Sheriff
David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wis., salutes the audience before a
speech at the National Rifle Association convention in May. (Photo: Mark
Humphrey/AP)
Donald
Trump is meeting with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke at Trump
Tower on Monday afternoon as he seeks to fill out his remaining Cabinet
positions.
Clarke, who has called the Black Lives Matter movement “vile” and “slimy,” is reportedly in the running
to lead the Department of Homeland Security and its 240,000 employees,
who span immigration enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, the TSA and
other functions.
Clarke,
who ran for sheriff as a Democrat, has become a hero in the
conservative movement in recent years for opposing the Black Lives
Matter movement and efforts to reform the criminal justice system. In a
fiery July speech at the Republican National Convention, Clarke brought
the crowd to its feet as he chanted “Blue Lives Matter,” a reference to
police uniforms. He celebrated the acquittal of a Baltimore police
officer in the death of Freddie Gray during the speech.
“These
are truths that are self-evident to me, and which I practice, and they
are the truths that Donald Trump understands and supports,” he said.
“Donald Trump is the steadfast leader our nation needs.”
Clarke is currently in charge of about 250 officers
and is the author of a soon-to-be-released memoir called “Cop Under
Fire.” In it, he argues that U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism should
be treated as “enemy combatants” and tried in military tribunals, not
U.S. courts, according to a summary of the book in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Clarke proposed creating a new federal agency to track down homegrown terrorists that reports directly to the White House.
Like
Trump, Clarke has occasionally had an adversarial relationship with the
press. When questioned about a claim in his upcoming memoir by local
reporter Daniel Bice, Clarke responded by email:
“Bice your obsession with me is an illness and you are in need of
professional help.” He said the reporter reminded him of attempted
presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr., who stalked actress Jodie
Foster. “Make sure you quote me on this Bice,” he added.
David Clarke addresses delegates at the Republican National Convention in July. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Clarke
first gained national attention as a dissenting voice to the bipartisan
criminal justice reform movement. Ideologically diverse reformers,
including President Obama and the conservative Koch brothers, sought to
roll back mandatory minimum penalties for nonviolent offenses and better
integrate ex-felons into society to reduce recidivism. The reformers
argued that the U.S. should not imprison so many people — a bigger share
of its population than any other country — for both societal and
financial reasons.
Clarke
argued that this was the thinking of elites who did not have to deal
with the consequences of crime in their neighborhoods — a claim Trump has made, as well.
“I
think this whole criminal justice reform social engineering experiment
is very misguided, and in the end the consequences are hurting good, law
abiding minority communities,” Clarke told Yahoo News in an interview
last year. “When I hear someone say there’s too many people locked up, I
say, ‘What’s the right number?’”
Clarke
said the best way to reduce crime is to improve job opportunities and
education for poor people while cracking down on criminals, including
drug offenders. “I don’t think you artificially lower prison rates by
watering down crime and by normalizing criminal behavior,” he said.
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