Stanley “Tookie” Williams, founder of the deadly Crips gang, was executed last week for murdering four people, three of them members of ethnic minorities, whose only crime was to hold down a job in South-Central Los Angeles. But as Michelle Malkin reports, that didn’t prevent Tookie from having a funeral yesterday worthy of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist:


“2,000 people of all ages – many of them clad in Crips blue – who gathered at the House of inston Mortuary on South Vermont Avenue at 95th Street where Williams’ body reposed….


“The public viewing of his body attracted a sometimes rowdy crowd that spilled into the street, acking up traffic. 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.”


I thought Tookie’s claim to “redemption” was supposed to be that he helped get rid of gang violence, not foment it. Then again, those anti-gang children’s books Tookie (who never expressed remorse for the murders) was supposed to have written didn’t sell many copies. There’s more:


“In the kind of funeral normally reserved for a dignitary, religious leaders and celebrities traveled to violence-wracked South Los Angeles to pay respects to the man who helped found a deadly street gang, then spent the years before his execution denouncing the gangster life….
 
“Those efforts attracted numerous supporters who lobbied frantically for clemency, arguing Williams had redeemed himself.


Among those expected to attend his funeral were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who visited Williams hortly before his death, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg.


The service was to include a five-minute video tribute by documentary filmmaker Jonathan Stack and speeches by motivational guru Tony Robbins and actor Jamie Foxx, who portrayed Williams in the TV movie ‘Redemption: The Stanley Tookie Williams Story.’


“‘If they think they succeeded by killing him in getting people to forget about him, they have done just the opposite,’ Barbara Becnel, who collaborated with Williams on his books, said last week after his execution.”


I thought executed multiple murderers were supposed to be buried in potters’ fields on the prison grounds. Guess not any more.