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'Tookie' stirs up death penalty debate
Former FBI Profiler Van Zandt shares his thoughts on capital punishment
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Reporter witnesses execution Dec. 13: MSNBC-TV’s Rita Cosby, who watched convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams’ execution, reports from San Quentin State Prison. MSNBC |
FOR MORE INFORMATION |
Learn how you can protect your children Dr. Clint Van Zandt offers a DVD entitled "Protecting Children from Predators." Click here to learn more |
WARNING SIGNS |
Get help quickly if your child or a friend is exhibiting these warning signs for potential violence: — Threats of violence, either verbal or written — Past violent or aggressive behavior (including uncontrollable angry outbursts) — Access to guns or other weapons — Bringing a weapon to school or carrying a weapon — Past suicide attempts or threats — Family history of violent behavior or suicide attempts — Blaming others or an unwillingness to accept responsibility for his or her own actions — Recent experience of humiliation, shame, loss, or rejection — Bullying or intimidating peers or younger children — Being a victim of abuse or neglect (physical, sexual, or emotional) — Witnessing abuse or violence in the home — Themes of death or depression repeatedly evident in conversation, written expressions, reading selections, music or artwork — Preoccupation with themes and acts of violence in TV shows, movies, music, magazines, comics, books, video games, and Internet sites — Mental illness, such as depression, mania, psychosis, or bipolar disorder use of alcohol or illicit drugs — Disciplinary problems at school or in the community (delinquent behavior) past destruction of property or vandalism — Cruelty to animals — Fire setting behavior — Poor peer relationships or social isolation — Involvement with cults or gangs — Little or no supervision or support from parents or other caring adult a sense of entitlement (believing he or she should get what they want at whatever expense, especially to others) Typically, the greater the number of these warning signs present, the greater the risk. It is important to realize, however, that many children exhibit these warning signs and never resort to violence. Even so, these signs can be a clue that something is wrong, and your child or friend needs help. And finally, no matter what the gun commercials try to tell you about the connection between guns and violence, as a responsible parent or caregiver, make sure that your child does not have direct access to firearms. --Clint Van Zandt |
RELATED INFO |
The Centers for Disease Control tell us that violent behavior can be decreased or even prevented if these risk factors are significantly reduced or eliminated: — Being the victim of physical and/or sexual abuse — Exposure to violence (i.e., home and/or community) — Exposure to violence in media (TV, movies, etc.) — Use of drugs and/or alcohol — Presence of firearms in the home — Combination of stressful family socioeconomic factors (poverty, severe deprivation, marital breakup, single parenting, unemployment, loss of support from extended family) Most importantly, efforts should be directed at dramatically decreasing the exposure of children and adolescents to violence in the home, community, and through the media. As an individual is exposed to more risk factors, the probability that he or she will engage in violent behavior increases. --Clint Van Zandt |
PROFILER'S PERSPECTIVE |
Former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt shares his case insights, updates |
Once again Hollywood and the recording industry got it all wrong. In fact, if you simply wait to see which side of an issue most of Hollywood comes out in support of, you'll usually be right, safe, and sane to support the opposite viewpoint, one that will usually reflect the values of Americans who don't see themselves as the sun that the planets (you and I) must forever circle. On this one matter though I somehow find myself in agreement with Jessie Jackson and Snoop Dogg (born Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.), both of whom came out in support of clemency for Crips gang founder and leader, and convicted murderer, Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
It's not that Williams wasn't responsible for the brutal murders of four of his fellow citizens in two different 1979 robberies, because he was. His known victims in that year included three Asian motel operators, the Yang family, which included a mother, father, and their daughter, and one white male. Race is only important here because Williams told one witness that he shot 26-year-old convenience store worker Albert Owens twice in the back because Owens was white. This was a hate crime that would have caused riots in the streets were the races reversed. Snoop and the other supporters of clemency for Tookie wanted us to simply forget the vicious hate crime aspect to Williams' murders and instead reward him for the so-called good he's done since he's been in jail. Gangsta rapper Snoop (himself once a member of the bloody L.A. Crips gang) reformed. He realized the real money was not in drive-by shootings and other "gangsta" behavior, but in singing about and otherwise glamorizing that antisocial behavior, behavior that Tookie later spoke out against.
Williams had a media blitz second only to that distorting the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner by Mumia Abu-Jamal, spawning the fairy tales surrounding Mumia's execution style murder of Officer Faulkner. As in the case of Mumia, Williams' "true believers" came out in record numbers, apparently forgetting or just disregarding the four lives that Williams shot to pieces some 26 years ago. Tookie refused to accept public responsibility for his crimes right up to the time of his death just after midnight California time on Tuesday morning. Some suggested that true repentance would have included the acknowledgment of his killings and some, any, evidence of remorse that could have established a more realistic basis for his request for clemency from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor said no, as did the Supreme Court, and Tookie went to his death in a new set of prison clothes, and a new attitude developed in prison. But the families of his victims never got the opportunity to hear him accept responsibility for the murder of their loved ones. Were he a believer he had to have known that he was taking the truth to the afterlife with him. If not, he died with a lie on his lips.
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