RIP. This is probably the best obit you’ll read about him.
6 thoughts on “Marion Barry”
Marion Barry may have not been my sort of politics, and for all I know, he may have been as corrupt as they come. But his arrest in that video-taped “drug bust” was a travesty.
Invited into the hotel room by his woman friend while FBI agents crouched in the loo, it was beyond obvious that the Mayor wanted that one thing that all men are said to want. Instead of delaying a romantic encounter by offering to serve tea, his friend was offering, urging, begging Mr. Barry to “unwind first” by partaking of a somewhat stronger stimulant. What Marion Barry appeared to want was wrong but it wasn’t a crime, which you cannot say about what the FBI through their informant was urging about him as a substitute.
When he finally relented (why yes, having tea is an excellent suggestion), it was apparent that he knew what to do with a crack pipe. But what is the standard, the dividing line between a “sting” and unlawful entrapmet? Something about inducing someone to do something that they otherwise weren’t seeking? The whole thing stunk.
Has there ever been an FBI sting that didn’t stink? Effing brownshirts, the lot of them.
The Marion Barrys and Rob Fords of this world can get high as kites and chase every woman under 80 for all I care. But it would be nice if they would tell their police to stop arresting people for the same sort of activities.
I lived in DC during the Barry years. No grief here.
Here’s another good one, by Jeffrey Tucker: In Praise of Political Corruption: My Dinner with Marion Barry. Not quite an obituary, but still.
Oops, hyperlink got censored, but you’ll find it if you google for the title.
Marion Barry may have not been my sort of politics, and for all I know, he may have been as corrupt as they come. But his arrest in that video-taped “drug bust” was a travesty.
Invited into the hotel room by his woman friend while FBI agents crouched in the loo, it was beyond obvious that the Mayor wanted that one thing that all men are said to want. Instead of delaying a romantic encounter by offering to serve tea, his friend was offering, urging, begging Mr. Barry to “unwind first” by partaking of a somewhat stronger stimulant. What Marion Barry appeared to want was wrong but it wasn’t a crime, which you cannot say about what the FBI through their informant was urging about him as a substitute.
When he finally relented (why yes, having tea is an excellent suggestion), it was apparent that he knew what to do with a crack pipe. But what is the standard, the dividing line between a “sting” and unlawful entrapmet? Something about inducing someone to do something that they otherwise weren’t seeking? The whole thing stunk.
Has there ever been an FBI sting that didn’t stink? Effing brownshirts, the lot of them.
The Marion Barrys and Rob Fords of this world can get high as kites and chase every woman under 80 for all I care. But it would be nice if they would tell their police to stop arresting people for the same sort of activities.
I lived in DC during the Barry years. No grief here.
Here’s another good one, by Jeffrey Tucker: In Praise of Political Corruption: My Dinner with Marion Barry. Not quite an obituary, but still.
Oops, hyperlink got censored, but you’ll find it if you google for the title.