When you think of out-of-control sheriffs, the first name that usually comes to mind is Maricopa County, Arizona’s Joe Arpaio–who is presently in the fight of his political life. Well, it turns out that if Arpaio loses, someone stands ready to replace him as America’s craziest nut with a badge. Namely, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin sheriff David Clarke. That’s about the only conclusion you can draw in light of Clarke’s call for violent protests to ensure Donald Trump wins in November.
Clarke has a very long and very sordid history of nutty remarks. He loudly supported the Bundy brothers’ occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, going as far as to declare that the feds would have been responsible for any bloodshed. He wants to add an AR-15 to the Great Seal, and thought marriage equality could lead to revolts.
But Clarke may have outdone himself this weekend. On Friday morning, Clarke blasted out this on Twitter.
The federal gov has lost its healthy fear of the masses and WE THE PEOPLE. It is pitchfork & torches time in America https://t.co/xW2Dwu24RB pic.twitter.com/Xlj2SDLEvO
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 14, 2016
And just in case anyone thought Clarke was kidding, he doubled down on Saturday morning.
It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time pic.twitter.com/8G5G0daGVN
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016
Frankly, this tweet should send a chill down the spine of any fair-minded American. It’s one thing to hear rank-and-file Trump supporters threaten riots if their “hero” doesn’t win. But to hear a law enforcement official give what can only be described as wink-and-nod encouragement to do so is unacceptable. Period.
What makes this even more outrageous is that Clarke has frequently railed against Black Lives Matter for inciting violence against police. Take this interview with CNN’s Don Lemon in July, for instance.
And now this nut with a badge tweets this kind of incendiary bilge? Oh, silly me. BLM is helmed by “thugs,” but anyone who heeds Clarke’s call would be a “patriot”–just like the Bundy gang.
When Clarke’s phone lit up with calls from the media about this tweet, he didn’t understand what the fuss was.
Big Media @abcdigital, @GuardianUS and @CNN called. Should be as interested in reporting on Wikileaks and Clinton corruption than my tweets. pic.twitter.com/2jAXQnGCUn
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016
Big Media @CBSNews @GuardianUS @ABCNews @CNN freak out over my pitchfork and torches tweet. See blog Mon https://t.co/9xk6XwTQud for comment pic.twitter.com/2GFRNFNWpW
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 16, 2016
Um, David? When a law enforcement official tweets out something this incendiary, it would be an act of journalistic malpractice not to cover it.
We already knew that Clarke had no moral compass. After all, this nut called the Bundy gang “a small band of patriots” even though they essentially ground the town of Burns to a halt and suggested that a girl who expressed the fear she felt had been put up to it by “effing Communists.” But explicitly encouraging violent protests if Trump loses an election is beyond the pale.
Robert Post, the dean of Yale Law School and a First Amendment expert, thinks that as outrageous as Clarke’s comments were, they fall short of “inciting imminent violence.” Eugene Volokh of UCLA agrees, saying that for someone to be arrested for inciting violence, that person would have to be “trying to get them to do something right now.”
However, the bar for acceptable conduct is set much higher than the bar below which you go to jail. When a sheriff condones violence and lawlessness, it’s time for that sheriff to go. Clarke is registered as a Democrat, even though he openly admits he isn’t really a Democrat. Milwaukee County Democrats need to find and fund someone to get this nut out of office in 2018. And I’m of the mind that we in Liberal America should do all we can to help. If we can get either Arpaio or Clarke–or preferably, both of them–out of office, we can send a message that having a badge isn’t a license to act like a bully and a nut.
But there’s a way to stick it to Clarke a lot sooner than 2018. While perusing Clarke’s Twitter feed, I noticed that Clarke is touting a new book.
Pre-Order at Amazon https://t.co/sYc4ZSRoRm pic.twitter.com/VogswEJzed
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 6, 2016
It turns out that this book is due to come out in March 2017 from Worthy Publishing, a Christian publishing company based near Nashville. Hmmm–does Worthy condone calls for violence? I would hope not. But perhaps we should ask them–politely, of course. Pester Worthy on Facebook and on Twitter.
