SNITCHES, STANLEY AND REDEMPTION.
On the day that Stanley Williams will be available for viewing I'll forward my not-all-that-original theory that he'd be alive today if he had only come clean and debriefed.

Stanley defenders claim that he should have been spared because he supposedly reduced violence and saved lives. The problem with that claim is that it's purely anecdotal. There's no hard evidence to actually back that assertion.

Now let's take an example from recent history. Specifically the Metro Task Force and the debriefed dropouts that became CIs in that investigation. Thanks to CIs, in a brief period between January 1994 and April of that same year, CIs were credited with saving the lives of at least 13 people and probably a lot more. These targets were mostly other homies and carnals but there were a lot of innocent victims as well.

Here's a quick rundown. When Frankie B. was up on murder charges, a certain party put a witness to that murder in the hat. Thanks to a CI, Pomona cops swooped in and put the witness someplace safe.

When all of Big Hazard was greenlighted, every Hazard had a target on his back. The LAPD did a lot of stuff against Hazard that looked like enforcement and harrassment to the uninformed but what they were really doing was showing the flag and keeping the shooters out of the neighborhood. Lives saved? More than a few. They couldn't save them all, though.

When two El Monte Flores homies were put in the hat for suspicion of killing Joker Flores, the son-in-law of a carnal, a CI talked and the two homies were snatched off the street by El Monte PD and tucked away someplace safe.

When Night Owl Castro volunteered to hit a tax resister, a CI came forward and Castro was quickly arrested on out of state warrants.

After China Boy took one in the chest from Hazard while enforcing the tax code, four Hazards were put in the hat. A CI came forward and the four homies were "made safe" by LAPD CRASH.

Last item. The night that E.J. Olmos threw a party to celebrate the airing of a documentary on the making of American Me, a couple of brothers had gathered up weapons and soldiers and were planning a live fire exercise. A CI revealed the plan and the drive-by never happened. Lives saved? Who can say.

This is not anecdotal. This is verifiable material to which names, dates and proof can be attached. So while it's fashionable in some circles to say that Snitches belong in Ditches, it's also fairly obvious that Snitches can keep people (gangsters and civilians alike) out of ditches. The fact is that more than a few people are walking around today who owe their lives to snitches and don't even know it. Ironically, you can bet that some of those people probably have a very low opinion of snitches.

If Williams had had even a smattering of "saves" like the few mentioned above, chances are the arguments to spare him would have found more sympathy with the Gov. Hell, there probably would have been a few cops and prosecutors who would have signed affidavits testifying to his having saved lives. As it turned out, Williams decided to stay gangster to the end. He chose to be a dead martyr instead of a live snitch. It was his call.