Comments on: A thought on Tookie

By: Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 09:38:18 +0000

Martyrdom of Stanley

Idiots from both sides of the issue have came out the woodwork to discuss the criminal acts committed by both Stanley and Arnold. Wonder what acts they have committed…

By: Gut Rumbles

Gut Rumbles — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:58:29 +0000

tookie!

If I ever end up facing execution and people such as these show up to “support” me, I’ll stick the…

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:36:17 +0000

On that, I completely agree!!!

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:50:18 +0000

A problem can simultaneously be under-addressed and less important than a different problem. I think there are more important problems in the world than the problem of the state of the American civil justice system, but I also think that there aren’t enough resources being devoted to fixing those civil justice problems, and too many resources devoted to making those problems worse.

The misallocation of resources amongst various good causes pales in comparison to the resources devoted to bad causes—and I think Tookie Williams is a bad cause, rather than a cause that isn’t good enough to be worthy of attention.

By: Peter Eipers

Peter Eipers — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:49:58 +0000

I agree, Duqlaw98. In Alabama, the Birmingham News recently ran a week-long series about the inequities of the death penalty. (http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/?choosinglife.html) With so many stories of poor defendants who are poorly represented by the underfunded and overworked public defenders, I can’t remember one celebrity coming here to shine a light on the shortcomings of the system.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:37:02 +0000

“I do not endorse prison rape”

I didn’t endorse it. I said it was bad, and we need to fix it.

It’s just below many other, in my opinion, MUCH WORSE things that need to be fixed MUCH MORE.

Put it this way:

The prison rape victim is very highly likely to be an actual criminal, and has, at the very least, been convicted of a serious crime, which puts a pretty high bar on who the victims are.

Starvation (just to pick a single, simple example) kills largely children.

Which should we deal with first? Which is more important? Preventing children dying of starvation, or making the lives of criminals more comfortable?

It’s not “endorsement”; it’s priorities.

(In all fairness, there are many people who DO endorse it, and most of the ones I’ve talked to cite the opinion that prison today is basically a joke, not a punishment. Indeed, if I were in a different position than I am today, financially, such as looking at spending my life flipping burgers at near-minimum wage with no real prospect of improvement, especially if I were in such debt as to make life feel like enforced servitude, prison rape would be the primary thing that kept prison from being appealing. If one feels imprisoned by life already, then one might as well get not have to work or worry about the bills. It doesn’t make prison rape right; it does push it that much farther down the list of priorities to fix.)

By: Duqlaw98

Duqlaw98 — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:20:51 +0000

While I oppose the death penalty, I agree with Ted that Tookie Williams was not the right poster boy around which death penalty opponents should have rallied. Instead of prostrating themselves over the execution of Tookie Williams, celebrities should apply their resources to helping people who are trying to exonerate the wrongfully convicted who are sitting on death row. By embracing a man who refused to acknowledge his guilt and who refused to cooperate with the government in going after the Crips, Hollywood celebrities cheapen the legitimate arguments to abolish the death penalty.

By: nevins

nevins — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:01:59 +0000

The law for capital punishment does not address ‘redemption’. Whether Mr. Williams has indeed been redeemed is a matter between him and parties other than the court or society at large. Capital punishment is not a last final attempt to redeem difficult people, it is a deterrant.

Mr. Williams’s death will serve as a stark, if delayed, reminder to street punks that they too can roll up their sleeve.

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:42:02 +0000

Lawyers need to tell us why this took 24 years. There cannot possibly have heen 24 years of 8 hour days of legal work involved. I believe that the appeals process has become a filibuster against justice and I believe we need to appoint an umpire to throw the flag whenever the ball is dropped.

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:27:10 +0000

To avoid these comments going off the rails, let me step in to say that I do not endorse prison rape and that I find troubling the persistent implication in the popular understanding that rape is an acceptable component of modern-day imprisonment, especially when government officials suggest that it is. (E.g., Jul. 4; Jun. 3, 2001.)