web page copyright 2001 D. Glenn Arthur Jr., main body of text allegedly by utterances by Marion Barry, compiled and/or invented by someone else: if you know who, tell me
[What's new at this site] Last updated 2001-11-07 (layout only).

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Some folks think that people outside of the DC metropolitan area won't get this. Marion Barry is the mayor of Washington, DC and was re-elected after serving a prison term for drug possession.

I don't know who compiled this list, or how. I have not gone and checked the accuracy of each quote on the list, but some of them do sound familiar. A column in the Washington Post, 13 July 1998, explains that Marion Barry didn't actually say most of these and suggests that some may be modifications of things he did say, to make him look worse than he is, and others made up out of whole cloth. (I wonder whether some are merely mis-attributed? They sound a little too familiar.)

-- Glenn

Quotes From Marion Barry

"The contagious people of Washington have stood firm against diversity during this long period of increment weather."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"I promise you a police car on every sidewalk."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I'm a night owl."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

[Note: This one's definitely for real -- it's from the time of his arrest.]

"Bitch set me up."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?"
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"People have criticized me because my security detail is larger than the president's. But you must ask yourself: are there more people who want to kill me than who want to kill the president? I can assure you there are."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"The brave men who died in Vietnam, more than 100% of which were black, were the ultimate sacrifice."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"I read a funny story about how the Republicans freed the slaves. The Republicans are the ones who created slavery by law in the 1600's. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and he was not a Republican."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?"
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"People blame me because these water mains break, but I ask you, if the water mains didn't break, would it be my responsibility to fix them then? WOULD IT!?!"
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

"I am a great mayor; I am an upstanding Christian man; I am an intelligent man; I am a deeply educated man; I am a humble man."
- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

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