What Is Real by Riley Perez

Author:Riley Perez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2018-08-06T18:12:25+00:00

Tookie

“My lack of fear of this barbaric methodology of death,

I rely upon my faith. It has nothing to do with machismo,

with manhood, or with some pseudo former gang street code.

This is pure faith, and predicated on my redemption.

So, therefore, I just stand strong and continue to tell you,

your audience, and the world that I am innocent and, yes,

I have been a wretched person, but I have redeemed myself. And I say to you and all those who can listen and will listen that redemption is tailor-made for the wretched, and that’s what

I used to be… That’s what I would like the world to remember me. That’s how I would like my legacy to be remembered:

as a redemptive transition, something that I believe is not exclusive, just for the so-called sanctimonious, the elitists. And it doesn’t—is not predicated on color or race or social stratum or one’s religious background. It’s accessible for everybody. That’s the beauty about it. And whether others choose to believe that I have redeemed myself or not, I worry not, because I know and God knows, and you can believe that all of the youths that I continue

to help, they know, too. So with that, I am grateful…

I say to you and everyone else, God bless. So take care.”

—Stanley “Tookie” Williams, death row inmate

Stanley Williams was found guilty of several murders in South Los Angeles and was sentenced to death. He had exhausted all of his appeals and Governor Schwarzenegger refused clemency. He was one of the founding members of the Crips, a criminal street gang that has spread throughout America. He would denounce and apologize for his leadership of a movement that he says was intended to protect the community from predatory gangs and cops in the aftermath of the Watts Riot in 1969. He vehemently proclaimed his innocence.

Thousands of protestors gathered outside of San Quentin Correctional Facility to protest the execution of Stanley Williams, but at 12:35 a.m. on December 13, 2005—Williams’s birthday, no less—medical personnel from the California Department of Corrections administered a lethal injection protocol that was designed to render the patient unconscious, then to stop his breathing and eventually his heart. They achieved the goal of the sentence.

I sat on my bunk in the darkened dorm. We had been denied power and the use of all sanitary facilities. The institution was on lockdown in anticipation that inmates would stage a protest or strike out at the officers. The officers that overlooked the dorm I was assigned to appeared shocked as the male voice that came over the loudspeaker announced in a sinister tone, “Tookie is dead.” The voice repeated the announcement four times, with his voice trailing off each time—followed with the sadistic laughter of a group of voices. What the officers didn’t know was that the Crips had planned attacks that were to take place after the lockdown was lifted and the program returned to what was considered normal. The Bloods and the SS agreed to back the Crips’ decision. The

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