The end.

Yesterday, Stanley 'Tookie' Williams was executed. With his passing, I feel a certain sense of irony and pain. A strange mix. Tookie is known to most as one of the founders of the Crips (the other being Raymond Lee Washington), one of the most powerful and violent gangs to emerge out of South Los Angeles. The violence perpetrated by the Crips went onto spawn other radical gangs like the Piru Bloods. Convicted for quadruple homicide, Tookie started off his sentence at San Quentin with more violence but then changed into a human being that has inspired a whole generation.

He's tried to commiserate and his attempts have been genuinely noble. He's written books that warn children about the ills of joining street gangs and violence. He was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace prize. Tookie tried to make things right to the best of his ability. Yet, the crime he's accused of is seriously grave and granting clemency was always disputed. Now, he's gone. I pray to the Lord to bless his soul and hope Tookie rests in peace.