Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Buh. Bye.
more than 2,000 people of all ages — many of them clad in Crips blue — who gathered at the House of Winston Mortuary on South Vermont Avenue ... filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit and silk tie bore little resemblance to the man they remembered as the muscle-bound, fearsome Crips co-founder, Stanley Tookie Williams.
*bzzzzt* “Gentlemen” do not shotgun a man in the back and then mock the sounds he makes while dying.
Marijuana smoke wafted through the air as sport utility vehicles with 20-inch rims cruised past, rap music blaring at full volume.
Adding tension to the activities in Williams’ old Crips neighborhood, members of traditional rival Blood gangs took their place in line under the watchful eye of Los Angeles police officers across the street.
Goodfellas, anyone?
On a crowded street corner a few yards away, a group of young men wearing blue jerseys and ball caps flashed gang signs at a passing vehicle, then charged into the street and tossed a bottle at it.
Others handed out posters of Williams behind bars. One boasted out loud to no one in particular: “Thirty-five years ago, who was closest to Tookie? Me. Right here. Me!”
Cedric Mosely, 50, actually was among an inner circle of original Crips who, like Williams, idolized Al Capone, wore a trench coat and black Stetson, walked with a cane and enjoyed watching 1930s-era gangster movies starring Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.
*eye roll*
[According to] Williams’ final wishes — which he refused to share with San Quentin’s warden before he was executed — ... he will be cremated and his ashes scattered in South Africa.
...where he’s never been and likely couldn’t find on a map.
Among those expected to attend [the Tookmeister’s funeral today in LA]: Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was with Williams shortly before his death; Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, as well as hip-hop artist [and Crip] Snoop Dogg.
The service is slated to include a five-minute video tribute by documentary filmmaker Jonathan Stack and speeches by motivational guru Tony Robbins and actor Jamie Foxx
Tony Robbins?!?!?
“He was, like, the most Crip-ness,” said Bruce Ball, 36, a former Crip who goes by the name Cika. “He was one of the first. I’m retired, but the Cripping is still in my heart. Of course I’m going to come and see my boy."
Guess ‘Cika’ missed those ‘children’s books’ the Tookster ‘wrote.’
Less than a half-mile from the mortuary is a Western Motel ...On March 11, 1979, the motel was known as the Bookhaven - the site where Williams broke through the office door and robbed and killed motel owners Yen-I Yang, 76, and Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, and their daughter Yee-Chen Lin, 43.
..."This was his neighborhood, and he had a long journey that began here,” said Najee Ali, a former Crip who now runs Project Islamic Hope. “Along that journey, some bad things happened. But at the end of the journey, he did amazing things. It’s not where you start at, it’s where you end at.
yeah. Those ‘bad things’ just ‘happened...’
“I grew up looking up toward Tookie,” said Mike Graham, 35, a Crip who calls himself Big Maniac and met Williams while serving time in San Quentin. “He was a legend. We’re putting to rest a legend.
“I patterned my life after him. Now, I’m trying to do positive things for the kids. I’m trying to spread his message in the streets."
Thus coining the phrase, “Dumber ‘n’ a Crip”
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