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Drumming Up Business for Death Row Email Print

By SusanG
11/17/2005 06:19:49 PM EST

Yes, California tax dollars are being put to work in a PR campaign against a death-row inmate scheduled for a Dec. 13 execution.

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - As murderer and Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams tries to stave off execution next month, California prison officials have launched an unusual counterattack against the notion that he has redeemed himself behind bars.

The Corrections Department earlier this month posted a press release on its Web site about the upcoming execution, detailing Williams' crimes and asserting that he has been a gang leader while on death row at San Quentin Prison.
...
On its Web site, the Correction Department said of Williams: "By 1994, having firmly entrenched himself as the leader of the Crips at San Quentin, he wielded his power as his lieutenants and other minions were dispatched to carry out his objectives." The paragraph was removed a day after it was posted following a call from The Associated Press.

Daniel Vasquez, who was warden at San Quentin from 1983 to 1993 and wrote a letter supporting clemency for the last death row inmate executed, said he had never seen such an inflammatory statement in a press release from the prison.

"It's like they're trying to drum up business for death row," he said.


The story details Williams' supporters, who say he's redeemed himself in prison through writing children's books steering kids away from gang life. State prison officials say he's still running the Crips from henchmen from his cell, although the Los Angeles Police Department denies hearing any such rumors from the gang unit.

Whether he's a reformed hero now or still running the Crips, I have no idea (I have guesses, but they're immaterial). What bugs the shit out of me is why my taxpayer dollars are going to fund a PR campaign against him on a state website. What the hell is the purpose of that? Are we all going to vote on this? Is this yet another goddamned proposition I've got to take a night course in? No, it's not. As a California resident, in this specific case, I have no say now. And at heart, it's really not even the money that is bugging me so much; it's the feeling that I'm being "pitched" all the time by all levels of government in my life, even if there's no place for my opinion in the process. For fuck's sake, either execute or don't, but quit trying to bamboozle me with state money that you got from ME about something I can't influence.

Enough already. Go fix a pothole or fund a school and quit with the endless, useless PR crapola.


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Drumming Up Business for Death Row | 7 comments (7 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Seems to be the standard (5.00 / 2)
The Republians seem to feel that they haven't just taken charge of the government, they've taken possession.  Being the owners, they're entitled to spend as much of the public's money as they like defending their agenda.

Just ask Arnold.  Or Ken Blackwell.  Or Bush.

These guys are only repeating the kind of blurring facts and PR that they've seen the big guys working so often.

by Devilstower on 11/17/2005 09:30:19 PM EST

Agreed (none / 0)
Being the owners, they're entitled to spend as much of the public's money as they like defending their agenda

Not just "defending" their agenda, but aggressively pushing their agenda through a systematic campaign of propaganda against the American people.  

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison

by lbcwonk on 11/18/2005 02:01:15 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Great Diary (none / 0)
It's sickening that our tax dollars go to pay for this bullshit.  Seriously, of all of the misuses of our tax money, this is among the worst.  A PR campaign to justify the execution of a person?  Amazing.

Williams, by all accounts has completely turned his life around.  By simply resorting to execution, is the State saying that they've completely abandoned the notion of rehabilitation?  And if so, why not then just start executing everybody?

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison

by lbcwonk on 11/17/2005 07:22:10 PM EST

Well, whether he SHOULD be executed ... (5.00 / 2)
is worthy of another diary altogether (hint hint).

I just want the state to do its friggin' job -- whatever it's defined as -- and quit wasting my time and money telling me about it.

by SusanG on 11/17/2005 08:23:09 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I've seen the consequences ... (5.00 / 4)
...of gang violence closeup. My first month in Los Angeles, during a ride-along with unarmed gang interveners (many of them ex-gangsters), we were first on the scene of a shooting less than 30 seconds after it occurred, and I watched a gunned-down boy of 17 die in the gutter before the paramedics showed up.

Later, at the hospital, gangsters brazenly arrived to finish off another of the victims who hadn't died in the street and were only deterred by the black-and-whites at the entrance.

Williams probably deserves the death penalty as much as anyone on death row - if you support the death penalty. Which I don't.

I look forward to the day when nobody will have to make convoluted arguments for clemency for a prisoner of dubious value slated for execution because nobody will be slated for execution.

But, back on topic, right-on Diary.

by Meteor Blades on 11/18/2005 01:28:02 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Wow... (none / 0)
I can't imagine what being involved with a scene like that might be like.  And I believe that perhaps that's why so many people are so rabidly pro-death penalty... because they've never been mixed up in a scene like that, have never experienced violent death up close and personal.  Certainly there need to be stiff punishments for those that break the laws of this land, but I'm no longer sure that death is the right punishment.  In a lot of cases, it certainly doesn't seem to be the just punishment.  Such as with Tookie Williams.  I think he is living proof that violent criminals can be rehabilitated and productive members of society.  I really think that our entire penal system needs to be scrutinized and overhauled.

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison

by lbcwonk on 11/18/2005 01:59:13 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Errr.... (none / 0)
is worthy of another diary altogether (hint hint)

You're right... it truly is.  I look forward to seeing your exquisite way with words.  :-)

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison

by lbcwonk on 11/18/2005 01:56:13 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Drumming Up Business for Death Row | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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