Cop Under Fire

by David Clarke

  By the way, Moynihan wrote his report when only 25 percent of black children grew up in homes without fathers. Though that number is way too high, Moynihan predicted that the number would skyrocket. Tragically, he was correct. Now, 70 percent of black children are growing up without dads in the home, the rate of pregnancy among unwed black females is more than twice as high as the rate among white females, schools are failing, and there are high black unemployment and obscene rates of poverty and criminal involvement.

  This is what real racism looks like.

  Financially discouraging marriage and encouraging black people to rely on government handouts undermined the traditional mores of blacks. Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. DuBois agreed that black people had to grab opportunity by the throat. No mention was made of relying on the government. These three believed that anyone who didn’t advance the idea of self-reliance was no friend of the black man in America. By the race-hustling crowd definition, Douglass, Washington, and DuBois would be the original black conservative “sellouts” and “Uncle Toms.” I’m sure they would be getting hateful e-mails if they lived today.

  And check out what Malcolm X had to say about self-reliance:

  The American black man should be focusing his every effort toward building his own businesses and decent homes for himself. As other ethnic groups have done, let the black people, wherever possible, however possible, patronize their own kind, hire their own kind, and start in those ways to build up the black race’s ability to do for itself. That’s the only way the American black man is ever going to get respect.9

  That’s a far cry from the food stamp and welfare mentality that the liberal Democrats have inculcated into the black culture.

  When I was first entering politics and trying to decide which party to align with, I hesitated. Why do we have to be so partisan? I feel that hyperpartisanship is part of the problem in America. But I decided to run as a Democrat, and I’m not willing to voluntarily leave the party. My mom and dad raised their kids to believe in God, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, embrace education, and accept responsibility for our actions. My parents raised me with a lot of loving guidance and provided a foundation of values like hard work, self-confidence, and knowing how to get up after falling down. They taught me that the key to succeeding in an unfair world was for black people to be doubly prepared to compete. My parents would not stand for us children blaming white people for our problems, or believing that the color of our skin would prevent us from succeeding. My parents didn’t see these values as conservative per se. They traditionally voted for Democrats. Though my great-grandmother always voted Republican, my parents were Truman Democrats, Jack Kennedy Democrats, and Bobby Kennedy Democrats, not Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid Democrats.

  Because the Democratic Party has traditionally been comprised of self-reliant, hardworking individuals, I will not give it up to a bunch of white liberals like Pelosi and Mrs. Bill Clinton who push policies that hurt black Americans. Those left-wingers are scared to death that a black conservative voice, a voice like mine, might start to resonate with other Democrats. That’s why they try to discredit me, to stigmatize me, to unceremoniously push me out of the party. My principles have not changed one bit over my lifetime, but liberal Democratic Party principles have gone off the rails. Everything about the Democratic Party has changed. (Would John F. Kennedy be welcomed today as a Democrat?) Liberals like to call themselves progressive. The only thing that they are progressing is black people’s misery.

  I’m not going anywhere. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tells a great anecdote about the former prime minister of England. Someone asked Winston Churchill why he became prime minister. He responded, “Ambition.” Then he was asked why he stayed so long, and he replied, “Anger.”

  That’s how I feel about the Democratic Party. I’m not letting it get away with this political genocide of black people; I’m staying to free black minds from the shackles of the destructive ideology of modern liberalism.

  Racism Is Not Rampant

  If you’re a black person reading this book, please take a stand and fight with me to reform the Democratic Party from within.

  If you’re a white Republican reading this book, fight with me too.

  It’s as much your fight as it is mine to help me beat back the black gatekeepers who have been given license by white liberal Democrats to metaphorically lynch me.

  America’s not perfect. But it still offers every American black or otherwise who is willing to work hard the best chance of experiencing our full potential as human beings. Is everything in America fair? Of course not. Do racism and discrimination still exist? Sure they do. This is all a part of the imperfection of the human condition. But in 2017, racism is episodic, not rampant or institutional. The challenge is to work for a better future without being fixated on the ugly scars of the past.

  Twenty-first-century blacks need to call for a truce when it comes to fighting the slavery of our ancestors generations ago so that we can focus on taking advantage of everything that America offers us today: raising and educating our children, owning a home, building wealth, and being free to pursue a life of our choosing.

  I’ve made my peace with America and have decided to move on.

  I’m moving on as an American, a Democrat, a man of God, and a sovereign human being, no matter what the personal or political cost may be. I am a public servant. It is not about me anymore. It is about the next generation.

  15

  Convention of States: The Next American Revolution

  AFTER I WAS APPOINTED Milwaukee County sheriff, then won my first election, I had the chance to run for mayor. People told me, “You’ve got to do it for the city. It’s got to be you.”

  When I talked to my wife, Julie, about it, she wasn’t too thrilled. Being the sport that she is, however, she said she’d support my decision. Ultimately, I made the wrong call: I ran. It was too soon. I had just been elected to my first office, and now I was thinking about running a large city.

