Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) criticized Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) for blaming gun violence in Milwaukee on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) on Wednesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“When you’re a liberal politician, the tendency is that when you have no solutions to what’s going on in a city, a state, a country, you blame political adversaries. This was a cheap shot by Mayor Tom Barrett, but it’s important to add that Tom Barrett lost twice in [the] race for Governor against Scott Walker, and there’s probably some residual bitterness. Mayor Barrett is also a disciple, and on the board of the mayors against the Second Amendment, Michael Bloomberg’s group and Mayor Barrett was just regurgitating from Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun talking points memo. Mayor Barrett has been the Mayor of Milwaukee for ten years, this stuff’s been going on for a long time, and it’s his failed policies that have led us to where we’re at today” Clarke stated.
He added, “while all this is going on, Mayor Barrett has not properly filled the staffing level of the Milwaukee Police Department. They’re about two to three hundred officers short. He furloughed every City of Milwaukee police officer for three days each. It’s the soft on crime judiciary [in] Milwaukee County that won’t properly sentence career criminals. It’s a District Attorney’s office engaging in some of these same social engineering projects that are soft on crime, deferred prosecutions for career criminals, putting them right back into the street, this revolving door of justice. They’re drinking the Kool Aid of this soft on crime initiative that’s sweeping the United States, and we’re paying the price for it now. If you don’t properly fund law enforcement agencies, they’re not going to be able to keep up, Megyn.”
Clarke concluded by questioning the statistical validity of Barrett’s claims, and saying, “public safety was always at the top of then-County Executive Walker’s priority list, the same when he became the Governor of the State. He always made sure that my office was properly funded. When there was an issue of public safety, Scott Walker had the wherewithal to rely on the people who know a little bit about public safety, he would come to me and say ‘Sheriff, I have a decision to make. How is this going to affect public safety?’ I would think that as President of the United States, he is going to have that same wherewithal to listen to his commanders, his military commanders on the ground, listen to Border Patrol agents, and then rely on them to make his decision, and when he makes a decision, he won’t do like Tom Barrett and stand up there and blame others, Scott Walker will take responsibility for his decisions.”
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