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State rep. wants Clarke removed from sheriff’s office

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State Rep. David Crowley, D-Milwaukee, is calling for the immediate removal of David Clarke from the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s office.

Crowley, chair of the Milwaukee legislative delegation, sent the following letter to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:

The duty bestowed upon law-enforcement officers is to protect and serve. Unfortunately, that is not what the Sheriff of Milwaukee County is most concerned with. Today I call on you to remove Sheriff David Clarke from office for his willful neglect of duties, repeated inappropriate and incendiary comments, his promotions of violence, and use of intimidation against innocent civilians.

Since April of 2016, four people, including a newborn baby, have died at the Milwaukee County Jail under the supervision of Sheriff Clarke. The Jail is woefully understaffed due to a high rate of jail staff turnover, as well as a lack of adequate training and supervision. In November, a court-ordered monitor of the jail reported that the previous three deaths all came from mistakes in medical care and/or poor monitoring of vulnerable inmates. Yet still in public, Sheriff Clarke has remained remarkably silent regarding the deaths and staffing concerns. Instead, behind closed doors, he took to verbally threatening the Milwaukee County Chief Medical Examiner over the information that he had made public regarding these deaths.

Those are not the only inappropriate comments that Sheriff Clarke has made recently. He has used the official website and Facebook page of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to personally attack and intimidate his opponents and accusers. He has used racial slurs such as calling an African-American commentator a “jigaboo.” Further, he has repeatedly threatened or insinuated violence, recently claiming that if people “messed with him” they would get “knocked out.”

This last statement was made in response to a new complaint filed against Clarke by a Milwaukee resident who claims he was unlawfully detained, interrogated, and escorted out of Mitchell Airport because he shook his head at the Sheriff while on a flight home. After the incident, the Sheriff took to Facebook to taunt and intimidate the individual. He posted a picture of the individual with the statement “Cheer up snowflake. If Sheriff Clarke were to really harass you, you wouldn’t be around to whine about it”.

The comments and actions of the Sheriff are completely unacceptable for any public official and constitute a cause for removal from office. I call on you to remove David Clarke from his position as Milwaukee County Sheriff immediately. The people deserve a Sheriff who is committed to protect and serve, not one committed to threaten and intimidate. The time for action is now.

Sincerely,

Representative David Crowley

Also see: Sheriff David Clarke has cost taxpayers over $400,000 for lawsuits

 

Featured Views, Political

Vote David Crowley in 17th Assembly primary

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David Crowley, 30, has been active in local and statewide politics and community organizing since he became involved with Urban Underground at age 16. He was hired by Sen. Russ Feingold’s campaign as a state field director in 2010. He began working as an aide to Nikiya Harris Dodd in 2011, when she was a county supervisor. He then moved with her when she was elected to the state senate in 2012.

Crowley took from serving as her policy director to compete for the open seat in the Northwest Side district held by LaTonya Johnson, who is running for Wisconsin Senate.

Crowley faces Kim Burns and Marcus Hart. He told WIG he has more political experience than either, including working in Madison and understanding how to get things done. A dedicated progressive, he has been a longtime champion for “causes that matter.” He believes “we’re all in this together and that by helping one another,” including across the aisle and in communities across the state, all of Wisconsin can thrive.

His priority issues are addressing “the jobs crisis, including by raising the minimum wage,” public education, especially funding more high-quality early-childhood education and criminal-justice reform. He said while “we need to hold people accountable we must also give them the ability to re-enter society.” He advocates legislation to “ban the box” that requires job applicants to note if they have been convicted. “It’s a dignity issue,” he says, and is not necessary except for certain jobs.

Crowley has landed a who’s-who list of endorsements from elected officials at all levels government. An Aug. 2 fundraiser at Art Bar in Riverwest was hosted by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, state Sen. Chris Larson and state Reps. David Bowen and Jonathan Brostoff. County Executive Chris Abele, with whom he worked while at the county, has also endorsed him, along with several other state representatives, county supervisors and Milwaukee Common Council members. Other endorsers include Citizen Action Wisconsin, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, AFSCME and SEIU.