor's racism and sell-out to the political system is so apparent it makes me sick! It's just galling to watch the people with the most blood on their hands today overseeing the murder of the poorest and most disenfranchised. It feels so hopeless..