12/12/00 9:20 a.m.
Didn’t They Give One to Arafat?
Murderer of four is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

By Jack Dunphy*, an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department

n this season we often stop to reflect, both on the year about to end and on all the years that have passed into the shadowed mists of memory. Such reflection is especially needed right now, as the year 2000 lurches to a close in an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty. We must look beyond the accounts of the Florida fiasco for news stories that offer hope, that reaffirm our faith in time-honored traditions. How about this one: A convicted murderer awaiting execution on California's death row has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Such lunacy could only have sprung from Europe, you're thinking, probably Italy or France. You're very close. Mario Fehr, a member of the Swiss Parliament, has nominated Stanley "Tookie" Williams for the award, proving that all those years of neutrality have not protected the Swiss from the governmental absurdities regularly occurring over the mountains on either side.

In 1979, Williams robbed a 7-11 store in South Central Los Angeles. During that robbery he shot and killed Alvin Owens, whose misfortune it was to be working as the store's cashier at the time. Less than two weeks later, during another robbery, Williams murdered Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, who were working at the family-owned Brookhaven Motel, also in South Central Los Angeles.

The California supreme court affirmed Williams's conviction and death sentence in 1988, though he continues to delay his execution through the usual interminable appeals. In a chilling passage from the 1988 opinion, Williams is quoted as he described the Owens murder to an acquaintance: "[A witness] saw defendant later that morning at the home of defendant's brother. He stated defendant told his brother, 'You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him.' Defendant then made a growling noise and laughed hysterically for a number of minutes."

Nice guy, huh? But wait, there's more to Williams's legacy than four murders. He is also credited as being one of the founders of the Crips street gang, which, from its origins in South Central L.A., spread like a criminal cancer across the United States and beyond. So, like 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat, Williams can not only claim credit for the murders he himself committed, but also for the thousands of killings committed by his legions of cultural progeny.

What? You still don't see a Nobel Peace Prize springing from that distinguished curriculum vitae? Well, like many prisoners awaiting their date with the executioner, Williams has spent the many years since his conviction trying to invent reasons why he should be spared the fate the law has prescribed for him. He has authored — or, by some accounts, had his name affixed to — a series of books called, "Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence," aimed at deterring youngsters from gang life. Williams is also the inspiration for something called "The Internet Project for Street Peace," in which American children correspond with Somali immigrant children in Switzerland and youngsters in South Africa. One can only hope this correspondence does not include instruction on the elimination of witnesses and other ways to avoid the gas chamber.

A passage from a recent Los Angeles Times story gives Mr. Fehr's rationale for nominating Williams for the Peace Prize: "Fehr, a death penalty opponent, said he doubts Williams is guilty of the four murders. But even if he is guilty, Fehr said, Williams 'can give an example to young kids that no matter what mistake you have done, you can still change your life for the better.'"

So there you have it. Only when your past is sufficiently contemptible can you be conferred with credibility in discouraging others from acting just as contemptibly. All of which prompts the question: How many people do you have to kill before you can be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?

(*Jack Dunphy is the author's nom de cyber. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management .)