January 20, 2006

I STILL object to Tookie Williams' execution!

One of the pictures in my last blog entry shows a pro-Tookie Williams demonstator displaying a statement "STOP THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY".

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I have neither the inclination to discuss, nor is this blog the place for topics related to the problems of race and crime or punisment and crime. Not because they are so explosive, but because they need in-depth, unbiased and expert discussion and rock-solid figures, all things for which is no room in a blog like this.

However demonstrators who demand mercy for a convict usually claim that they would oppose capital punishment as such and protest the execution of any convict with similar passion.

Clarence Ray Allen, a 76 year-old blind diabetic with a heart disease and confined to a wheelchair, was executed at San Quentin last Tuesday. His death has stirred very little public irritation. Allen was a Choctaw Indian, but few records mention his "racial" affiliation, specifically here in Germany. Allen was largely perceived as White (whatever that is), and indeed he must have looked "White" to most.

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Williams was, as we all know, black.

I took the trouble to perform two Google searches. The one for Clarence Ray Allen yielded about 228,000 results, that for Tookie Williams about 2,290,000.

Capital punishment in America MAY be applied in a racist way, but those complaining about racism in capital punishment certainly ARE it.

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