Sneering at Redemption: Why Arnold Killed Tookie

By Dave Zirin

In the end, we can only assume the decision wasn't so
"agonizing" after all.  Last night Stan Tookie
Williams was legally lynched by the state of
California, at the behest of Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger who denied Williams' appeal for
clemency. The Governor deemed that a man who had been
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times and
brokered gang truces from Newark to South Central was
not worthy to walk and breathe among us.  Stan's case
for clemency was so compelling it was articulated by
people from Desmond Tutu to Snoop Dogg, and yet,
watching Schwarzenegger in action has been to observe
the nexus of cold-hearted political calculation and
cowardice. 
Williams' Attorney John Harris challenged the governor
to meet with Tookie, saying to the San Francisco
Chronicle, "It's impossible to me to believe that if
you had met Stanley Williams and spent time with him,
that you would not believe in his personal
redemption.But that would require a courage the
Governor has never demonstrated. Unlike the movie
tough guy always ready to look his victims in the eye
-- a quip at the ready -- before shooting, stabbing,
or beheading them, Arnold made his decision at safe
remove, hanging  out this weekend at his son's soccer
game, his face a waxy mask of carefree detachment,
while Tookie's supporters organized, marched, chanted
and prayed themselves hoarse.

When it finally came time for Arnold to announce his
personal judgment that Stan Williams should die,
tragedy became farce. The Governor's office released
an ugly scandalous diatribe that qualifies as nothing
less than hate-speech.
As he - or his script doctor - wrote, "The dedication
of Williams' book Life in Prison casts significant
doubt on his personal redemption. This book was
published in 1998 several years after Williams'
redemptive experience. Specifically the book is
dedicated to Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X,
Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Ramona Africa,
John Africa, Leonard Peltier, George Jackson, Mumia
Abu Jamal, and the countless other men, women, and
youths, who have to endure the hellish oppression of
living behind bars.  The mix of individuals on this
list is curious. Most have violent pasts and some have
been convicted of committing heinous murders including
the killing of law enforcement. But the inclusion of
George Jackson on this list defies reason and is a
significant indicator that Williams is not reformed
and that he still sees violence and lawlessness as a
legitimate means to address societal problems.
For Tookie, all of these folks, from Mandela, to
Malcolm, to Assata, are one and the same: people of
color who strove for liberation in the darkest of
circumstances. For Schwarzenegger, the whole lot is
the same as well: people who are his political enemies
because they refused to be broken. Notice the singling
out of George Jackson, author of Soledad Brother, a
book for which there is no evidence Schwarzenegger has
so much as skimmed. Jackson was someone who despite
being framed for his political activism never stopped
organizing. That is the person Schwarzenegger wants to
kill by executing Tookie.

Later, Arnold passes judgment on Williams' very
redemption, writing, "Is Williams' redemption complete
and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise? . . .
Without an apology and atonement for these senseless
and brutal killings there can be no redemption." In
other words, because Williams has consistently
defended his own innocence, he should die. But as
Tookie once said, "Many people expect me to apologize
for crimes I didn't commit--just to save my life. Of
course I want to live, but not by having to lie."

While not surprising Arnold did not have the courage
to face Tookie and spew this nonsense to his face, it
certainly would have been incredible theatre. In fact,
it would have been something of a reunion. In the late
1970s, Arnold and Tookie, about fifty life times ago,
admired each other's biceps on Muscle Beach in Venice,
California. "Your arms are like thighs!" Arnold
grinned. Amazing the difference thirty years makes. In
that time, Arnold rode his muscles and Teutonic good
looks from Hollywood stardom to the Governor's
mansion. Yes, he had a spotty past including many
allegations of sexual assault and drug abuse. But he
passed that off as youthful indiscretion, claimed that
he had changed, and a pliant media were happy to
believe that Arnold was worthy of forgiveness and
redemption.

Tookie, like Arnold, also fashioned an unlikely
political career. But his began not with Hollywood
riches but as the target of the tough-on-crime laws of
the Clinton-Bush years which saw the nation's prison
population balloon from more than one to two million.
He was convicted of murder in a manner that would make
Strom Thurmond proud, called a "Bengal tiger" by a
prosecutor who engineered an all-white jury to make
sure the Crip founder found San Quentin. While
Arnold cozied up to the Bush and Kennedy clans, Tookie
read dictionaries in solitary, wrote letters to gang
kids in LA, and became that most dangerous of
political beings: a Black leader in racist America.

In one of his final interviews he said, "So, as long
as I have breath, I will continue to do what I can to
proliferate a positive message throughout this country
and abroad to youths everywhere, of all colors or
gender and geographical area, and I will continue to
do what I can to help. I want to be a part of the, you
know, the solution."

Now another tragedy, along with the murders of Albert
Owens, Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, and Yu-Chin
Yang Lin, has taken place because Stan Tookie has been
put to death. But the tragedy is not theirs to bear
alone.

Tonight children are being born to mothers without
health insurance, in neighborhoods politicians don't
enter without SWAT teams, news cameras, and latex
gloves. The political class has already branded these
kids as human waste. But many of them could have found
another path, because Stanley Tookie Williams would
have been there to intervene in their lives and show
another way.  

Now it's up to those of us who stood with Tookie to
keep on pushing. This is Schwarzenegger's "mission
accomplished" moment for his right wing, pro-death
base.  But his "mission" will fail. He is part of a
21st century set of rulers who have repeatedly shown,
whether in Baghdad or New Orleans, that they are unfit
to rule. Their brutality will be met with resistance
in the tradition of Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis,
Malcolm X, Leonard Peltier, George Jackson... and
Stanley Tookie Williams.