Sheriff David Clarke Calls For ‘Pitchforks And Torches’

Fox regular Sheriff David Clarke has officially come unhinged. The guy who is supposed to be a law enforcement officer issued a thinly-veiled call for mob violence.

This is the tweet Huffington Post noticed yesterday:

It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time pic.twitter.com/8G5G0daGVN
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016

Huffington Post noted:

The FBI, which has jurisdiction over matters of voter intimidation, declined to comment to The Huffington Post on whether it was looking into the sheriff’s comments.

This is far from the first time Clarke has hinted that Trump supporters should get violent.

On Fox News’ Your World show in March, Clarke said about anti-Trump protesters at Trump rallies:

This is a threat to order, liberty, and the United States of America.

… I expect [Trump supporters] at these rallies to stand up for themselves and don’t back down to these bullies and these goons and to have your voice heard as well. The numbers are on your side. …I expect law-abiding citizens, if the police need a hand, to step in.

One week later, Clarke also advocated violence against anti-Trump protesters, this time on Fox & Friends:

This is a dangerous movement. It is a totalitarian movement. We should not soft-shoe this. They only understand one thing, Tucker, and it’s force. And I’m talking about reasonable force by law enforcement but I’m also talking about law-abiding citizens standing up for their Constitutional right and not have their Constitutional rights trampled on at these rallies. I’m not encouraging them to start the fight but I’m one of those that comes from the school of if a fight is inevitable, hit first and hit hard.

On Fox News’ Hannity show, in May, Clarke also encouraged violence against anti-Trump protesters:

The only thing they understand is force… These officers need to be allowed to take the gloves off and to take an offensive posture and become the aggressor…

In June, Clarke visited Fox Business Network where host Deirdre Bolton welcomed him by saying, “We are always happy to have you here.” Clarke once again suggested Trump supporters should get violent with Trump protesters:

Arrive in packs. Travel in packs. Make sure you have a couple of enforcers in those packs in case something gets out of hand.

[…]

You snatch my hat off my head, it’s gonna be a move you’re gonna regret for a long time. You snatch my sign out of my hand, of my candidate, I’m coming back after it and just because I get it back doesn’t mean the fight is over. So this is the only thing that these idiots will understand.

[…]

Until there is some sort of countermove by the Trump supporters, this stuff’s only gonna get worse.

So I seriously doubt Clarke’s latest tweet will do anything to wear out his welcome at Fox News or Fox Business.

(H/T Eric J.)

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Showing 13 reactions

commented 2016-10-17 09:11:10 -0400 · Flag

Bemused now Orange County GOP HQ attacked. Wouldn’t be the first time that right wingers lacking any positive arguments have resorted to the self inflicted wound to gin up sympathy. Stay tuned.

commented 2016-10-17 05:41:34 -0400 · Flag

Woke up to the news that a Republican seat in one of the Carolinas was trashed using a molotov cocktail (sic).

First reaction: that’s too stupid a thing to do for a Dem at a time when Hillary is so solidly ahead in the polls … tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot.

Second reaction: who would actually benefit, then? Snap! The Trump republicans, it being very unlikely that a true Republican would stoop to violence. Their MO is more sneaky, subtle (like the SCOTUS over-riding the Florida electoral offices.

Third reaction: I hope the sheriff in that county is a true professional, unlike the Sheriff with the improbable hats.

commented 2016-10-16 21:39:19 -0400 · Flag

Kevin K you leave out the elephant in the room. The Florida state Supreme Court was well on it’s way to doing a statewide recount as proscribed by law when SCOTUS bigfooted the whole operation. The same hypocrites who are constantly crying about state’s rights all of sudden proclaimed that a state doesn’t have the right to recount it’s own votes in an election. GOP thy name is hypocrite.

commented 2016-10-16 18:29:52 -0400 · Flag

Oh, truman . . . . if that were the case, Mama would be on Clarke with a big old can of whoop-ass.

commented 2016-10-16 14:04:55 -0400 · Flag

Few know that Sheriff Bozo Clarke is the love child of Foxy Brown and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.

commented 2016-10-16 12:53:32 -0400 · Flag

Joseph is correct here, although I would have preferred to see Al Gore actually pursue a full recount of Florida in 2000 as was his right. Sadly, he chose to just cherry pick a few counties he thought he would win. What was needed was a statewide recount, which later research proved would have shown he had actually won the state of Florida by the barest of margins. I guarantee the Bush people would have screamed bloody murder at this and we would have had a do-over in Florida that would have emphatically put Gore in the White House. But he chose to walk away instead. I agree with his approach of not being childish about it, but I wish he would have used the proper means that were open to him to stand up for the millions of people who were effectively disenfranchised in 2000.

