David Clarke, the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; has been an embarrassment for some time. He’s a full-on gun nut who thinks we should add an AR-15 to the Great Seal, thinks Black Lives Matter should just “shut up,” and thought that the marriage equality decision could lead to “a Lexington-Concord moment.” But he may have outdone himself on Tuesday, when he loudly announced his support for the gang of thugs occupying a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.
Since June, Clarke has hosted a podcast on Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze Radio Network, “David Clarke: The People’s Sheriff.” On the January 9 edition, Clarke wondered if the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was “a pitchforks and torches moment” in a struggle against an overbearing federal government. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Clarke read excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing the portion that all the Bundy brothers and their buddies were doing was taking the first step toward “right(ing) themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed”–a not-so-subtle suggestion that the Obama administration is no different from the regime of George III. As he sees it, this “small band of patriots” has come to the conclusion that there is no longer any reasoning with this White House.
While some on the right are simply hoping to get a Republican in the White House in November, Clarke let it be known that “I’m through waiting for the next election”–and if you think he should do so, “then you don’t know the People’s Sheriff.” While he hopes that there isn’t any violence, he believes that the feds “should stand down on this, just get out of there”–a not-so-subtle warning that if any shooting does break out, the feds ought to be held responsible.
Okay, David. I’ll play. Let’s review what your “small band of patriots” has accomplished so far. They haven’t ruled out violence against any law enforcement officials who try to remove them. As a result, the nearby town of Burns has been brought to a grinding halt. Local schoolchildren had to stay home for an extra week after fall break. The local courthouse and several local businesses closed their doors for a time as well.
The militiamen have also taken it upon themselves to tear down fences, snoop through federal records, and may have even destroyed ancient Native American burial grounds. By any reasonable definition, these aren’t patriots. They’re thugs. As if there was any doubt that these guys are thugs, one of their spokesmen had the gall to suggest that a local high school girl who nearly broke down expressing the fear she was feeling had been put up to it by “effing Communists” who turned her into a prostitute.
If you think these are “patriots,” David, then you lack the moral compass to keep your badge. When a sheriff condones acts of violence and lawlessness, it’s time for that sheriff to go. Morally, Clarke is no different from Jackson, Mississippi city councilman Kenneth Stokes, who openly called for violence against cops from other jurisdictions who chase misdemeanor suspects into Jackson.
Clarke and Stokes have one other thing in common–they may nominally wear the Democratic label, but they stand for things that could not be further from what true Democrats stand for. At least Clarke admits that he isn’t really a Democrat. Milwaukee-area Democrats need to find and fund someone to run against him in the 2018 primary, and they need to find someone now. But it’s possible to send Clarke packing sooner than that. Under Wisconsin law, a sheriff, like any elected county official, can be forced into a recall election within one year of the start of his most recent term. Read the requirements here. In this case, the clock started ticking in 2015, a year after Clarke was elected to his fourth full term. From then until six months before the 2018 election, Clarke can be recalled.
Let there be no doubt–Clarke has disqualified himself from office with this latest screed. Anyone who condones violence, regardless of partisan label, is not fit to hold an office of public trust in this country. Period, full stop.
