Roy Exum: Why The Lynching Stopped

  • Tuesday, May 5, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Over the weekend I became fascinated by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and yesterday I devoted my Monday opinion piece to the fact this black man, who for 25 years was a cop in Milwaukee and who is now in his fourth term as the sheriff, believes the arrest of six Baltimore police is “a miscarriage of justice.”

The more I read and researched Sheriff Clarke, the more I believe he has a better grip on what is really happening in our inner cities than any other source I know. It all started in January of 2013 when he aired a 32-second commercial that urged the citizenry in one of the Top 20 Most Violent Cities in America to get a firearm and learn to use it.

Cuts to the police force prompted his commercial and his voice said, “With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option…consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. Can I count on you?”

He became an instant celebrity. Later he would tell the National Review, “I don’t mean go chasing down bank robbers and all that stuff. But we can’t just ask for help when we’re trying to solve a crime. That’s after the crime has happened. How about before?

"Well, as the NRA and other groups started to want to use me as a symbol of the Second Amendment" — a black voice — I started reading up. I became fascinated. What really struck me was the black tradition of arms... I thought, Wow! This isn’t the black history I grew up reading about.

"Instead, what jumped off the pages was the reason the Klu Klux Klan became near-extinct. Once blacks were able to arm themselves to protect against kidnapping and lynching, things really began to change in terms of black freedom.”

There is no denying he’s right. Throughout history, the best deterrent for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But what is more refreshing is Sheriff Clarke’s view of America today. I believe that this guy, with such “street smart” wisdom, really gets it.

To be more specific, Sheriff Clarke represents my view on many things so I have combed various news article seeking his opinion. Allow me to share a handful of his quotes on timely topics:

ON PRESIDENT OBAMA SAYING POLICE DEPARTMENTS NEED TO DO SOUL SEARCHING: “I stood in utter disbelief as the President of the United States took big swing and a miss. If this were horse racing he stumbled out of the gate. President Obama has built a career off dividing people … creating divisions, stoking animosity, the rich versus the poor, the one percent, tax the rich, the war on women … It’s been very destructive for America …He’s enjoying this.”

ON THE VIOLENCE IN BALTIMORE: “It is because of liberal policies. Like Baltimore, like Ferguson, like New York and many other areas where failed liberal government policies have led to high unemployment, chronic poverty, failing schools. This is what besets the Baltimore area. Ninety percent of the homicide victims in the Baltimore area are black as are ninety percent of the suspects. That’s a bigger problem than Freddie Gray ….These individuals that are rioting and looting right now and throwing rocks and bottles do not know Freddie Gray, do not care about Freddie Gray. If they were in a nightclub in Baltimore, [they] would shoot and kill him for bumping into them on the dance floor.”

MILWAUKEE’S HIGH MURDER RATE: “Milwaukee has the fourth-highest homicide rate per 100,000 people in the United States. In fact, 20 kids under 16 were murdered here last year.” (Caught in crossfire?) “No. They were the targets. These people are trapped.”

ON AMERICA’S LIBERAL LEADERSHIP: “Nothing's gotten better ... The failed liberal Democrat policies have kept people mired in misery in the American ghetto. All these failed liberal government policies have done is mired black people in generational poverty, kept their kids in failing schools, chronically unemployed, they can't find meaningful work [and] having to live in crime infested neighborhoods.”

ON BALTIMORE MAYOR’S ORDER FOR POLICE TO ‘STAND DOWN’ AND NOT CONFRONT LOOTERS AND RIOTERS: "That is a dereliction of duty, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake abandoned her police officers, she put them in harm's way with no way to defend themselves. I find that unfathomable, I find it unconscionable that she would do such a thing ... She left them high and dry."

ON FILM-MAKER MICHAEL MOORE’S DEMAND TO DISARM POLICE AND LET BLACKS OUT OF JAIL: “Start a pilot project by doing it in (Michael Moore’s) neighborhood. Set up transitional inmate housing where he lives.”

ON AL SHARPTON’S DEMAND ALL POLICE DEPARTMENTS SHOULD BE PUT UNDER THE FEDERAL DEPT. OF JUSTICE: “I’m trying to figure out why Al Sharpton isn’t in federal prison for tax evasion. I find it interesting he has so much faith in the federal government, when in the 1960s the FBI surveilled Dr. Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement, and then went on a smear campaign to discredit him, now all of a sudden he trusts the federal government. I bet he wouldn’t make this recommendation if a Republican president was in the White House, and who had appointed a more conservative United States Attorney General.”

ON SHARPTON’S ATTEMPT TO POLITICIZE THE POLICE: “We have 50 different states in this country, and they’re all unique, that’s why I say it’s a states’ rights issue. They know how to police their communities best. The guiding principle for all 50 states, and every law enforcement agency in the United States, is the United States Constitution.”

ON THE POLICE OFFICER WHO SHOT WALTER SCOTT IN SOUTH CAROLINA: “From what saw, I was as horrified as anybody in the United States, but I want to make it very clear what we saw in Charleston, South Carolina, is not a macrocosm of the profession of policing. It’s an outlier, it’s a – an anomaly, and that guy, as soon as the investigation is complete, will get what he deserves, but I’m going to continue to defend the honor, the integrity, the character of the American police officer, because 99.9% of our officers do not go out — and I’ve talked to officers all over the place over the last 48 hours after that video was released, and I didn’t find one officer that wasn’t disgusted by what they saw. That is not the character of the American police officer.”

ON BODY CAMERAS WORN BY POLICE: “As long as the technology is available, I think we got to go with it. I’m not against that at all, but it’s not a panacea.”

* * *

Say what you will, but Sheriff David Clarke has been elected by over 70 percent of the vote for four terms and many believe will become the next mayor of Milwaukee.

royexum@aol.com

 

 

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