As President-elect Donald Trump works to set up his Cabinet, the question of who will lead the Department of Homeland Security is one of the biggest issues.
Trump has promised to crack down on terrorists overseas, saying that he will “bomb the sh*t out of them.” He has been equally harsh about stopping terrorists here in the U.S.
With that in mind, it isn’t surprising to learn that one of the possible picks for the key post at Homeland Security is David Clarke, Jr.
Clarke is the Milwaukee County Sheriff and a staunch supporter of Trump throughout the campaign.
He is also known for his radically harsh ideas about crime and policing. This was his response to the protests after Trump’s election:
How to stop riots. 1)Declare state of emergency.2)Impose early curfew. 3)Mobilize Nat Guard.4)Authorize ALL non lethal force. 5)Tear gas. pic.twitter.com/laBvrRbiz3
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) November 12, 2016
What is far more terrifying that his willingness to mobilize the National Guard against protesting citizens is his view of how to deal with terrorism in the United States.
Mother Jones reports that Clarke is unabashed in his desire to lock up anybody who even sympathizes with the causes of any terrorists. Last year Clarke appeared on Glenn Beck’s show “The Blaze” and talked about his views on domestic terror.
He laid out his plan in detail.
David Clarke would surveil social media to find posts that show sympathy to terrorists. Those who posted them would be arrested and stripped of all constitutional protections. That means that they could be locked up indefinitely without ever being charged, as they’d lose the protection of habeas corpus.
In fact, he said he’d send up to one million American citizens to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely because he doesn’t like how they think.
Here are his words, in case you think I’m exaggerating:
“I suggest that our commander in chief ought to utilize Article I, Section 9 and take all of these individuals that are suspected, these ones on the internet spewing jihadi rhetoric…to scoop them up, charge them with treason and, under habeas corpus, detain them indefinitely at Gitmo.”
The U.S. Constitution does allow the President to suspend the protection of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion or invasion. Not if someone tweets about sympathy for Islamists in Iraq.
David Clarke doesn’t think the Constitution is any barrier to his plans, though.
If this fact doesn’t terrify you, you need to have your heart checked.
Maybe this will convince you of how dangerous this person is.
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
So he wants to lock up people who think in ways he doesn’t support, but at the same time he is encouraging armed insurrection against the government.
I swear, you can’t make this up.
Let me go on. Sheriff Clarke, himself a Black America, absolutely despises the Black Lives Matter movement. He insists that there is no racism in American policing. He claims that the movement is criminal.
Saw…"you wouldn't have stopped me if I was a polar bear." Funny! The mythical claim of driving while black is too. pic.twitter.com/Dm83ZwU4x6
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) September 8, 2016
Unless we the police and public start fighting back against this evil movement they will continue to attack. https://t.co/d2wx8vxeOq
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) September 20, 2016
Finally, just like his beloved President-elect, Sheriff Clarke uses Twitter extensively to express his political beliefs. Spend five minutes on his Twitter feed and see how he talks about liberals, Democrats, progressives. Read his words to get a measure of how hateful and narrow minded he is. Think about what it would mean to this country to have a power crazed bigot in charge of Homeland Security. Imagine a man who wants to lock up American citizens without charging them with any crime, hold them indefinitely off of American soil in a prison camp, and call it “war.”
Imagine him having the power to actually do that.
The election of Donald Trump is the biggest threat to the American people that this 60 year old activist has ever experienced.
Please share this information. Maybe it is in fact time for those pitchforks…
Featured image by T. J. Hawke via Flickr. Available through CC BY-SA 2.0 lisence
