L.A. debates governor's decision as execution nears
STREETS QUIET, MOOD SUBDUED WHERE WILLIAMS STARTED CRIPS
By Patrick May
Mercury News
LOS ANGELES - As word spread this afternoon that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had turned down Stanley Tookie Williams' last-ditch bid for clemency, reaction was muted on the streets where Williams launched the Crips gang 35 years ago.
Some residents were saddened by the news, saying the governor had missed a golden opportunity to show true compassion hours before Williams' scheduled execution just past midnight. Others, though, felt anything but compassion for the man whose legacy in South-Central Los Angeles still seems like nothing but gang colors, bullets and blood.
``There's not a lot of anger over the governor's decision,'' said Julio Ramos, a social worker at All Peoples Christian Center in South-Central, which offers a gang-intervention program for middle-school kids. ``A lot of people feel Tookie Williams is getting what he deserved.''
John Johnson, another social worker downtown whose clients include former gang members, put it this way: ``Every time a young black male or female dies from gang violence, an intelligent person would see that the guy who started this gang to begin with should be held responsible for his actions.''
However, across town in East Los Angeles, the founder of a well-known gang-intervention program said the only thing worse than the four 1979 murders that landed Williams on Death Row was the governor's failure to prevent yet another life from being extinguished.
``There is a fate worse than death and that's the decision to execute a human being,'' said the Rev. Greg Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries in 1988 to help at-risk youth stay out of gangs. ``This is about more than any individual's merit or worth; it's about the death penalty. No other civilized country on the planet does it. And this could have been a moment of courage for the governor, who could have simply said, `I've changed my mind. I've seen the light. Nobody will be executed as long as I'm governor.' ''
Instead, said Boyle, Schwarzenegger ``missed a golden opportunity to raise this above simply talking about somebody's worth and merit. I now worry about Arnold's salvation more than Stanley's.''
The irony was obvious: Boyle has devoted his life to trying to extract young men from the gang culture that Williams helped create. And he worried about the message that the governor's decision sends to teenagers lured by the gang lifestyle.
``Homebody Industries,'' said its founder, ``stands for redemption and second chances. If you execute him, you execute that, too.''
Despite some fears that Williams' execution might set off riots in the streets where his own life had come unwound, things have been relatively quiet this afternoon in South-Central Los Angeles. As the Rev. Kerry Allison of Hope Community Church on Florence Avenue made his rounds, he sensed a sadness among residents over the news, but not anger.
``Any loss of life is and always will be disappointing, whether it's the people he killed or his own life that is being taken away,'' he said. ``But we're also very appreciative that Mr. Williams has left a legacy for children to stay away from gangs, by showing them what gangs did to his own life.''
Allison said Williams had achieved both bad and good in his life, first by creating the Crips, then by demonstrating the evils of gangs through children's books he wrote while on Death Row.
``The emphasis should be on the latter part of his life,'' the pastor said. ``He did wrong and killed people, and our hearts go out to the grieving families of his victims. But he changed his life in the end, and we can only applaud that. That is the legacy we hope endures.''
It would be pretty crazy if there was a riot though.
