Change
“The secret in change is to focus all of your energy, not fighting the old, but building on the new”, Stanley Williams had accepted the challenge to change.
Stanley “Tookie” Williams was born to a young mother and began to run the streets at a young age. He was put to fight other children in the neighborhood. Always being knocked down, he finally realized he had to rise up and win the battle. His first taste of victory led him to be the most admired man on the block. Violent wasn’t the correct word to describe him, he was perilous.
In 1969 Tookie and Raymond Washington met, and so did their cliques. Together they created one of the most known gangs today, the Crips. At first it was a small gang but very soon after it had spread from west to east. Both had lost control of the group. Ten years later Raymond was killed in a shooting. This caused a war with many of the Crip factions.
That same year Tookie and a couple other gang members planned on robbing a convenience store while under the influence of PCP. Reports state that Tookie had killed the clerk, which he later denied. On March 11 Tookie had killed a family of three who ran the motel he was staying that night. He also denied he had did the crime and told police that other Crip members had framed him.
In 1981 Tookie was convicted of all four murders, two counts of robbery and he was sentenced to death. He didn’t adjust well to the prison life and was given six and a half year in solitary confinement for multiple assault charges on guards and fellow inmates. While in solitary, Tookie looked back on his life decisions and decided to change. He turned to god first and then began to speak out about gang violence. In 1988 he filed for an appeal stating he was a change man and was later denied. He was released out of solitary in 1996 and began writing a book.
Tookie had written many books reaching out to children that gang violence and running the streets isn’t the path to take in life. He...