  After I made my announcement, my political strategist and fund-raiser—the very people who had encouraged me to run—abandoned me. The Democratic Party came after them and said that if they helped me, they’d never work in the Democratic Party again.

  “Tell them to bug off,” I said.

  But they’d been pressured to quit, and they did. My fund-raiser chose to work for the guy who eventually won. I’d stuck my neck out and had no one to run my campaign. Finally, I found a good conservative campaign strategist, but we had no way to recruit top-level staffers. In Milwaukee, there are no Republican operatives, and the Democrats refused to work with me. We found a guy in Ohio who was willing to relocate to Wisconsin to help me run. Although I was glad to have his help, he knew nothing about Wisconsin or Milwaukee. My campaign was off to a bad start, and only got worse. I learned a lot about politics through this experience. In politics, trust no one. Listen to strategists with suspicion, because the candidate has skin in the game and the most to lose. If I lose, they pack up their traveling road show and go on to the next money-making opportunity. I am left to sift through the rubble and try to figure out what went wrong, usually by myself. It’s a lesson I still remember to this day. Since then, I’ve passed on two mayoral races, even though influential business leaders begged me to run. In the most recent race, prominent businessmen invited me to breakfast to pitch me to run for mayor. It was a full-court press.

  “I’m not interested in running for mayor,” I said, “but I’ll listen to what you have to say.”

  “This current mayor isn’t getting it done. He’s been a disappointment,” they said. “What would it take to get you to run?”

  “I don’t want to lead you on, but if you raise me one million dollars before I announce, I’ll consider it.”

  “We can raise you one million dollars,” they promised.

  “I’ve heard that before,” I said, remembering how my chief fundraiser Barb Candy left me high and dry o
n the previous mayoral race. “I want to see it in the bank before I’ll even think about it.”

  About a month passed, and I sat down for lunch with the same group. “Good news,” they said. “We have five hundred thousand dollars committed.”

  “That’s not enough,” I said. “I said one million dollars. And I don’t want verbal commitments, but actual checks. I’ll give it back if I don’t run.”

  “We think we can get you another five hundred thousand before the race,” they assured me.

  “Thanks, I appreciate you guys,” I said. “But no thanks.”

  The Great Big Political Mirage

  Politics is a cutthroat business that’s all about creating a mirage. Truth doesn’t matter, just image. That’s why I have no interest in running for elected office other than being sheriff. I’m not running for mayor, I’m not running for congressman, I’m not running for senator, and I’m not running for governor.

  That’s why I also don’t point to elected politicians as the people who are going to save America. I have one Savior—Jesus Christ—and that’s all I need. But some voters overestimate a certain candidate and think, This man might be the one, or This woman can certainly bring us out of our national slump. Though we typically dislike and distrust politicians, we believe our candidate is the one who will go to DC and resist the temptations of power. Whenever we’re tempted to put this much stock into a human, we should pause a second. When it comes to politics, people sometimes forget their theology and their history.

  First, the Bible doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of humankind. Romans 3:23 (NKJV) tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJV, emphasis mine). And I have to assume that Psalm 5:9 (ESV) was written specifically for politicians: “For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue” (ESV, emphasis mine).

  Second, the Founding Fathers knew this reality of human nature. Alexander Hamilton remarked upon the “folly and wickedness of mankind,” and declared that he regarded “human nature as it is, without flattering its virtue or exaggerating its vices.” Consequently, he believed “men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.” In 1788 James Madison wrote, “There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.” And Thomas Jefferson wrote, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay believed men were governed by “the dictates of personal interest” and therefore would “swerve from good faith and justice.”

  One of the most influential books of colonial times was The New England Primer, which was first published in 1690. For about fifty years, it was the only textbook in America, and it covered the Lord’s Prayer and catechisms, and had a rhyme to teach every letter of the alphabet to schoolchildren. To learn the letter A, for example, the textbook taught, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”

  Yes, that was before Americans stopped believing in personal responsibility. These days, no matter what a person does, there’s an explanation for the behavior. Is a kid greedy? Well, he was deprived of early childhood education. Is a man lazy? His mother was too demanding. Is a person too fearful? Well, his Little League coach yelled too much. Did a man cheat on his taxes? He was following the rationale that everybody does it. For every behavior, there’s a get-out-of-jail-free justification. Modern philosophy means that no one is ever accountable for his or her behavior. But it’s time to bring responsibility back in vogue. That’s what my dad did with me.

  Gonna Take More Than an Election to Create Real Change

  As I mentioned, my father was in the Korean War as a Ranger. After the war, he enjoyed parachuting out of airplanes as a hobby, especially since fewer people were shooting at him. He’d take me with him to watch his recreational jumps. When I was only about eleven years old, he gave me the responsibility of helping him pack his parachute. That is a big responsibility for anyone. It’d be almost unimaginable for a kid these days to have that task. But when your actions could mean life or death, you make sure to get it right. Even when I was a kid, my dad described me as disciplined, meticulous, and competent. Later, when my dad was asked about letting me handle such a responsibility, he laughed and said, “He had every crease and pleat in place.”

