In the News

Writing in the Daily Beast Friday, House Democrat Gwen Moore of Milwaukee assails Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and his “flagrant grandstanding” on Fox News, accusing the sheriff of purveying inflammatory and ugly rhetoric in the debate over the relationship between policing and African-American communities.

 

“The country is just now getting to know Sheriff Clarke, but I’m all too familiar with his inflammatory antics,” Moore writes “His proclivity for provocation coupled with his distorted view of black America has grown more extreme over the years, earning him numerous appearances on Fox News. He has helped the network spread a slew of dangerous narratives that serve only to rouse the most extreme elements of the Tea Party.”

 

Moore writes that “Fox News and Sheriff Clarke have developed a symbiotic relationship. He needs the cable news network for its national platform; Fox needs a black sheriff to give voice to the dog-whistle narratives its anchors dare not vocalize themselves.”

 

The congresswoman writes that Clarke “could provide a valuable voice to this national conversation,” but “the self-proclaimed ‘people’s sheriff’ needs to drop the sideshow act and get serious. Until then, I can only wonder if Sheriff Clarke is still a lawman or just a guy who plays one on TV.”