Clarke needs to go
It’s becoming ever clearer that Milwaukee County voters need to start looking for a new sheriff, and the sooner the better. The current occupant of that office, David A. Clarke Jr., is showing no interest in serving the voters who elected him or in answering to the public he serves.
His only interests seem to be in pining for a job in the Trump administration and in denigrating via social media anyone who criticizes him (sound familiar?). A public official with a sense of responsibility would have the decency to step down. Since Clarke lacks that sense, and other officials either can’t or won’t step in, it’s going to be up to the voters when the sheriff’s office comes on the ballot in 2018.
The sheriff has shown no public concern over the four deaths that occurred last year in the jail he oversees. Nor has he had the common decency to tell the public or even all of the families anything about them.
In fact, he “verbally pummeled” and “threatened” Milwaukee County chief medical examiner Brian Peterson after that office released some information about two of the deaths, according to Peterson.
And he accused some of those who have demanded an outside investigation of the deaths of engaging in “fake news” and of attacking Clarke because he is a Trump supporter. But there was nothing fake about those deaths, and they had absolutely nothing to do with the election.
As the Journal Sentinel’s Daniel Bice has reported, the sheriff recently referred to a black CNN commentator as “jigaboo” and posted a Facebook meme calling a Riverwest man “snowflake” and threatening him with physical harm.
In the latter case, the man in question, Dan Black, has filed a harassment complaint against Clarke, claiming Black was confronted, interviewed and then escorted out of Mitchell International Airport by a group of deputies after a brief exchange with Clarke on a flight from Dallas Jan. 15. If true, that constitutes a clear abuse of power. No one should be harassed or questioned because he might have looked at an official sideways or criticized him in public.
Clarke apparently doesn’t see it that way: In a post on his county Facebook page, this showed up:
“Cheer up, Snowflake. If Sheriff Clarke were to really harass you, you wouldn’t be around to whine about it.”
And earlier, Clarke issued a statement saying Black and others like him may be “knocked out” if they hassle him on a plane: “The sheriff said he does not have to wait for some goof to assault him. He reserves the reasonable right to preempt a possible assault.”
No. Not even close. No one gets to punch someone just because he thinks that person may assault him. He gets to defend himself, of course, but he doesn’t get to strike first. That’s called assault. And a crime. State Rep. David Crowley sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker Monday asking that he remove Clarke from office. The governor said he’s unlikely to oust anyone unless that person has committed a crime.
OK, but Clarke’s posts and tweets are clearly not the statements of someone who should be in office. He shows none of the concern or respect for the public that his office demands. Voters need to remember that as they get closer to 2018.
And competent candidates for the office need to be recruited — now.