“WOE to him who would put his trust in Anansi,” warns an African proverb. A figure found in African diasporic folklore, Anansi is considered crafty and cunning, surviving by his wits and bamboozling other animals for his own profit.

Ward 8 D.C. Councilman Marion Barry is Anansi.

For decades, he has tricked the city, particularly African Americans and the poor. He has repeatedly asserted everything he’s done has been for “the people” not for any personal gain. The record offers a different narrative.

In my book, The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in the New Age of Black Leaders,” Barry supporters told me cash contributions often arrived at campaign offices in paper bags; the money never was deposited. During his mayoral terms, his cronies feasted at the public trough. Meanwhile, agencies serving the city’s most vulnerable residents—public housing, mental health, and child and family services—were placed in receivership by federal or local judges.

Barry has used his constituents to deflect criticism and protect his political standing. Earlier this month, when lawyers Robert S. Bennett and Amy R. Sabrin released their investigative report into Barry’s use of public funds for a contract to a paramour and earmarks to pals through fake nonprofit organizations, he declared it was all to uplift the people of Ward 8.

This week, he held a press conference at the Union Temple Baptist Church, to apologize for his actions. He said he embarrassed the city and his constituents. Interestingly, that was the same locale in which he apologized for his drug use while he was mayor, asserting that he is addicted to sex and has abused alcohol. It was that same church whose congregation went to Pennsylvania to collect the former mayor from prison after his federal conviction.

The point here is that Barry’s strategy for overcoming his repeated violations of District and federal laws is the same as a typical perpetrator of domestic violence. Apologize, but don’t stop.

His Ward 8 constituents, who include some of the city’s poorest residents, and other citizens of the nation’s capital are all victims of his abuse.

It’s time to stop the travesty. 

“If this isn’t something worth impeaching, explain what is,” Paul Craney, executive director of the D.C. Republican Party, told me.

“This era of Mr. Barry living above the law has got to come to an end,” At-large Councilman David Catania said last week.

The council could pass emergency legislation amending the city’s home rule charter to allow it to impeach any official found to have violated city ethics laws or to have been engaged in corrupt behavior.

“I would support an amendment that gives the council the ability to deal with these types of matters,” Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans told me.

Chairman Vincent C. Gray has given Barry until Tuesday to respond to the investigative report. Bennett and Sabrin didn’t report on contracting by other council members and didn’t thoroughly explore all legislators’ earmarking activities, which was part of the requested made by the council when it engaged the duo.  Some in the city have privately suggested that Gray’s reluctance to take swift and forceful action is because other members may have skeletons in their closets.

Meanwhile, Anansi gets yet another opportunity to bamboozle.

If Gary intends to give more than lip service to establishing strong ethics standards for the council, he and his colleagues must act forcefully. The Bennett-Sabrin report has given them no escape.  It underscored what many of us knew all along: Barry thinks he is above the law. Impeaching him will prove he isn’t.