Sheriff Clarke validates Wash Post's "cartoonish" label

A Washington Post columnist yesterday labeled Milwaukee County Sheriff and possible US Department of Homeland Secretary-designee David Clarke "cartoonish," and today it was reported that Clarke had proved the point"

Brian Peterson, Milwaukee County chief medical examiner, said Thursday that the sheriff called him on Oct. 28 and "verbally pummeled" and "threatened" him over information that Peterson's office made public regarding the deaths of two inmates at the jail earlier this year. Peterson said his office followed appropriate protocol in the cases cited by the sheriff.

Even so, Clarke said he would be contacting the state Medical Examining Board to have Peterson sanctioned or his license revoked.

Clarke has yet to publicly address the central issue at hand - - that there have been four deaths in the jail he oversees, and relatives of the deceased have complained that they have received little-to-no-information from Clarke.

Clarke should be talking and giving information to the families of the deceased, not bashing the medical examiner, a County official who is not under the Sheriff's jurisdiction, for offering some details to the public.

The jail and all the employees involved, are paid by the taxpayers and work for the people.

One of the deaths was ruled a homicide by severe dehydration after the medical examiner learned that jail staffers had cut off the water into the victim's cell; another death involved an infant born unnoticed in the jail.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board and others have called for an independent investigation into the deaths and the jail's management. Said the paper:

David A. Clarke Jr. needs to remember he’s the sheriff of Milwaukee County, not the king. He’s not even the king of the Milwaukee County Jail, which has seen four deaths since April under his watch, and about which the sheriff and the sheriff’s office have been shamefully silent. Not even the families of those who died have been told much about what happened. Surely, the sheriff owes them answers, just as he owes answers to the people who elected him and pay his salary. 

In an effort to get those answers, the families of two of the inmates who died in the jail are calling for an outside investigation, saying they fear the sheriff won’t conduct a thorough, impartial review. Maybe they will get that impartial review, but certainly Clarke has given them nothing to allay their fears, and an outside investigation would remove the doubt that now exists. One should be conducted.