Dateline Milwaukee – In the wake of a shooting Saturday night of a heavily armed black man in a crime-infested black Milwaukee neighborhood, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke has emerged as a lone voice in a wilderness of contrary opinion.
After consulting with Gov. Scott Walker yesterday and asking for the National Guard to be deployed, Mr. Clarke vowed that Milwaukee would not turn into another Ferguson – where a young black thief attempted to overpower a police officer and was shot to death.
In Milwaukee, it was a black police officer who shot a black driver who had threatened him.
Culture is the problem, not police, said Mr. Clarke, one of few black conservatives in the top tier of law enforcement who is speaking out nationally about black-on-black crime and subsequent rioting.
“People have to find a more socially acceptable way to deal with their frustration, their anger and resentment,” Mr. Clarke said yesterday.
“We cannot have the social upheaval – the chaos that we saw last night that frightens good, law-abiding people in those neighborhoods.
“We have a growth of the underclass here in Milwaukee,” he said. “And we saw some of their behaviors on display. Fortunately, the loss of life of innocent civilians and law enforcement personnel did not happen. I think only by the grace of God, with bullets flying all over the place.”
Mr. Clarke emphasized that the shooting of the suspect only ignited a situation that already existed.
Mr. Clarke listed what he considered the true causes of the protests in Milwaukee and other black communities since 2014:
Failed urban policies dating back to the Johnson administration and explosion of the welfare state that dominates incendiary black neighborhoods are to blame.’
- Failed public schools,
- Homes without a father,
- Inadequate parenting and
- The presence of gangs and drugs in these neighborhoods and finally,
- Massive unemployment.
Such conditions cause anger, resentment and frustration, which boils just beneath the surface before an incident ignites it.
Then, the sheriff said, it is hijacked by politicians.
Mr. Clarke blamed an inadequate criminal justice system that gives criminals too many chances and not enough punishment.
This deadly combination creates an atmosphere where those breaking the law do not fear the consequences of their actions.
The suspect who was shot Saturday night had been arrested 13 times for serious offenses. Still, he was running free.
