Well allow me to retort...

My dear friend Mitch commented on my brief mention of Tookie Williams, and I will respond here.

It is my firm belief that Mr. Williams was executed because of the crime that he was convicted of. I also believe however, that he was not given clemency due to the fact that the state of California had a person that they could actually point to who was supposedly responsible for the creation of the gang culture that permeated from Los Angeles and made its way throughout the rest of the state in the 1980s and 1990s. Personally, I would first look at the economic situation that then Gov. Ronald Reagan's years in office yielded. And how did his programs, which in many cases set African Americans and other people of color in California far back, create an environment where Mr. Williams and others felt that the gang culture and lifestyle was their only means of survival? If you think logically about what the proliferation of, glamorization of, and the emphasis placed on gang life during that time period did for and to California, then it only makes sense that if the state could point to one man and say that he started a great deal of it...then they would do anything that they could to punish him for it.

I'm Joe and that's how I see it.