Posted on 12/19/2005 7:33:26 PM PST by SmoothTalker
Hundreds of people converged Monday on the South Los Angeles neighborhood where Stanley Tookie Williams co-founded the Crips to say goodbye to a "homeboy" executed last week over the objections of supporters who said he had turned his life around.
Williams, clad in a gray suit, lay in an open coffin at the House of Winston Mortuary as people quietly filed by with their heads bowed.
"Mostly everyone is out here because of his reputation," said Robert Collins, 27, who said he was a former Crips gang member. "Everyone knew Tookie was no angel. Everyone's just paying their respects to him."
A line of 200 stretched out the door shortly after the six-hour viewing began in mid-afternoon. More than an hour later, the line had dissipated but people were still streaming through.
Williams, whose execution was carried out over the protests of supporters who included celebrities and civil rights activists, spent his last years on California's Death Row renouncing gang violence and writing several children's books warning of the dangers of gangs.
See Love, a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said she had seen firsthand the way Williams' book "Life in Prison" had changed students' lives.
"Tookie's words were able to do what no judge or probation officer was able to do," said Love, 35. "I hope Stanley's spirit continues to live in the name of peace."
Williams, 51, was executed last Tuesday for the murders of four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Although he had renounced his past as co-founder of the deadly Crips, he maintained to his death that he did not commit the killings.
A crowd lingering outside the mortuary carried signs and handed out flyers proclaiming his innocence.
Lori Tompkins, 48, of Los Angeles, said she came "to say goodbye to our homeboy and also give support to his family."
"We feel he was innocent and wrongly killed," she added.
The viewing was to be followed by a funeral Tuesday in Los Angeles. Organizers said those expected to attend included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg.
Very well said!
I will be having nightmares from that photo.....
Does anyone know why it took so long to complete his execution? I've heard snippets; but that's all I've found.
The actual execution ran into some problems. Something about getting the needle inserted? I wonder what happened and why...?
:-)
I'm going to read this aloud to all my Democrat in-laws on Christmas Eve...thanks!
Maybe having his ashes scattered on the land of a butchered white farmer in Zimbabwe might have been more appropriate...
Millions stayed away that have no respect for him.
Dammit, where's the "Mega-Barf Alert" in the headline here. FR does have rules, you know.
Tookie Williams - African-American role model?
I don't think so. He was a punk, a bully, a murderer and a scumbag.
Those celebrating Tookie's life aren't doing a damn thing to help youngsters get out of the ebonic, ghetto, don't-act-white mentality.
"He's dead. Good."
You made me laugh - pretty good.
At lease he could have an open casket. The people he shot didn't have heads left for anyone to view!
Well I guess you can say, 200 is sort of like hundreds. It is 100 more than 100. I wonder how many of these people paid their respects to people like Chappie James when he died?
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