Tookie and The Snoop

In cold blood I kill. My take is a few hundred dollars. Still, stark in my terror, I take four lives. The racist system has railroaded me onto death row. Eventually, people will come to my defense.

And so it is. Celebrities never turn down a moral crusade. Since they live in a world void of any morals but of moral equivalency, it is easy to join an unholy alliance with criminals. Ah-Nold, the Governor of California, has agreed to review the case of Tookie Williams who is scheduled to be executed December 13. And that's exactly what happened.

Enter the 'Free Tookie' crowd. He should be so lucky that he has a friend in Snoop Dogg (spelling a guess) who is no stranger to the courts. Dogg, of recent comedic fame and a hero to many, has faced charges himself on murder, weapons possession and dealing cocaine. Now that's a person with integrity one looks for. But this is modern pop culture and the 'badder' you are the more likely you'll find some fans. Unfortunately we forget. When we see Ellen joking with Snoop we think, "Wow, cool and funny!" It's similar to the Arafat syndrome. When this thug was presented the Nobel Prize (thus reducing this prize to nothing but dust in my eyes), people simply were not aware of the fact that he was not a freedom fighter but a cold, hard, calculating, murdering, tactical politician.

Tookie's supporters say that have new evidence that he did not commit the crimes and that he was railroaded during the trial. They also point out that he has redeemed himself; that he has written children's books and teaching children not to take his path. This is not the issue. It is to be noted that he has taken his time in prison to connect with his human side. He has contributed some good. This, however, is not enough to free a man for his original actions. At the time, he was an adult, and as such he must pay for his actions. For each action, there is a consequence. Poor or rich, this is what makes us human - knowing the difference between right and wrong.

Which brings me to the issue of capital punishment. This piece is not about whether this is just. Rather, it's about knowing and understanding the laws of your society. By extension, it's understanding the simple principle of accounting for your actions and facing the consequences of those actions. We seem to have removed this outright in contemporary society. The Arab world has excessively low crime rates because that society understands that if they commit a crime, they will face an extreme form of justice. They will face harsh realities for their crimes. Not in Western culture, where not only does the 'innocent until proven guilty' rule prevails - thus placing the burden on the prosecution to prove a person is guilty - but people have the option of blaming environmental reasons - like we see in Canada with its ridiculous youth laws - for a persons crimes. The bottom line is simple. In places like California, New York and Florida, if you are citizen in these states, the death penalty applies. Proceed at your own risk.

While some may be swayed with the notion of "well, if celebrities are defending him then he must be innocent and saved", we must always come back to perspective. He killed four people (including a family of three). He killed four people. Say it, he killed four people in cold blood.

Snoop and his ilk want us to conveniently ignore this. Celebrities want us to accept vices as natural human flaws. Once we do, we will never want to erase those vices. For now, the message is "If you kill, write a children's book, watch celebrities flock to your cause, as the guilt of society will set you free."

If the new evidence presented proves his innocence is accurate, then he must be freed. Here in Canada, Guy Morin and David Milgaard are legendary examples of men going to jail for crimes they did not commit. Stories like Hurricane Carter, while not uncommon, still remain the exception rather than the norm. I don't know if this is a similar case. In the end, the Terminator must make the right decision if Tookie fails to present the hard facts proving his innocence.

I write this piece in honour of the victims. As is usually the case, the victims are often forgotten. May their souls rest in peace.