TOOKIE EULOGIZE IN CALLS TO KEEP UP ANTI-GANG MESSAGE.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

Celebrities, friends and supporters of executed killer Stanley Tookie Williams pledged at his funeral Tuesday to help spread his anti-gang and anti-violence message, hoping to tap into the festering anger bubbling up here.

One week after the state of California executed the 51-year-old convicted murderer, thousands, including current and former gang members, attended his memorial at Bethel AME Church.

Vendors sold T-shirts blasting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declined clemency for Williams. An overflow crowd watched the 4 1/2-hour ceremony on a large-screen television in a parking lot, surrounded by dozens of police officers in riot gear.

``Tookie is dead,'' the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the crowd inside the church. ``We are not safer. We are not more secure. We are not more humane. The state does not have the moral authority to kill. We must kill the idea of killing to stop the killing.''

Williams' case ignited a furious death-penalty debate. He was convicted of murdering four people in two 1979 robberies and was a leader of the notorious Crips street gang, which has terrorized South Central (now South) Los Angeles' streets for more than three decades.

But from his San Quentin jail cell, he renounced the gang lifestyle and dedicated the last 12 years of his life to spreading an anti-gang message, including authoring nine children's books. His supporters - many of whom spoke at Tuesday's funeral - argued that Schwarzenegger should have granted clemency on the strength of Williams' redemption.

Williams' body lay in a white coffin adorned with a bouquet of red and white roses at the front of the chapel. Barbara Becnel, his longtime friend and co-author of his books, ended the ceremony by reading his final words.

``I have spent the last 13 years working to help youth, and that work has brought me peace and happiness in my heart,'' Williams told Becnel before his execution. ``If I am to die tonight, the most important message I want the youth to know is that I am no longer a man of war. I died a man of peace.''

Funeral attendees included Jackson, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, rapper Snoop Dogg and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Al Sharpton and Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, spoke via conference call.

``They took the physical body of our brother, but his uncomfortable soul is alive and well,'' said Farrakhan, who compared Williams with Jesus Christ while delivering the eulogy. ``This is a great man who experienced hell, and only one who went to the depths of hell is qualified to ascend to the heights of heaven.''

Throughout the ceremony, speakers danced around the crimes for which Williams was convicted. The names of the four victims - Albert Owens, Yen-Yi Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and Yee-Chen Lee - were never mentioned. Williams always maintained his innocence, and most of the 23 speakers echoed that Tuesday.

``We're here to honor a man that many people think doesn't deserve honor,'' said Robbins, who befriended Williams in his final months. ``The people that think that have never met Stan. This man is known for starting the Crips. None of us came here for that. We came here for love.''

Many of the speakers pledged to continue Williams' work. Snoop, who said Williams inspired him to give up the gangster lifestyle, vowed to continue to spread a message of nonviolence. Williams' son, Travon, is planning a worldwide tour to finish his father's work. And the NAACP will redouble its efforts to fight the death penalty, Gordon said.

Snoop, a former Crip who rapped about gang violence in many of his songs, read a poem about Williams called ``Until We Meet Again.''

``... Love is love, and true teachers educate,'' part of the poem reads. ``Until we meet again, I plan to elevate.'' While most of the speakers focused on Williams' message, most in the audience were angry at Schwarzenegger and the judicial system, saying the system is biased against African-Americans.

Others urged gang members to focus their energy on solving those problems instead of engaging in black-on-black violence.

``Right now, we're so desensitized,'' said Stan Muhammad, co-founder of Venice 2000, a gang-intervention and -prevention organization. ``We go to funerals all the time. My question to the soldiers is: When is it going to stop?''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Travon Williams, son of Stanley Tookie Williams, raises his arms above his father's flower-covered coffin as rapper Snoop Dogg reads a poem about the executed Crips co-founder during a memorial service for Williams on Thursday at Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles.

David McNew/Getty Images

(2 -- color) The casket containing the body of Stanley Tookie Williams is carried into Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles.

Ric Francis/Associated Press