The University of New Haven has come under fire recently for not inviting Sheriff David Clarke to speak at the 25th Annual Markle Symposium for the Henry C. Lee College of Forensic Science. Many people have come to Sheriff Clarke’s defense, who cited the reasoning for his not being welcome due to his comments against the Black Lives Matter movement. The University combated these claims by saying that the reason was not due to his beliefs, but merely a matter of financial restriction for the symposium.
Sheriff Clarke is a 4-term sheriff for Milwaukee county in Wisconsin, who has been outspoken on social and criminal justice issues for years. He began his career in law enforcement in 1978 with the Milwaukee Police Department. Clarke was a patrol officer for eleven years and then a homicide detective; he was promoted to lieutenant of detectives in 1993 and captain in 1999.
Clarke was appointed Sheriff in 2002 due to a mid-term vacancy by Governor Scott McCallum. Since then, Clarke has been reelected four times as a Democrat, each for a four year term.
Clarke has been known in Milwaukee to be at odds with city government. In 2013, Clarke released the following statement over proposed budget cuts to the Sheriff’s Department put forward by the County Executive, Chris Abele: “Abele should be drug tested. He has to be on heroin to be hallucinating with that wild proposal. He might go to bed at night dreaming about being a Sheriff, but when he wakes up he’s the same vindictive little man that he was when he went to sleep. This is how budgets end up bleeding red ink. I don’t work for him. I will provide the level of safety that I believe Milwaukee County residents deserve. He’ll have to sue me in court to get me to accept those cuts.”
Clarke is given credit for successfully reconstructing the Milwaukee Corrections Department, after a scathing review of the then-independent entity was released by the National Institute of Corrections in 2009. The department was then moved to the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s Department, where many improvements were made to the department, although these policies are now fading under new management.
Although a registered Democrat in the heavily democratic county of Milwaukee, Clarke is most widely known for his conservative political views. He is frequently critical of Milwaukee democrats and is heavily critical of them in return. He has spoken at many Republican events, including the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He has endorsed Donald Trump for president.
Clarke is perhaps most outspoken against the Black Lives Matter movement, saying they have “cult-like demands” and that they are a hate group. He often refers to the group as “Black Lies Matter,” and blames liberal propaganda for the cause of this movement, and hopes it can be eradicated from this country.
Clarke is a frequent guest on Fox News, as well as hosting his own podcast called “David Clarke: The People’s Sheriff” on “The Blaze” Radio Network.
See the original story on Sheriff Clarke: here.
