Milwaukee Sheriff: De Blasio ‘Irresponsible,’ Opening ‘Old Wound’

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) argued that comments made by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) were “irresponsible rhetoric” that was “trying to open an old wound” on Thursday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

“[De Blasio’s statement is] irresponsible rhetoric. There’s no doubt about it. Mayor de Blasio is placating to a segment of people in New York, and I find it shameful…look, Megyn, I come from both perspectives here. I grew up a black male in America and for the last 37 years I’ve lived in a police culture. These two things are compatible, but what’s going on here, look, slavery left a stain on the soul of this nation. We all know that. But that wound is starting to heal, and it’s been healing for a long time. But, now we have a segment of people who are picking at that scar hoping to re-open it and take us back to a time that simply doesn’t exist today. We’ve come a long way in terms of improved race relations here in the United States. White society, I think, has done a credible job of trying to right those wrongs and realizing they can’t hold us back anymore. that we can only hold ourselves back.” he stated. 

Clarke added that those attributing the Garner and Brown incidents to race were “trying to open an old wound as if the Civil War was fought last year. And we need to continue to push back with sound reasoning, with level heads. And that’s the only way you can confront the irresponsible rhetoric that we’re hearing coming out of some very powerful people.”

Clarke also said, regarding the comments de Blasio made about his son, “fortunately his son is going to grow up with a male role model, a father figure in his life much like I did. My dad was my role model. My dad taught me how to deal with the world. Look, there was an example when I was a young kid, 15-year-old punk, and a squad car drove by the house and I put up the Black Power signal, you know, just kind of taunting the police. The police backed the car up, came up and my dad came out of the house. He walked up respectfully and said, ‘officer, is there a problem?’ He said ‘we thought your son was flagging us down.’ He said ‘I’ll handle this.’ My father told me to get in the house. He said ‘why are you screwing with the police? Knock it off.’ See, it’s about respect. respect for authority…look, the police are in charge. When the police tell you to get out of the road, you get out of the road. When the police tell you to put your hands behind your back, you’re going to jail, you put your hands behind your back. What I tell people all the time is, ‘look, comply with the lawful orders of the police and we’ll deal with grievance later.’ Because when you’re going into a situation where you’re going to confront a law enforcement officer, you’re going to lose, and you should lose. So, I tell them ‘comply and we’ll deal with it later.'”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett