The Post Metro section today has a story on the funeral service for Lisa L. Brown and her daughter little Labria N. Fogle, who were gunned down by Brown’s mother’s boyfriend, Lawrence Banks. It is a crime that didn’t have to happen:
“At the time she was killed, Brown had obtained a court order to protect her against Lawrence Banks, 53, a convicted murderer who was dating her mother. Banks, also known as Malik Smartaney, was released from prison in 2002 after serving a little less than10 years for killing his 17-year-old son and an acquaintance in 1991.”
Forget the futility of a restraining order. What is a man who murdered his own son doing out of prison- sure, he can repent, and that’s between the killer and his Maker. But murdering your own son? Such a debt to society, as we used quaintly to call a prison sentence, is never paid. Had Banks been where he belonged, Lisa Brown and her child would still be alive.
“Bryant Fogle, Labria’s father, broke down and cried before he walked into the church,” the newspaper goes on to note. “He composed himself and told the gathering that Brown was much more than the mother of his child. ‘She was my best friend.'”
She was not, apparently, his wife, however. This brings us to the second reason that the slaughter needn’t have happened. Banks reportedly killed mother and child because he didn’t want his girlfriend taking care of Labria. A child with two married parents is less likely to be in the care of a granny with a homicidal beau. This is the carnage to which our non-judgmental society has brought us.