The Milwaukee Post

June 21, 2013 • Milwaukee Post • 9 OPINION Truth hurts when coming from Clarke Sheriff's pro-self defense stance drives liberals crazy I say they're crazy Milwaukee County . Sheriff David Clarke says they suffer from "Clarke Derangement Syndrome." Whatever the term, it is clear Clarke is driving his critics nuts. The response to a series of "public safety announcements" Clarke has been running on local radio stations (including mine) has been to drive local liberals into hysterics. Every Clarke pronouncement results in a page one story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Milwaukee County Board is preparing to pass a resolution banning Clarke from running the ads. And, in the most amazing case of Clarke driving one of the libs off their rocker, a County Board member has hallucinated that she is being threatened and says Clarke is to blame. County Supervisor Pat Jursik, who represents southeast Milwaukee County, last week told a gullible Channel 6 reporter named Ben Handelman that she received an email threat as a result of a recent Clarke ad that urged people to be "ruthless" in their response to an attacker who is trying to harm them. But it turns out Jursik never got anything remotely approaching a threat and a local police department told her so two weeks before she lied to the befuddled Channel 6 reporter. A West Allis man, upset with Jursik's attempts to censor Clarke, wrote an email saying people opposed to citizens defending themselves should put a sign on their door advising potential killers, terrorists and the like that the people in the home had no guns to protect themselves. Jursik called the police. (Actual threats are nothing to trifle with and I've had to contact police on several occasions.) West Allis police interviewed the man who sent the email and quickly determined he is a normal guy who was making a legitimately political point on a current issue to an elected official. Police notified Jursik they did not consider it to be a threat. But two weeks later, Jursik contacted Channel 6 and claimed Clarke's newest ad resulted in a threat against her family . Reporter Handelman, who is evidently easily suckered and too lazy to check anything out, breathlessly reported that the emailer had indeed threatened Jursik. The supervisor herself talked at length in the news story and never once mentioned she was told two weeks earlier that there was no threat. The simplest explanation for this is that Jursik has gone nuts. Clarke does that to lefties. This all started when Clarke ran an ad advising citizens that if an intruder was in their home that calling 911 wasn't the best response. He urged them to think about getting a gun and to learn how to use it. Those of us with our sanity still in place understand Clarke's advice to be basic common sense. With Milwaukee police response time down to a crawl, calling 911 will get you a cop in time to call the morgue. As for the gun, I know my chances of surviving are a lot greater if I have a gun when somebody is trying to kill me than if I'm stuck holding a telephone or spatula. Clarke is now running the "ruthless" ad. Again, it's standard self-defense stuff. Every expert on personal safety, and most law enforcement officials, say when an attacker approaches you to make as much noise as possible, create attention and resist to the max. They usually flee when someone makes a commotion as opposed to sitting back and quietly agreeing to be raped or murdered. But the JS again charged to page one, a County Board committee passed a gag order and Jursik fantasized about a threat. And they say Clarke is the loose cannon. *** Most government-paid safety announcements are a waste of money Don't drink . and drive. Buckle your seat belt. Put your infant in a crib. Anybody who needs a radio ad to learn this stuff is probably hopeless. But these ads have been running for years. Clarke himself has run ads against drunken driving. If all of them were banned to save money, I'd be fine. But the only ads lefties want to stifle are Clarke's. The County Board measure to bar Clarke from appearing in any promotional commercial using public money specifically exempts the board itself ! The Marina Dimitrijevic-led crowd would still be able to send out newsletters and run ads at taxpayer expense. The County Board even had its own radio show, produced by county staffers, on my station. All of that would still be allowed. The muzzle is only for STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE MARK BELLING Clarke and the board's other sworn enemy, County Executive Chris Abele. The board that says Clarke's ads are a waste of money is the same board that has resisted efforts to reduce its own pay and budget. But the County Board is merely typical of the Milwaukee liberal establishment's response to Clarke. That the sheriff is a provocative and outspoken conservative who has won three elections in a Democrat county is what drives them, well, nuts. The sheriffs in Waukesha and Washington counties have made comments similar to Clarke's on the benefits of concealed carry and the benefits of knowing how to protect oneself. True, they aren't nearly as flamboyant as Clarke. But the Milwaukee sheriff has the guts to say what lots of us believe. And, in a hilarious irony, the more the Clarke enemies criticize him, the more attention his comments get. Clarke ought to hire the people he's driving crazy . (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Butler Police Department a disgrace To the editor: The Butler Police Department is a disgrace and an affront to the image of every cop in the metro area and beyond. The Butler PD has been tainted by periodic scandal and disgrace since I can remember and I am 65. I am a retired Milwaukee cop who covered the entire city. My one personal encounter with the Butler PD occurred when I called for a Butler squad to meet me on North 124th Street over some police matter some time ago. When the cop finally did show up, he was unshaven and looked like he had been sleeping under his desk prior to my calling (he was in plain clothes). And he was rather surly. Apparently, the Butler PD is still a disgrace to itself, the village, and cops in general. Butler should disband the department and contract out to an adjoining PD or the sheriff. Get some real police professional presence and likely save some money also. Mike McGuire Milwaukee State should consider approving gay marriage To the editor: Less then 100 years ago, women were arrested for trying to vote or trying to register to vote. While these arrests are documented by photos, or perhaps early film, there is hardly anyone alive with any memories of their mothers, grandmothers or aunts being arrested. Up until the 1960s, blacks (both men and women) were regularly denied the right to vote by poll questions which asked absurd questions like, how many bubbles in a bar of soap? Correct answer, who cares. Now, gays have never been denied the right to vote for being gay, though there are probably people who might think that wouldn't be a bad idea. But they are denied the right to marry who they want to marry. Mark "Major" Jiminez and Beau Chandle went to the Dallas, Texas clerk office to apply for a marriage license. They being two men and this being Texas, they were of course denied. If they were a man and a woman who had met each other five minutes before, they would have been approved without ques- tion. If you are two men or two women who have been together for 50-plus years (as some are), then in most parts of the nation you have no right to marry the person that you love. You are a secondclass citizen when it comes to marriage, just as women were second-class citizens when it came to a right to vote. But, they can marry someone of the opposite sex? Or in other words, someone they have absolutely no more attraction than a heterosexual man or woman has to someone of their same sex. In other words, a meaningless choice. It's time that the state of Wisconsin recognize our gay family members, friends, co-workers and fellow citizens who want to marry. Shaun Slack Franklin

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