Stan "Tookie" Williams and American Justice -- Crip Style

I called Governor Schwarzenegger on December 12. I wanted to voice my concerns about the execution of Stan "Tookie" Williams. Williams, the founder of the Crips gang and convicted felon of several murders, was sentenced to die by lethal injection on December 13 at 12:01 a.m. I had never made a call to Governor's office before. I don't remember calling any politicians other than my congressional representative to demand an up vote on PBS funding earlier this year. I have always been distrustful of politicians. The reason being that politicians are not so much concerned with justice and fairness in American society but rather in maintaining an image that they are. This is a great source of moral decay. How can those who are elected to enforce, create, and interpret the law base their whole system of ethics on an image of justice and not the sincere practice of justice?

After I was put on hold, I was patched into some adolescent aide of the Governor. He assured me that he was there to listen to my concerns and that he would forward them to the Governor himself. Of course he would. I spent about five minutes outlining reasons why I felt Stan "Tookie" William should not be executed. A told him about the statistics concerning those on death row -- silence. I told him how capital punishment offenders tend to be overwhelmingly poor -- I think. I told him about how the morality of the sentence was wrong and that it sent a negative message to others who are considering or are actively committing similar crimes-- I hope. I do remember that I concluded my soliloquy by suggesting the Governor could save himself some political capital by opting for the wise alternative -- commuting Williams' sentence to life instead of death.

There was a pause. Then the young men on the other side of the phone tersely replied, " You are aware the Governor Schwarzenegger has made a final decision regarding this case and that he will not grant Mr. Williams clemency. Mr. Williams will be executed tomorrow morning at 12:01 a.m. Is anything else I can help you with?"

I would have rather talked to an answering machine.

My conversation with the aid at Governor Schwarzenegger's office is indicative of what is really wrong with America's criminal justice system. Many whites and other skeptics overwhelmingly tend to believe that African Americans are "pimping" other Americans with their complaints of racial inequality. They consider claims of racism and discrimination to be a modern-day equivalent to a Black man's con. This is especially true in the heartland of America. Geographic region that has been historically spared the detailed legacy of conquest and hate that was so visibly exposed in the South. In some ways, our heartland kin and their outsourced conservative values reveal a perception of themselves as moral superiors, but this is beside the point.

In actuality, there is no black "pimping of justice" going on. Rather, we are in a closed minded-environment/prejudiced society, where we know that the majority of Americans have their minds already made up on issues related to economics, politics, religion, justice, and not surprisingly on the issue of race. The American mindset appears to be incorrigible at the precise time when dialogue and critical discussion is needed. Decisions are made based on prejudiced in pre-informed notions of how should society should appear in what it should be like instead of the actual facts. In an environment where, "what I think" precludes "what the evidence says" is the staple of the decisionmaking process, how can we actually expect the justice system to reflect levelheaded, ideal and holistic interpretations of the equality of law?

Of course we are being heard, but are they really listening? Really?

African Americans overwhelmingly, I believe, are turning to alternative means of outrage in an attempt to get the conscience in the attention of Americans back on this fundamental problem of American society. How do we determine who is to be free into is to be unfree? How do we treat those who we have historically discriminated against in an institutional culture of racialization?
Yes, admittedly Williams was a Crip, a gang member, but he was also a representative for the black voice that often goes unheard in criminal justice system. Without justice there can be no peace, and without hope there can be no justice. The state-sponsored murder of Williams represents a microcosm of reality for African-American males who should clearly see there is no hope, there is no peace, and there is no justice when addressing a closed minded and racist society. How do you explain justice to a nation that interprets the disputed killings of Williams to be entirely different in character than state-sponsored killings and abuses. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth--they say.

If this is the understanding of justice that Americans have, let's extend the metaphor and ask why are African Americans gouge-eyed and toothless while white American have both eyes and a full grin. Think of the present demand for justice that the criminal justice systems propagates in the historical context regarding reparations for the criminal state-sponsored practice of slavery. Don't even think all the way back to reparations for slavery, think about the criminal state-sponsored practice of Jim Crow. The state has historically played a key role in supporting the criminal activities of white citizens against African-American citizens how can we apply the rule of lex talionis here? Malcolm X once said what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

My point is simply, regardless of the crime, justice should be restorative and not entirely punitive. Americans have such a hard time grasping the fact that justice should take restorative forms because of the long legacy of crimes and abuses towards African-American people. To support a system that establishes restores to justice as a norm would be to dismantle the system of Americanism itself. Restorative justice implies reparations and adjustments to generations of descendents of African slaves, Native Americans, and Chicanos. That would be too radical, they say. But it's not considered too radical to destroy a rehabilitated life and to suggest that another murder evens the score for the victims who were allegedly killed by the perpetrator. Is it?

It serves the Establishment well to make examples of individuals who cannot cope with the intense pressures of the society that demand conformity or madness. In the post-Tookie era, I hope that African Americans and all Americans will begin to truly understand the relationship that exists between themselves, American societal norms, and the law.