The Raven

Friday, September 13, 2002

Knight Time Is the Right Time

We've got "checkout aisle rage," "daycare rage," "telemarketer rage," and now "British knighthood rage." Keith Richards says that he went "berserk, bananas" when Mick Jagger was knighted for his "services to music."

"I doubt they thought of offering me one," the 58-year-old was quoted as saying. "Because they know what I would've said ... They knew I'd tell them where they could put it."

No doubt.

Sorry, Loyal Viewers

Ever wondered why your favorite TV show got the axe? Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment, says, "It may be something they do with multiple interruptions.... Something that is overly complex and overly demanding may not be what most of our audience is dying to watch." So that's why they killed Freaks and Geeks.

Ziplock Bandit Nabbed

The Raven has a fondness for criminals who are dubbed with odd nicknames. You've got "Harvey the Wallbanger" (knocked down walls), "The Polite Bandit" (always said, "Thank you"), and the Crown Royal Bandit, the Straw Hat Lady, and the Pizza Box Bandit, of whom one should draw the obvious conclusions. Now we've got the "Ziploc bandit" joining the pantheon. So-named because during his bank robberies he would "cram the stolen money into resealable plastic sandwich bags, so that he wouldn't be sprayed by dye packs," Nhlanhla Leeroy Khumalo was sentenced in Oakland to 5 years in prison, where he'll have lots of time to think up a more pronouncable first name.

More Gore

Gore Vidal's Creation, a novel written 21 years ago, has finally been republished in its entirety. Set in ancient Greece, the novel concerns a Cyrus Spitama, who is Zoroaster's grandson, squire of Xerxes, pals with Buddha and Confucius, and employer of Socrates. The original manuscript was handled by Jason Epstein, who tightened it down to 500 pages for better marketability—much to Vidal's displeasure. "For 21 years, I have regretted that the original book had been seriously damaged by an overly busy editor," Vidal says. Although I haven't read it, just from the description I tend to side with Epstein, who quips:

I didn't think particularly much of the book at the time. I found it hard to read. I thought the book would benefit if there were less of it. I could have cut anything and it would have been an improvement.

Now let's not all rush out and buy it at once, OK?

3:31:45 PM

You Be the Judge

One of the people who brought you "The Crips" was denied clemency by Calif. Gov Gray Davis this week, clearing the way for his execution early next year. Background: In 1970, Raymond Washington allied himself with Stanley "Tookie" Williams and Jamiel Barnes to create the Los Angeles "Baby Avenues," who eventually became the Avenue Cribs, and by '71 were known as "Crips." The Crips were so successful that they forced smaller gangs to combine into a rival organization, the Bloods, and the rest is a sad story of crack dealing, drive by shootings, and wasted lives. There are approximately 275 Crip and Blood gangs functioning in LA today, with branches in over 100 U.S. cities. Washington was killed in '79, and in 1981 Tookie Williams was convicted of robbery and sentenced to death on four counts of homicide.

Tookie has used his time productively on Death Row. In addition to writing children's books in prison, "he coordinates an international peace effort for youths," and last year he "was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize."

Now, I have a soft spot for authors, and after I read Jack Abott's In the Belly of the Beast, I could understand the thinking that led Norman Mailer to champion a review of Abbot's sentence—so why not apply the same consideration to Tookie?

Journalist Michelle Malkin explains why not in an article published in late 2000:

Williams' groupies would have us believe that their Nobel Peace Prize nominee is a helpless victim of his environment, addled by low self-esteem, forced to turn to violence by racist oppressors, and now apologetic "for the atrocities which I and others committed against our race through gang violence."

Tookie Williams is an unrepentant killer who refuses to acknowledge his reponsibility for ending the lives of four people. His victims include Alvin Owen, a white teenage 7-11 clerk "shot twice in the back of the head—execution-style—as he lay unarmed on the floor during a hold-up," and Taiwanese immigrants Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and their daughter Yee Chen Lin, who were slain by Tookie during a hotel robbery. LA deputy DA Robert Martin says that "half of the daughter's face was blown off by the shotgun blasts."

A witness testified that Williams mocked the gurgling sounds Owen made as he lay dying ... Williams has yet to apologize to the victims' families.

Tookie's books are written for children and chronicle Tookie's rise to stardom on the mean streets. They're supposed to have an anti-gang message but "their ultimate effect is to glamorize the criminal life. Each installment is illustrated with glossy photos of Williams in various stages of thuggery." Barbara Cottman Becnel is the "co-author" who edits the Williams corpus and is his outspoken advocate. Here she is interviewing Tookie about his career:

Becnel: Why do you think so many young black men harm and kill each other?
Williams: I believe the core of it is an embedded sense of self-hate. An individual who has been spoon-fed so many derogatory images of his race will, after a period of time, start to believe those images. The images I'm talking about are stereotypes that depict the majority of blacks as being buffoons, functional illiterates, violent and promiscuous, welfare recipients, indolent criminals and a host of other pejoratives.

This is the message you return to over and over in Tookie's world. He's a victim, and it is the vicissitudes of a non-inclusive society that drove him to behave with such poor self-control. You can visit his Website if you'd like to learn more about his books, including Life in Prison, which the American Library Association selects as one of its "Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers." Here's Tookie's own rundown of his role in spearheading gangstah culture, written in the third person:

Back in the day when Tookie and Raymond founded the Crips, many of the young people of South Central Los Angeles were involved with small gangs. Those gang members roamed South Central taking property from anyone who feared them, including women and children. To protect the community, Tookie and Raymond organized the Crips.

He wants us to think of the Crips as being a benevolent organization that went astray. When Tookie mentions his arrest and crimes, he simply says in a single sentence that he was "convicted of killing four people," as he is loath to endanger his ongoing appeals. What matters today is the New Tookie—children's author, friend to man. Here's the viewpoint of a young reader who has learned from Tookie's writings:

KATHRYN: [Because of] the fact that he killed four people, it is saying that anyone ... can do anything, and if you turn around and repent then you are OK and you are a wonderful person.

Tookie has two appeals left. He can ask the 9th Circuit Court to reconsider their ruling that his conviction was legal, and he can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The death penalty brings out a lot of strong feelings in people. Some see a state-sanctioned killing as the ultimate brutality, others see it as a just retribution for the crime of murder. Regardless of your position on capital punishment, Tookie's reconstruction of his life history is a sham. His Nobel nomination was forwarded by a Swiss priest who wanted to bolster Tookie's defense. His "International Peace Movement" for youth is an Internet chat room set up by a supporter, his books preach the cult of victimology and glorify gangbanging, and he fails to recognize the people he killed as being human. He's had 20 years on death row to make something of himself, and this is the best he could do?
8:21:03 AM