Volume 6, Issue #10
December 23, 2005

"Tookie: A Rose That Grew From the Concrete"
By Michael Kwan

Crips gang founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Stanley “Tookie” Williams was put to death by lethal injection on December 13, 2005. He was convicted of killing four people 27 years ago, but has never apologized for his crimes, leading to appeal after appeal. His lawyer to this day attests that Tookie was an innocent man, but that didn’t stop California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from denying Williams clemency, casting him away to the death chamber.
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Arnold really was the terminator in this sense, and even his fellow countrymen from his home Austria have turned on him for the decision he made. In fact, left-leaning councillors in Graz expressed their protest by looking to strip Schwarzenegger of his Austrian citizenship, and rename the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium—a local sports complex—to the Tookie Williams Stadium. In response, the California governor withdrew permission to have a stadium in his name “since the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own.”

Rapper Tupac Shakur once talked about being a rose that grew from the concrete. The inner city world of crime and violence really molded many youths. They turned to gangs like the Crips and the Bloods, because they gave them a sense of protection and belonging. But Tookie Williams, though born in the cold concrete, matured and emerged as a rose. Tookie wrote children’s books about the evils of gangs and how to avoid gang culture. His anti-gang message eventually even reconciled the differences between the rival Crips and Bloods, curbing the potential for massive gang warfare. Indeed, maybe he paved the way to a more peaceful Compton, lighting it up with his candle of compassion.
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There may have been news sources that plastered how Williams’ anti-gang efforts were but a farce to get off death row, a stepping stone toward renewed freedom… but I, for one, believed there was some real substance behind it. I am not necessarily saying that he did not deserve the death penalty—he very well may have robbed, assaulted or murdered several individuals during his gang days—but I think it unfair for the press to paint the picture of an evil, remorseless murderer.

For more on his story, watch the award-winning docudrama Redemption, starring Jamie Foxx as Stan “Tookie” Williams.