Former four-term Washington D.C. Mayor and current city council member Marion Barry has compassion aplenty for the youths who robbed him at gunpoint after helping him up to his apartment with his groceries. He wants them to come forward to....share their troubled backgrounds with us all, and then skate free. Astoundingly, and to the obvious displeasure of police and prosecutors, Barry explicitly says his muggers should not be charged. Guns and social conditions are to blame, but not the perps, says Barry. The Washington Post has more.

...Barry yesterday urged two young men who robbed him at gunpoint Monday night to turn themselves in to police, promising that he would urge authorities not to prosecute them. "I have no animosities," Barry declared. "I don't even want you prosecuted, really. I love you. Give yourself up. Call the police. . . . I will do all I can to advocate non-prosecution."

Barry, 69, was held up in his kitchen about 9:30 p.m. Monday by two assailants who minutes earlier had helped him carry groceries from his car to his third-floor apartment in Southeast Washington. They pointed a gun at Barry's face and stole his wallet, which contained more than $200, his driver's license and two credit cards, police said....."There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys, that I am their friend," Barry said at an afternoon news conference in which he described the robbery in detail. "I don't advocate what they do. I advocate conditions to change what they do. I was a little hurt that this betrayal did happen."

...Yesterday, Barry called for a summit among the city's leaders to address gun violence. And he said he will prod the council to pass a bill he introduced to stiffen penalties for carrying a gun in the District. The proposed legislation would also prohibit judges in most cases from granting pretrial release to defendants facing gun charges. "Violence is everywhere," Barry said. "Guns are everywhere. This ought to be the number one priority in our city -- saving lives, getting guns off the street and rehabilitating young people."

Actually, uh, didn't D.C. "ban" handguns in 1976? We see how well that works. Barry's mugging signals it's time to reverse the D.C. ban.

City-by city handgun bans are destined to be ineffective. Can't enforce it. People who want guns will always be able to get them. And some law-abiding folk say, 'thank goodness'. Local gun bans also can't be taken very seriously by criminals if proponents can't manage to follow other laws. As the Washington Post story (first link) notes, Barry:

...was in his third term when the FBI videotaped him smoking crack; he was convicted of one count of misdemeanor drug possession. He settled in Ward 8 after completing a six-month prison sentence and won the council seat there in 1992, launching a comeback that eventually led to a fourth term as mayor. He recently pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges because he did not pay most of his income taxes after leaving the mayor's office in 1999. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 18.

So here's a thrice-nailed criminal asking other criminals to obey a law that can't be enforced, anyway. The road to hell is paved with bad intentions.

Even Wisconsin has been starting to see the light on allowing concealed weapons. I'd say living in D.C. - especially the gritty southeast quadrant of town where Barry resides - is just a bit more challenging, public safety-wise, than in America's Dairyland.

Marion, there's a reason that, as you say, the underworld hustlers of D.C. see you as a friend. Your talk of changing "conditions" to "change what they do" is the moral equivalent of a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. The condition of being a gun-toting mugger starts with the choice to be a gun-toting mugger. You're their enabler. And now their victim, as well.

Hat tip: reader David Jackson.

TECHNORATI TAGS: MARION BARRY, ROBBERY, HANDGUNS, WASHINGTON D.C., GUN BAN

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 4, 2006 12:42 PM

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