Blood flows red on the side streets...
The same police who concocted this streamlining went into a snit when District Attorney Seth Williams mentioned weakening the city’s marijuana-possession enforcement on the theory that the drug is a gateway to other problems. So why give aggressive drivers cover to escalate their behavior to hit-and-runs?
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey should know this isn’t ponies-and-rainbows land. If you give Philadelphia criminals a tenth of a mile, they’ll seize I-95. This policy complicates something simple and cedes an advantage to people who might be involved in more than a fender-bender.
In the former, I question the feasibility of the District Attorney’s office pursuing the case against accused “cop killer” William Barnes, which starts Monday at the CJC:
Next Monday, District Attorney Seth Williams will be in one of his toughest public spot since becoming Lynne Abraham’s successor. In Courtroom 902 of the Criminal Justice Center, the long-awaited trial of alleged “cop killer” William Barnes, 74, will commence after years of delays and public scrutiny.
It’s long awaited because the case centers on bullets that the “East Germantown Cowboy” fired at/into rookie police officer Walter Barclay on Nov. 27, 1966. It’s a tough spot because when Barclay died 41 years later, the cause of death was listed “urinary tract infection.” While the shooting unquestionably decimated Barclay’s quality-of-life, trapping him in a fitful wheelchair-bound existence of limited work, heavy smoking, rage, possible stroke and injuries from subsequent car accidents, it’s completely feasible to believe Barnes’ gun didn’t technically kill the deceased officer.
There’s a loose gag order on the case, so I’ll share what Williams told me during the campaign (and stood by this week via spokeswoman): He’d file murder charges “if the medical examiner determined that Officer Barclay’s death was directly related to Barnes’ shooting. … Whether someone dies four days or 40 years after being injured during the commission of a crime, the same punishment should apply.”
That’s all philosophically well and good, but it also means that in order to retain the moral high ground, there sure as heck had better be jury-swaying witnesses to refute the urinary tract infection finding. If there aren’t, Williams will have to answer whether the decision to vigorously pursue a handed-to-him mess was based on appeasing a law-enforcement community’s never-forget bloodlust for payback disguised as true justice. (Or, whether he traded time and money for avoiding the prosecutor-to-police-relationship blowback of dropping charges.) After all, Barnes’ family is already convinced Abraham gambled that it’d all just resolve itself should he quietly die behind the bars he’d been since getting re-arrested in Aug. 2007 at the Roxborough supermarket where he worked.
I’ve always refused to side with someone who even swings at a cop, and I’m a death-penalty cheerleader when that swing involves death. But what I find even more difficult to accept is punishing someone, angel or devil, who already spent a substantial portion of their adult lives as an inmate number for the same criminal act. That’s why I think Barnes should’ve already walked free to live his limited remaining days somewhere besides a prison cell. He deserves to die with the dignity afforded those who already paid for their sins.
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