Schwarzenegger faces 'Tookie' backlash in Austria (Revoke Citizenship)

Schwarzenegger faces 'Tookie' backlash in Austria

Luke Harding in Berlin
Wednesday December 21, 2005
The Guardian


Already in trouble with voters in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was facing a backlash in his native Austria yesterday over his decision last week to allow the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams.

Leftwing councillors in Graz yesterday announced that they are seeking to strip Mr Schwarzenegger - who was born and grew up near the town - of his Austrian citizenship. In a further protest, they also want to rename the local sports complex, now the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium, as the Tookie Williams Stadium.

"People have had enough of him," Peter Pilz, a Green MP in the regional parliament of Steiermark, told the Guardian yesterday. "He was an idol across Austria. But since the death of 'Tookie' Williams, the public mood has changed.

"Stripping him of his citizenship would send a message to opponents of the death penalty in the US. Austria has signed up to the European human rights convention, which forbids the death penalty. For us, he has committed a state crime."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/austria/article/0,2763,1671800,00.html

... why the hell is a U.S. governor holding dual citizenship? How can he be the head of one of the U.S.'s largest states and owe allegiance to a foreign power?

Bizarre

BH

and Republicans are above the law.

This is insane! Regarding the execution, I oppose the death penalty but I also oppose Tookie Williams.

been railroaded by the police? Especially one they consider a threat? I have heard many times that "he may not have done this one, but this gets him off the streets".
I am assuming that you are against Tookie because he never accepted responsibilty for the crime...

Sounds like he won't have dual citizenship for long though. Austria has more class than we do. They say throw the bum out and I say we should follow suit.

And, of course, the irony is just a great big giggle over here.

with many of my fellow DUers. there are too many horrifying things happening on this earth in the year 2005....tookie's execution is not worth the hand wringing.

he murdered four human beings. think about the victims.

:hi:

We're three behind.

I'm not a supporter of Tookie Williams, but what good did it do to kill him? Did it bring back the lives of the people he allegedly killed? Has Williams made a positive contribution to society during his time on death row? Could that have possibly saved some lives, not only of potential victims but also of potential perpetrators? It isn't like the choice was kill him, or set him free. He was never going to see the light of day. Why not leave him alone as long as he was no harm and contributing to society. Don't give me the 'saving the taxpayers money' bullshit. What would save the taxpayers money is not giving anyone the death penalty so that the taxpayers wouldn't have to pay the death row inmates legal expense for the appeals that take 20 years.

There was only the circumstantial evidence of those who gained to give it by reducing their own sentences.

A really shabby case which should never have received the death penalty.

The "hand wringing" had more to do with all the others on Death Row than with Tookie himself.

How many innocent people did Illinois find on their death row? Wasn't it like a third?

I'm sick of hearing about the fucking victims. To hell with them. If I cared about every four people who suffered a tragedy, I would sit around weeping. Four people shot in robberies are not ON me. One person killed in my name IS. Invoking the victims is sentimental, rightwing claptrap.

Ahnuld failed to grant clemency to Tookie Williams. The real problem is why he failed to do so. Ahnuld has been under fire from the vengeful right wing of his party for failing to smack down immigrants, state employee unions, and other annoying groups. The final straw for most of the knuckledraggers was the failure of der titzengrabber's 4 ballot measures in November. With moderate repubs deserting him in droves and poll ratings that made bush's look good, Ahnuld had to do something to mollify the haters. By an accident of timing, Tookie provided an opportunity to do that, and he jumped on it like flies on shit. So he more or less let a man fry to advance his political career, and this to me is the mark of a moral coward. And yes I know another governor who later became president who made the same cowardly decision, and I know he's something of an icon in some sectors of the democratic party. But I have very little respect for him either.

Who wanted his pecan pie saved so he could eat it "AFTER THE EXECUTION" that guy?

http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/prisons/countries_different_approaches.htm

Rickey Ray Rector

after a cold blooded murderer and thuggish leader of a criminal empire?

What's your point? That a people cannot learn from it's mistakes, and onces branded should not be able to hold a position on any issues?

and the starter of a criminal enterprise that has plagued poor neighborhoods for over two decades now, then I cannot see any form of redemption for writing a children's book.

I don't believe in state sponsored execution and did not want him executed, but the celebration of all things Tookie is unecessary and insulting to the victims of his direct and indirect crimes.

Fascism is all the rage over here--even if the word is rarely used.

A governor never kills these days because of a sense of justice; they do it because they have to have votes, and are afraid of being seen as a chicken****. Bill Clinton, Geo. W., and Arnold have all done it, and I think it's part of how you become president these days. It's a way of appealing to the natural sadism of the people, and makes foreigners in civilized countries angry.

It would take a brave governor to not kill somebody when they could. But they don't make brave governors, or presidents, these days.

But "Tookie Williams Stadium?"

Give me a fucking break. The man killed a whole family.

He doesn't deserve to be honored.

Arnold is a flawed man but to take a cold blooded multiple killer over him shows a distinct lack of values and perspective. He should piss on his citizenship card and send it to them.

What is the matter with them. :sarcasm:

Backing a mass murderer is a strange way of saying you are against murder.

What? They ran out of Nazi names?
Austria ought to keep its collective mouth shut.
(And I've been there many times, Graz twice; it's beautiful and all that. Beside the point.)

At least they're naming something in the country after a black person.

generations mistakes, they should keep their mouth shut?

I guess all americans should shut up too, for the genocide against the Indians?

The death penalty can never be justified in a civilised society.

Ill disguised racism aimed at Austrians who have clearly moved on when so many here seem unable to do so, is also quite quite nauseating.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I'd just add that naming a stadium after Tookie Williams, a convicted murderer, is really really bad judgment, to put it mildly.

Nazi Kurt Waldheim was the Austrian President, 1986-1992.
That's not what I call having "moved on".

(And criticism of Austria isn't "racism'. Oh, and maybe, to reply to another's riposte, the U.S. very much also ought not to lecture others about human rights.)

He beat them to the punch and "revoked" his permission to name the stadium after himself, so what now?
Is he going to renounce his Austrian citizenship before it can be stripped?

"Ach. Ah nedder vanted to bee-long to zat kuntry, anyways..."



"Ah really vant to ask yer Mawther 'WHO ist yer Faddah?'... Vhat zat? 'Who's yer Dahdee'?..."

revoked the citizenship of Hitler (yet).

Hitler is dead, you know.

I can't conceive of Arnold returning to live his golden years in Austria and reclaiming his heritage. So his dual citizenship with Austria is ornamental and symbolic. And yes, it would hurt his ego to have his birth country cut him off.

Forever tainted by his "performance" as Gropenator.

On the upside, hopefully this will dissuade other actors in the future from seeking public office.

Fame does not equal competence.
Playing a leader in the movies does not make you a leader in real life.

/These would make good bumper stickers for the Southern CA area.

...in places like Austria where people still know how to stand up.




:yoiks:
"Life is elsewhere."

Excuse me, but these people are even bigger idiots than Arnold.