That said, had Gore listened even a little to left wing Dems who were begging him to take some of the policy positions of Ralph Nader, he would not have found himself in such a tight margin in Florida.

As for the Tea Party nonsense, I agree that nearly all of it has been about obstructing President Obama and hiding behind some faux patriotism. It’s also been well-funded by the Koch Brothers and the like, an aspect that the right wing tries to muddy by throwing smears at George Soros.

I also agree that Clarke’s behavior this year has been acutely irresponsible for a Sheriff. The best thing he could do at this time would be to voluntarily step down and allow a non-partisan Sheriff take over. Or his citizens could recall him.

I fully expect Trump to throw a complete tantrum after he loses. I doubt he’ll concede in any public way, and I really doubt he’ll make the traditional phone call. Trump doesn’t handle losing well – and all the other parts of the end of a presidential campaign would be skipped by him while he announces his new media empire in the making. I expect him to make a series of comments about the election being rigged against him and that he’ll be filing a lawsuit about that but in the meantime, here’s Trump TV. It’s for that reason that I expect some Trumpsters to attempt to disrupt the inauguration in January.

On the other hand, it will be deeply satisfying to either see the Senate go ahead and confirm Merrick Garland in December or see Hillary Clinton make the first of what should be at least 2 SC appointments within her first week in the White House.

commented 2016-10-16 12:41:31 -0400 · Flag

While I don’t believe we’ll see the massive uproar that Clarke and others on the right fantasize about, I am concerned about lone wolves types who will harm others that believe it’s their patriotic duty.

I seriously doubt that Clarke and those that fan the flames for this dangerous talk will take any responsibility.

commented 2016-10-16 12:38:02 -0400 · Flag

As for Clarke, I think there’s a VERY good case to be made for Milwaukee to remove this man from office. He’s SUPPOSED to be a top lawman, yet here he is advocating violence against people.

commented 2016-10-16 12:36:43 -0400 · Flag

David, there WERE a lot of Democrats who wanted to riot but Gore chose to behave like an adult, rather than a petulant spoiled little brat (which I imagine would’ve been the result if Dubya had lost fair and square, instead of being selected by the conservative right-wing members of the Supreme Court).

Gore was disappointed but he also believed in ensuring a smooth transition to government.

The whole teabagger movement was established for the sole purpose of disrupting the operation of government (a VERY small part had started during Dubya’s final summer in office but the overwhelming majority of the movement didn’t get involved until after the Black man was sworn into office).

commented 2016-10-16 12:22:56 -0400 · Flag

EOF, if anybody has a right to not recognize the legitimacy of an election its democrats in the 2000 election. I think historians are gonna ask why democrats weren’t more rowdy and rebellious over the SCOTUS ramming the losing candidate down the throat of America.

commented 2016-10-16 11:59:27 -0400 · Flag

Gee, I just don’t get why Trump supporters and Fox News viewers (yes, I’m redundant) are so worked up in a complete unhinged lather. ;^)

Previously the province of the far-right Patriot Movement, Fox News is mainstreaming the notion the 2nd Amendment exists to allow Americans to rise up against a tyrannical government. What can be more tyrannical than a democratically elected president you voted against?

It’s a sad commentary on our current state of politics the press has to ask Trump (and other Republicans) if they plan to support the results of election 2016.

commented 2016-10-16 09:26:18 -0400 · Flag

Time for the democrats to get more hands on and involved. We’ll kidnap sheriff Clarke and brainwash him like they did in “A Clockwork Orange”.
We’ll strap him into a dentist’s chair, clamp his eyelids open and force him to watch 100 hours nonstop of the Andy Griffith Show. ( my favorites are the pickle story followed by the haunted house episode).

commented 2016-10-16 09:12:15 -0400 · Flag

This is beyond newsworthy ~ this is DOWN RIGHT SCARY ~ he really believes what he’s saying & Trump has too many alt-right lunatics supporting him who won’t think twice about creating havoc “for the better good” & restoring the KKK to law & order over anyone who isn’t one of them. Lord help us all.