While Virginia Senator Jim Webb was giving a press conference about the arrest of one of his aides and proudly voicing his support for Second Amendment rights and the right of self defense, a man named Philip Thompson was having a very different day:
Thompson — a.k.a. “Lockup No. 1″ — spent 28 hours in the slammer after walking into the Russell building Monday morning with a gun and two loaded magazines in his briefcase. Two hours after Webb’s performance in front of the cameras, Thompson — sandwiched between drug cases and domestic disputes — made his appearance in the foul-smelling arraignment room at D.C. Superior Court. He had a 5 o’clock shadow and a new pair of leg irons to accessorize his rumpled business suit. Ordered to stand in a box marked off with frayed duct tape, he must have been too stunned to answer when the judge asked if he understood the charges.
“You have to answer, sir,” the judge told the silent defendant. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” he said quietly.
Could it have been any worse? Well, consider that Monday was Thompson’s 45th birthday.
Quite a birthday present from a supposed longtime friend.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:48 am
[...] Below the Beltway: Jim Webb on Loyalty [...]