Mayor Barry was somewhat correct

by Jack Stapleton, Jr.

One of my favorite quotations from a contemporary American politician was delivered a few years ago by the former mayor of the City of Washington, D.C. The infamous Marion Barry was lifted to national notoriety by his election as burgomaster of the nation’s capital city. He once attempted to defend his administration’s notorious tolerance for crime by observing: “If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very low crime rate.”

It’s hard to argue with logic like that, although in fairness to the thousands of other American mayors, the Barry logic leaves something to be desired.

I was reminded of Mayor Barry’s incredible logic the other day while reading through a crime report issued by a Washington think tank. They had devoted many long hours to researching criminal activity in the District of Columbia. The report compiled a startling number of criminal acts committed in perhaps the most visible municipality in the United States.

The think tank’s list of civil and criminal crimes included this shocking crime record of just one District of Columbia organization with some 500 employees:

29 have been accused of spousal abuse;

7 have been arrested for fraud;

19 have been accused of writing bad checks;

117 have bankrupted at least two businesses;

3 have been arrested for assault;

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit;

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges;

8 have been arrested for shoplifting;

21 are current defendants in lawsuits;

84 were stopped and ticketed for drunk driving in just one year (2000).

The research focused on the members of only one organization in Washington. So, it is not entirely fair to darken the reputation of all of the residents of the District of Columbia with the criminal record of their former mayor and the presence of the surveyed organization.

Before I reveal the name of this infamous group, let me add that many of the members, however well-intentioned they might be, take extreme pleasure in castigating their fellow citizens for their criminal acts, either real or imagined. Indeed, press releases from this group are filled with political, social and economic beatitudes that would do justice to a Sunday School kindergarten class.

Those who wind up charged with some socially shocking crime are immediately castigated by group members who don’t hesitate for a moment to point out the moral and legal turpitude of the offenders. Indeed, members of this organization take great pains to see that their moral disgust is broadcast as widely as possible, perhaps in the hope of inspiring the rest of us to walk the straight and narrow line of law-and-order.

Particularly shocking to members of the organization was the Enron fiasco, and public hearings in which the guilty and innocent alike were castigated for their horrendous sins filled the airwaves in short order after disclosure of the firm’s transgressions. Some might use the term “kangaroo court,” although that might not be completely fair to the leaping, plant-eating marsupials native to Australia and numerous surrounding islands.

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for: disclosure of the Washington group responsible for the long list of criminal acts and activity listed above. Members of this exclusive group are none other than the 525 members of the United States Congress.

Chances are, you were way ahead of this disclosure, since at least some of the listed crimes seem indigenous to politics and the nation’s political climate. I don’t know about you, but I feel embarrassed by the fact the nation’s Capitol is populated by so many scofflaws.

Indeed, the record is so blemished, I’m convinced Mayor Berry would have been more accurate had he said, “If you take out the members of Congress, Washington actually has a very low crime rate.”

[Missouri News & Editorial Service, Inc. Copyright (C) 2002 MNES Corp.]