Tuesday, October 6, 2009

David Clarke: Now Aiding and Abetting Felons

A year ago, Dan Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported about how Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke was actually trying to help a drunk driver get out of a snowbank instead of, you know, arresting him or something. To cover up his error, he made false allegations against the deputy who came in and did his job for him.

A couple of days ago, Bice did another story that once again shows the hypocrisy of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. In short, the story shows that Clarke, who was blasting at everyone and anyone just days earlier about not attaining DNA samples from felons, turns out to have the same problem himself. And not only does he get nailed for being a hypocrite, it looks like he is trying to minimize the level of his hypocrisy:

By his admission, department employees - deputies, corrections officers and civilians - failed to collect DNA at the correctional facility from April to August, a five-month stretch. That means about 350 convicted felons didn't give samples to authorities, Clarke estimated. In addition, no one took DNA swabs from 28 others on electronic monitoring.

And those numbers may be light.

Sources within the Sheriff's Department say the blunder went on for much longer than five months, perhaps as long as a year. They also say the number of inmates who didn't give their DNA may have reached 1,000.

Another interesting couple of tidbits from the article are these:

"This wasn't done intentionally," said one source, who suggested the problem was due to lack of staff and supervisors. "It fell through the cracks."

[...]

Not usually the self-effacing type, Clarke acknowledged that his department had slipped up. He said he didn't have the manpower to assign someone to DNA duty full time.
If there isn't enough manpower to do the work, whose at fault. Is Clarke being inefficient with his resources? Or is it that he hasn't been given enough resources to begin with?

If it's the former, then I certainly hope a qualified candidate steps up for the next election. If said candidate was a Democrat, that would give us twice the chance of getting a good Sheriff.

If it's the latter, well, we all know who sets the budget. I wonder if Walker could be labeled as being party to the crime.

I suspect part of the problem is that instead of doing his job, he is blogging about MPS, which is not even in his jurisdiction. It's almost as if he is gearing up for an election to a higher office. Maybe he should show him able to do the one he has now before worrying about another job. But that does seem to be a common ailment among local conservatives.

5 comments:

  1. Maybe he can reassign the deputy who has to hold his hand when he goes to the airport to collecting DNA. Or save some money by selling the big cowboy guy horse, horse trailer, horse handlers, and horse care and feeding expense and hire a guy to collect DNA.

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  2. Mr. Clarke is a hard man to understand. The Sheriff wants a little understanding and to be a good Samaritan from time to time and then he goes and does stuff that you accurately portrayed here in this blog. David Clarke does not understand that you have to give a little love to get a little love. Having a little humility and kindness in your actions toward others is not always a sign of weakness.

    I am a parishioner at the Cathedral of St. John and I do a good deal of ushering and other helping out. The Cathedral has many homeless and mentally troubled attendees and parishioners that come and attend Mass. A very few of our struggling friends come literally through the middle of the Mass. As Ministers of Hospitality we are taught to just let them go, smile and be friendly. The Bishops prefer this as does our Rector, Fr. Last Archbishop Dolan took it in stride and at a cathedral awards event even commented that, “I am just glad they came.” A year or so ago Sheriff Clark slapped a restraining order on one of “the least of these our brethren” Because he did not like it that the fellow walked through the Mass. If you keep running around kicking people in the shins you are going to get a reputation as a shin kicker. Where is the compassion? Where is the understanding? Where is the spirit of Christian love and understanding? When will this end Mr. Sheriff?

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  3. That was an excellent and informative comment. One has only to study the words and history of Christ to know his position on the cited situation in the comment, as well as many of the social issues we struggle with in Milwaukee County.

    Christ built a following of tax collectors,fishermen, prostitutes and sinners, and taught compassion to all. He looked down on nobody.

    Too many of those calling themselves Christ - ians feel that their calling is judging others, hoarding all the wealth they can, and enacting policies to punish those less fortunate than them.

    I mean, that's ok to believe those things, but call your religion Selfians, Not Christians.

    Back to Clarke. Along with reassigning his personal airport bodyguard, and selling the cowboy horse, he might also use the time he spends to wear his cool guy sunglasses and do attorney commercials to roll up his sleaves and collect some DNA. I mean, we are paying for a FULL time sheriff, aren't we?

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  4. "The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity."

    Source: http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprofits/article/0,,id=96178,00.html

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  5. Good thing this is on my personal website with the disclaimer that my writings here do not reflect on any organization I belong to, eh?

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