“Total Monster” David Clarke Appointed To Department of Homeland Security

Yesterday, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke declared that he accepted a position as the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States. 

Though Clarke has been described as “controversial” and “polarizing” by mainstream news, others have more bluntly called him a “total monster“—a claim that isn’t hyperbolic to anyone who looks over his resume cursorily.

Clarke accused Black Lives Matter of joining forces with ISIS to bring down the United States, and called them a domestic hate group and a terrorist group. He lashed out at the Women’s March, describing the march as a “freak show” and a “riot” full of “creeps.” His sexism was out in full force when he decided to call Hillary Clinton “Mrs. Bill Clinton” and declared, bizarrely, that she was not good enough to even be an “elected dog catcher.” Clarke’s Twitter presence is about as unhinged as Donald Trump’s, who he loves.

But Clarke’s actions as sheriff are far more terrifying than his words. Clarke currently faces two federal lawsuits for the death of four people at Milwaukee County Jail last year. One of those deaths involved torturing an inmate via slow and fatal dehydration, who pled to jail staff for water for ten days. Clarke’s jail staff also ignored and neglected a pregnant woman who gave birth in her jail cell. The newborn baby died and county prosecutors are considering criminal charges for neglect. His “deplorable” maintenance of his own jail, which on average kills two people every year, make him a super-villain addition to a federal department that’s made it its sole prerogative to make minority lives hell for the next four years.

And those are just some of his greatest feats. Jezebel has a more exhaustive run down of Clarke’s bizarre, terrifying, racist, sexist and downright nonsensical views, actions and comments.

The Department of Homeland Security has not yet confirmed Clarke’s appointment, but it’s probabaly too much to hope that they have the decency to refrain from appointing a racist murderer. While it’s exhausting to keep a tab on all of the callous, appalling actions of the Administration, we have to keep watching and name/shame all of the people, particularly Republicans, who remain silent as the Trump administration fills the federal government with the scourge of American bureaucracy, ferreting out the most vitriolic of the racists to staff their departments.

Header image via Getty