Milwaukee Sheriff Provokes Outrage, Blames ‘Urban Pathology,’ ‘War On Police’ For Police Brutality

Milwaukee Sheriff Provokes Outrage, Blames ‘Urban Pathology,’ ‘War On Police’ For Police Brutality


http://www.thedailycall.org/?p=91723


Posted on August 16, 2016 by markt
Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, a regular commentator on Fox News, places blame on impoverished, segregated communities for fatal police shootings.

By Nika Knight
Common Dreams (8/15/16)

Days of demonstrations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin following Saturday’s fatal police shooting have shined a national spotlight on the city’s segregation and police practices—and the city’s infamous right-wing sheriff provoked further outrage Sunday when he blamed the community of the shooting victim for the police violence that ended his life.

Clarke decried “urban pathologies” and a “war on police”—popular right-wing catchphrases—in impoverished, largely black communities for the demonstrations and the shooting that provoked them.

“The urban pathologies have to be addressed to shrink the growth of an underclass,” he said, referring to the community which has suffered through the deaths of many of itsmembers at the hands of police.

Clarke made the comments during a press conference Sunday, when he announced that he had asked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to call in the National Guard. He was doing so, he said, for the “preservation of life and property.”

Governor Walker activated the Guard on Sunday evening, and said the order to deploy the troops would come from Clarke, Reuters reports.

In the wake of the fatal police shooting of Sylville Smith on Saturday afternoon, protests and vigils escalated into violence, largely directed at businesses and property. As the protests extended into Sunday night, militarized police descended on the demonstrations. During hours of a tense stand-off between 20 riot police and 100 protesters Sunday, one person was injured and hospitalized, and police sent an armored vehicle into a crowd of demonstrators.

Clarke’s call for additional military force and condemnation of Milwaukee’s impoverished black communities added fuel to an already kindled fire, many noted. As city alderman Khalif Rainey told Vox on Sunday:.................................