Stunned by Common Sense
Of course, common sense is extremely uncommon, but Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, threw a lot of it out at the Delegate’s Conference this year. He was one of the key speakers along with Mayor Eric Garcetti and District Attorney Jackie Lacey. A luminous group to be sure.
It took Director Jerretta Sandoz over five minutes to read his accomplishments. He may be best known as a commentator on Fox, CNN, and other television appearances giving law enforcement perspectives in a frank outspoken manner. He talks as one who has been there. He did 11 years in patrol, made detective, worked homicide, promoted to lieutenant and then captain. He is in his fourth term as the elected sheriff of Milwaukee County. No hiding in the building for him and his 38 years of doing the job is what gives him credibility.
He told the delegates that law enforcement across the country is under resourced and underfunded and society sends law enforcement officers out to impossible and untenable situations to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Life is not perfect. Sometimes in this crazy world, things go terribly wrong through no fault of yours, but somehow when things are done, the spotlight ends up on you, the law enforcement officer. You are put under the microscope and you are picked apart with 20/20 hindsight by people who have never done this kind of work and who would never voluntarily do it.
Sheriff Clarke talked about Ferguson, Missouri. In Ferguson, he said, Officer Darin Wilson gave Mike Brown a very simple directive. “Get out of the road.” There is a simple reason for this. It is the same reason that we don’t allow cars to drive on the sidewalk. Roads are made for cars. Sidewalks are made for pedestrians. This is what we do in an orderly society. It keeps people safe. But Mike Brown wasn’t going to hear it. He had just strong-armed a liquor store, bullied a man half his size, and walked out with a chip on his shoulder. So he attacked a law enforcement officer. Darin Wilson had an obligation to defend himself. Mike Brown didn’t deserve to die, but he was a co-conspirator in his own demise. It was Brown’s fault. And from that a movement started based on a lie, that Brown had his hands up and Darrin Wilson’s life was destroyed.
Clarke continued by pointing out that law enforcement officers are symbols of authority and we have allowed people, including prosecutors, judges, and newspapers to get people to believe that we have to put up with the disrespect we have to put up with. We are authority figures, but we are not the final arbiters; we have a process. We are no different than the prosecutors or the judges who don’t seem to be able to understand, that we are part of the criminal justice system.
The rule of law is the basis of our country. “When things go wrong, the rule of law must prevail”, he said, “Somebody has got to have your back. And so when I watch the political class start to chime in and start to unfairly malign the character, integrity, sacrifice, the honor of this uniform and this badge, there came a point in time when I said that’s it, it’s time to fight back.”
“Sometimes the moment is screaming out for somebody to step up and seize the moment. And that’s how I looked at it what was happening to the American police officer when I said, that’s it, it’s time to fight back.”
“Somebody has to fight for this profession.”
“We are under attack. War has been declared on the American police officer. Literally,” he said and he named NYPD Officers Ramos and Lew and the rising Killed in the Line of Duty incidents as examples.
One of the problems Sheriff Clarke identified is that those in power are trying to transform the American police officer. “There is nothing wrong with the American police officer,” he told the delegates. “You folks are some of the best trained, best prepared law enforcement officers in the world. You know what we need to transform? Society! We need to transform the American ghetto. I see an emerging sub-culture. Generational poverty. School failure. Drugs and alcohol abuse. Crime and violence. Obscene rate of unemployment all in a concentrated area. Those aren’t causes of crime. Those are risk factors of crime.”
Most of the people living in economically disadvantaged areas are good, hard-working, decent people just trying to live and raise their families, he said. Poor people don’t kill each other, the sub-culture of gangs and dope dealers are the ones that kill and otherwise destroy the quality of life in the community. That sub culture is what needs to be reduced.
“Stable informal social controls keep crime in check. Functioning schools, functioning neighborhoods, parents effectively raising their children. Those are the things that keep crime in check. When you don’t have that, you need an intervention. You know what the intervention is? The American police officer. Trying to give good law abiding minorities, Black, Hispanic, a decent quality of life.”
Self-initiated police action is what is needed, he feels. Radio call responses do not prevent crime. The crime has already happened. He fears that in this anti-police climate, officers will stop self-initiated police action. They will feel that it is just not worth it. If that happens, crime rates will skyrocket.
The American police officer had no voice in this, he continued. No one asked what it was like down there at ground zero. No one asked what can we do to help you do your difficult job. Instead, the police were the problem. The police were the bad guys. The police needed to change.
Sheriff Clarke rejects this. The police don’t cause poverty. The police don’t cause dysfunctional schools. These are government failures; political failures of politicians, but the police are easy to blame. They don’t fight back. They don’t have a voice.
“Well I became that voice,” he declared. “And now it my mission for whatever time I have left. My mission is to fight back and help build up the moral and the confidence of the American police officer. To put as back as authority figures that need to be and must be respected.”
“I got your back. I don’t know if your administrators in your agency have your back.” (cynical laughter rose up from the delegates). “Well, I don’t know. I’m not hearing from them, how’s that. Originally, my hope was that I would be able to build a ground swell of support from law enforcement executives that would step up. Talk about leadership and moments. And they would see me out there by myself and say let’s go out there and give this guy some help with the message. But I didn’t see it. And I still don’t see it and I don’t hear it. And I think it’s a shame. Because like me, they send men and women out every day in harm’s way. And you need to know–you can’t guess — they need to stand in front of you and they need to say it publically — I got these people’s back! When things go wrong, we are going to do an investigation that is going to be thorough and transparent, but in the end they are going to be judged by the rule of law standard, not the angry mob standard.” (Loud applause by the Delegates)
“I don’t care about appeasing the masses. I care about the rule of law. We have to fight this. We have to fight aggressively. Otherwise this job isn’t going to be worth doing, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to see the effects of it being very difficult to hire. Who is going to want to do this?”
After hearing this fresh, inspiring message, the delegates lined up for photographs and handshakes. There is nothing I can add, but kudos to a brave man filled with common sense and..
Be legally careful out there.
