Joanne Jacobs wonders why a murderer who doesn't admit to his crimes should be the focus of a teach-in:
A Tookie Teach-In at Oakland's Street Academy High School turned the gang leader and multiple murderer into a martyr, writes Justin Berton in East Bay Express. Tookie Williams has written children's books expressing his regrets at founding the Crips, but hasn't admitted to the four murders for which he's scheduled to be executed Dec. 13.
Joanne notes that the invited speaker doesn't exactly seem to stick to facts on the topic of politics and crime:
Faucher said there's little evidence Williams is guilty. Or O.J. either. She also said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't a U.S. citizen, but wavered when a student asked how he could be governor without being a citizen.
The East Bay Express article also notes that Faucher claimed that black criminals overwhelmingly get the death penalty, while most reliable statistics I've seen suggests that it's the race of the victim, not the criminal, that is related to the likelihood of getting the death penalty. Given that much crime is intra-race, it's not surprising that whites make up the largest percentage of those on Death Row since 1976. Is it a problem that the race of defendents seems to matter? Yes, it is, but that's not what Faucher is arguing.
In fact, the concept of compassion or concern for victims is completely absent from Faucher's statements. The goal of the teach-in was to invite students to write to Gov. Schwarzenegger to ask for Tookie's clemency. Funny how they weren't invited to write letters of condolences to the families of the victims.
Posted by kswygert at December 1, 2005 11:14 AM