Sheriff David Clarke: 'You'd have to loathe black people' to defund police

'We're going to burn the United States and call for huge policy changes from an anomaly?'

Defunding police is yet another proposed solution based on a false narrative that will only make life worse for blacks in America, contends the former, four-time elected sheriff of multi-racial Milwaukee County.

"The biggest losers in all this will be poor black people in crime-ridden ghettos. The police are the only thing standing between them and violent criminal predators," said David Clarke in an interview Monday with WND.

"You'd have to loathe black people to do that to them."

Clarke, 63, said the proposal advocated by the Black Lives Matter movement, which has quickly gained traction among Democratic leaders in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Minneapolis, "isn’t a serious public policy proposal, it's buffoonery."

Since the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day in universally condemned actions by Minneapolis police officers, a majority of the city's council members have pledged to dismantle the police department. Leaders in other cities propose shifting funds from law enforcement to social programs intended to reduce crime.

"Police departments are already underfunded," Clarke said. "Why not just turn policing into a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday operation? That is all they’ll have money for."

'They carried my dad's authority'

Clarke rejects the assumption at the heart of the defund-police movement of "systemic racism" in American law enforcement while acknowledging there are bad cops.

Reforming police is the "low-hanging fruit," Clarke said.

"They won't push back. But the police are not the problem."

He contends "racialist" black leaders such as Al Sharpton are largely ignoring the devastating impact of the $22 trillion spent on welfare and poverty programs over the past 50 years that have had the unintended effect of fostering fatherless homes, with 75% of blacks born out of wedlock.

"The first thing we need to do is a self-examination of our black community. Leave white men out of this for now," he said.

"Look at the cultural dysfunction, the growing underclass, the ineffective parenting, the fatherless homes, the school failure, dropping out of school early, joining gangs, drug and alcohol abuse, teenagers having kids," he said.

Clarke acknowledged he was "blessed" to grow up in a two-parent household. He was reared by a veteran of combat in Korea and a mother who "provided the love as a stay-at-home mom for most of our young life."

"My dad instilled a sense of discipline in me, and he taught me to respect authority, and it started with him," Clarke said.

more: https://www.wnd.com/2020/06/sheriff-david-clarke-loathe-black-people-defund-police/