  When you hear the words kids these days, it’s easy to conjure images of an old man sitting on the front porch yelling when a ball falls in his yard. But I’m not upset at kids these days. I’m upset at parents these days. They either overparent or underparent. Mostly on the job, we see kids who are underparented and neglected. At the other end of the spectrum, overparenting leads to coddling and overindulgence. Here’s the thing. People have to take responsibility for themselves. Parents need to take responsibility for their family life, kids have to take responsibility for their futures, and, yes, citizens need to take responsibility for this nation. Part of the citizen responsibility is refusing to be treated like subjects instead of citizens by our federal government.

  Have you ever been at a backyard barbecue with the neighbors or at church with fellow congregants when people start complaining about the way this nation is going? It’s easy to get people animated when you talk about the federal government’s incompetence, overreach, or down-right malice toward average Americans. But when you ask people what they think we should do, there’s no easy answer. The late Judge Robert Bork said that we may inevitably complain for a while but then we acquiesce. Some people just throw their hands in the air in exasperation. Others may say, “Well, we need to get together and elect conservatives who will follow the rule of law.” That usually gets some nods of approval.

  In November 2016, those people sick of government-as-usual showed up to the polls, shocking those in the political world of punditry who apparently hadn’t talked to a normal American in years.

  You remember the scene as election night unfolded? The “talking heads” looked as if they were on the verge of tears when having to call states that have historically been “blue” as going “red.” CNN was so cautious in calling the states, like they couldn’t actually believe what was happening. It’s almost as if you could see what was going on in their heads: What about the polling? I don’t know anyone who voted for Trump! But, when all of the ballots were counted, political shockwaves were sent through the nation: The Republicans, who were supposed to lose, won—and big.

  Other than people with the last name “Trump,” no one was more excited than I. I’d been traveling non-stop on the campaign trail trying to make sure a Clinton never stepped foot inside the Oval Office again. Even though I am thrilled with the outcome of the 2016 presidential race, I’m here to tell you: this nation needs more than just an election.

  Every four years, grand promises are made and broken. Every four years, hopeful voters become teary as they watch their favorite candidate place his hand on the Bible and promise to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” I’ll admit it. The ceremony is beautiful, and I’m amazed at the peaceful transition of power that occurs at the end of a president’s term. But after the balloons deflate, the crowds go home, and actual governing begins, usually not much changes.

  I believe Donald Trump is a different type of leader and will keep his promises, but that won’t be enough to combat the systematic structural problems that exist in the federal government. He’ll need to change the underlying structural problems that somehow let the incompetent federal government bully us with regulations in every aspect of our lives. He’ll have to figure out a way to combat the non-elected federal bureaucrats who dictate so many rules and regulations and even target law-abiding, patriotic Americans. He’ll still need to prevent future presidents from governing by executive order as did his predecessor, President Barack Obama. He’ll still have a Supreme Court that might stubbornly misinterpret the Constitution and legislate from the bench.
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br />   That’s why “we the people” are going to have to quit saying, “I’ll wait for the next election, the next savior, the perfect candidate, the next Ronald Reagan.” Nothing will change until the people rise up and declare, “We’re not waiting around for Washington, DC, to do it for us.” It’s pitchfork and torches time in America. The question becomes how do we create the critical mass of Americans to stare down the overreaching federal government? We can tell things have gotten out of hand by looking at the bureaucratic nightmare our government has become.

  First, our national debt is currently $19 trillion and growing. Because of Social Security and other entitlement programs, we owe more than an additional $100 million! When you hear politicians complaining that the rich don’t pay enough taxes, you have to realize that even if the government took 100 percent of all of our paychecks, we’d still be in debt. In other words, we can’t tax ourselves out of this mess. Second, states should have more rights than the federal government recognizes. That is what our Founding Fathers intended. Federal grants have kept states under the federal government’s thumb instead of allowing them to be the independent governments they’re supposed to be. Third, Congress keeps making more and more laws that regulate business and commerce. Most of those laws cripple large and small businesses alike, slashing productivity and causing Americans to lose jobs. Fourth, the government keeps expanding beyond its regulated parameters. Though the Founders created a checks and balances government composed of three branches, the branches now collude with each other. The power of the states has been so diluted because of this collusion that the federal government is now high on its power.

  I’ve seen it with my own eyes. In May 2015, I testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on policing strategies for the twenty-first century. Let’s say I was underwhelmed by Obama’s blame-the-cop policies. Though I was honored to have been invited by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), I noted that very few of the so-called experts knew anything about policing. A couple of lapdog bureaucrats testified followed by a series of academic elitists. I was more than happy to explain to these pencil pushers how their so-called strategies would play out on the streets. The bureaucrats were just trying to distract, to talk about anything to prevent the public from seeing the real problem of the American ghetto. It’s not the American police officer. Modern liberalism has been a wrecking ball on the black community and the black family structure for decades. I told them their strategies were too heavy on federal involvement and control. But even if they were enacted, they wouldn’t change the behavior of many law enforcement agencies or the behavior of many individuals of color with whom we come in contact on the streets and end up in deadly confrontations.