# Marion Barry has died
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 23, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404 "2014-11-23T15:04:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/1 "2014-11-23T15:04:33Z")
[Link](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/us/politics/marion-s-barry-jr-former-mayor-of-washington-dies-at-78.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news). The man was a prime example of a con artist, and a polarizing figure. He missed his calling as a corrupt president of a small African nation.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/2 "2014-11-23T15:36:09Z")
But he made good [jam](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0400/0577/products/Wa-Marionberry_f6fa492c-d20e-436a-acd6-905cc8be4df4.jpeg?v=1399332898). š
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/3 "2014-11-23T15:43:09Z")
There goes the dream ticket of him running with Al Franken.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/4 "2014-11-23T15:52:29Z")
I remember being completely baffled when he was reelected after his time in jail, but now Iāve heard that he was actually a pretty good mayor.
I donāt know the facts, but I hope he rests in peace anyway.
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### Author:  [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/5 "2014-11-23T17:04:57Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#):
>
> I remember being completely baffled when he was reelected after his time in jail, but now Iāve heard that he was actually a pretty good mayor.
>
> I donāt know the facts, but I hope he rests in peace anyway.
Not really. He left the city administration in a pretty sorry state. He gutted the city police force in the 80s a few years before the crack epidemic. I was reading Dream City earlier this week, and they mention that MPD didnāt have access to the FBI database because all the reports were being typed on paper with carbon copies.
The rest of the city bureaucracy was a mess as well. His drug problem meant not much was being done.
He did give a voice for the most disenfranchised in the city but he squandered a lot of opportunity and goodwill.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/6 "2014-11-23T17:10:55Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#):
>
> I remember being completely baffled when he was reelected after his time in jail, but now Iāve heard that he was actually a pretty good mayor.
>
> I donāt know the facts, but I hope he rests in peace anyway.
He was a terrible mayor, hiring unqualified cronies who embezzled funds from programs like child welfare, absenting himself from the city during crises, and allowing city services to go in the toilet.
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### Author:  [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/7 "2014-11-23T22:45:50Z")
I remember his snow removal policy:
God put it there and God can take it away.
(Although several cities/mayors may have shared this policy.)
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/8 "2014-11-23T22:58:34Z")
Now what will white people in northern Virginia snigger about? He was a complex man and deeply flawed, the HBO documentary about him is very good and helps explain his appeal. I know someone who worked on his staff in the 80s, he was Clintonian in his ability to charm.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/9 "2014-11-23T23:11:49Z")
Now Rob Ford can absorb his power, creating a Quickening.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/10 "2014-11-23T23:31:00Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> Now what will white people in northern Virginia snigger about? . . .
We didnāt snigger, believe me. We shivered in fear as we headed off to jobs in DC knowing we might have to walk to our cars after dark through the garbage, snow, and abandoned buildings that filled DC during his administration. We shuddered in horror as we passed the elderly and the drug-addicted people gathered in the streets hoping for a handout. And we shrugged helplessly as the degenerating school systems spit out more and more ignorant voters willing to give their support to an emotionally manipulative charmer who never had their best interests at heart.
The pure human suffering in DC during those years was beyond imagining. And I say this as someone who fasted beside Mitch Snyder to help force the Reagan administration to act and help those people.
So you can take your snide comments and stuff 'em.
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/11 "2014-11-23T23:35:14Z")
Yeah, black folk can be scary.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/12 "2014-11-24T00:22:47Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> Yeah, black folk can be scary.
And we hit the lowest common denominator in eleven posts flat.
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/13 "2014-11-24T00:42:20Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#):
>
> I remember his snow removal policy:
>
> God put it there and God can take it away.
When I lived in the area, I declared that DC (and the surrounding suburbs) bought their snow emergency plan from Tahiti.
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### Author:  [@Toastmaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toastmaker)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/14 "2014-11-24T00:48:55Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> Now what will white people in northern Virginia snigger about? He was a complex man and deeply flawed, the HBO documentary about him is very good and helps explain his appeal. I know someone who worked on his staff in the 80s, he was Clintonian in his ability to charm.
And somehow you think this debatable list of āattributesā erases the deep corruption that filled his time as Mayor. And his criminal activity should also be ignored, I suppose.
Is this the best Washington D.C. could come up with and did they think it was ok to make our nationās capital the laughing stock around the world ?
How typical.
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/15 "2014-11-24T00:50:30Z")
Is it too soon to crack wise?
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/16 "2014-11-24T01:26:47Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> Yeah, black folk can be scary.
FYI - My Motherās Great Grandmother was a slave in Meriwether County, GA, and most of my cousins are black.
So you can stuff that snide comment as well.
I wasnāt scared of the folks lined up for food in Miriamās Kitchen when I volunteered there in high school. And I wasnāt scared of the folks at the Community for Creative Non-violence when I attended strategy meetings and took notes and cleaned up afterwards. And Iām not scared of you, with your self-righteous references to skin color. My skin tells you _nothing_ about me, except perhaps that Iām too busy to moisturize.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/17 "2014-11-24T03:34:44Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#):
>
> Is it too soon to crack wise?
I dunno, spread your jokes out on the table and line them up and weāll check if they stink.
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### Author:  [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/18 "2014-11-24T10:41:13Z")
_That (Supreme) Being set me up!_
Marion Barry to Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/19 "2014-11-24T11:59:34Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> He missed his calling as a corrupt president of a small African nation.
Maybe, but not by much. Spent any time in DC? š
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marion-barry-has-died/705404/20 "2014-11-24T12:45:09Z")
Barry was a corrupt machine politician who kept in office by appealing to ethnic unrest. He ran the city into the ground while skimming graft and living large. He was the zillionth example of these in American politics. I hope he was the last. But I am not betting on it.
When I heard Barry was arrested for smoking crack I laughed and laughed. Months later when I saw the video of his arrest, and the actions that led to his arrest, I thought it one of the most pathetic things Iād ever seen. Sure, Barry smoked the crack he was offered. It was obvious that heād smoked crack before - he was completely comfortable with the process. It was even more obvious that Barry was not there to smoke crack. He was there to get laid. If the woman hadnāt insisted he smoke before they had sex, he would not have bothered with the crack. Watching him trying to get to the sex while she was trying to get him to smoke crack was just sad. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost - he was married at the time, and mayor of a major US city. And he may have done the crack afterwards or at another time. Again, it was clear heād done crack before.
I am sorry for his friends and family that heās passed. I am sorry for his supporters. Iāve been sorry for them for a very long time. They give him their votes and got almost nothing back, but because he knew how to play them they thought they were getting a great leader. Barry was the zillionth example of that in US politics, and Iām afraid not the last.
And **TruCelt** youāve shown yet another reason why you RAAAACK!
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