Fox's favorite wingnut Wisconsin sheriff and Uncle Ruckus David Clarke was invited onto Megyn Kelly's show this Thursday night to once again aid and abet Kelly as being the biggest race-baiter on Faux "news."
Kelly was up in arms over the response to the recently released video of Sandra Bland's arrest prior to her death while in custody in Texas and brought in Clarke for a little assistance in defending the cop who arrested Bland.
KELLY: So what about the actions of the arresting officer and the department itself? Here now, Sheriff David Clarke of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff, good to see you. So, the first part of this case occurred when they stopped her for a lane change, and illegal lane change and the confrontation between this woman and the state trooper got ugly.
He told her to put out her cigarette. She said I don't have to. He told her to get out of the car. She refused. It went up and up and up and up and suddenly she gets arrested and finds herself, after a pretty violent confrontation there on the sidewalk, finds herself in jail for three days for a traffic infraction. That's the first part of the case that people who are critical have problems with. Do you defend the officer?
CLARKE: Oh, wholeheartedly at the stop. This is another classic case where a citizen did not comply with a law enforcement officer's vocal command. I watched the video several times and I counted forty nine times that that officer gave a lawful command, and it was disregarded. In fact, from the time that he pulled that car over, he was very personable. He was calm. He was polite. He called her ma'am several times and he could sense that she was irritated and he asked her. She was loaded for bear from the time that she was pulled over.
I expect in those situations an officer to make a reasonable attempt to deescalate a situation, but not to put him or herself in harm's way in doing it, so once that failed, I expect an officer to go into arrest mode.
If there's not a special place in hell for the likes of this guy, there ought to be, and I don't even believe in hell.
As they noted over at Vox this week, of course the opposite is true: Sandra Bland might still be alive if a Texas trooper hadn't escalated a traffic stop:
Newly released video footage of the arrest of Sandra Bland, who died in a Texas jail of unknown causes, shows the exact point when the black 28-year-old woman's death could potentially have been prevented. It happens when Texas trooper Brian Encinia utters seven simple words: "You mind putting out your cigarette, please?"
Bland doesn't cooperate. She responds, "I'm in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?" Encinia then demands Bland get out of the car. She refuses. He tries to yank her out. She won't budge. He pulls out his Taser and yells, "I will light you up." The situation escalates.
But what if Encinia hadn't uttered those seven words in the first place, or let Bland keep smoking her cigarette even after he asked her not to?
It's hard to see what harm would have come out of the traffic stop. Bland would keep smoking her cigarette. Encinia would give her a warning or ticket for failing to signal when she changed lanes. Bland would leave, and Encinia would continue his patrol. No harm would have come to Encinia or the public if Bland had just been allowed that one refusal. In fact, it might have reduced harm — a struggle wouldn't have taken place, Bland wouldn't have been arrested, and she wouldn't have died in that jail cell (authorities are still determining whether her death was a suicide or homicide).
