I used to think of Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr as a comical nuisance, one whose popularity stemmed from saying completely disparaging things about black people. Things that those white people supporting him want to say, but cannot because, ultimately, what Clarke says is very racist. I used to give him names like “Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles cosplayer” and “Wyatt Twerp,” because they accurately described how ridiculous of a person he is and has been.
Clarke has definitely lived up to the name Wyatt Twerp over these last three weeks, during which widespread protest from the disenfranchised inner-city residents of Milwaukee threatened to tear the city apart. Even two weeks after major protests have stopped, he’s still threatening to arrest elected officials for defying his orders. This, even after a restraining order was levied against him for the orange snow fence around Sherman Park. But throughout this ordeal, Clarke has proven himself to be a shill for the system of white supremacy in this country and state.
I have never been more personally insulted than whenever I hear David Clarke open his mouth as of late. In fact, if you pile up everything disparaging he has said about blacks together, he starts to sound more like David Duke than a sheriff representing a city that is 40 percent African American. He seems to be under the impression that blacks are predisposed to criminal activity, when the reality dictates that it is their environment and the deprivation of simple resources and opportunities which greatly contribute to said ‘criminality.’
Whenever you see Sheriff Clarke discuss issues within the black community, it’s alway with a sense of they, and not we. To me, this is a dead giveaway that, like others who trot out black-on-black crime (which should be more accurately portrayed as “proximity crime”), they don’t have a stake in improving these communities. In fact, it reveals that they are not actually interested in the improvement of these communities at all. It’s a tactic that further reveals Clarke and his ilk care more about law and order than they do black lives. This fact is perfectly exemplified with the issue of the snow fence at Sherman Park. The residents of the area want to come together and celebrate the holidays. Sheriff Clarke just wants the illusion of order.
Why should a child who has committed zero crimes be treated as if they’re a criminal solely because of the color of their skin? People fail to understand what this does to people psychologically. There’s a stigma attached to criminality, and to be treated like a criminal simply for existing is one of the biggest issues we have with race and criminal justice in this country. Sheriff Clarke constantly perpetuating this myth of black criminality has been more divisive than anything Obama has done during his years as president. For this sheriff and others who think like him to deem these people still a threat weeks after the real unrest has ended reveals how much contempt Clarke has for the people who share his pigmentation.
The bottom line is that there is no use for someone like Clarke in our city. He so believes in the rule of law, but is unable to see what needs to be reformed within this system. He believes that the rule of law solves problems, but in reality, for many in the inner city, it only serves to exacerbate those problems. He has shown repeatedly that he is not interested in working with other elected officials, as evidenced by ignoring requests for over two weeks from the Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele to remove the orange snow fencing. He consistently has shown that he is not interested in working with the community, as shown by the way he throws around words like “tribal,” “ghetto” and “loser” to describe those within the inner city. He’s not doing his job for the people within the county of Milwaukee. He’s doing it to hold favor with the (predominately white) people in the counties surrounding Milwaukee and the people who are regular FOX News viewers.
Therefore, it’s high time we let Sheriff Clarke ride off into the sunset. Perhaps he’ll fare better if he hitched his wagon to FOX News as one if its “good one” contributors. Truth be told, the sooner he takes off his spurs and gives up his position as Milwaukee’s sheriff, the better off the entirety of Milwaukee will be. At this point in time, Milwaukee can no longer afford to have a white supremacist in charge of law enforcement.
