Free Republic

Sheriff Clarke: Everything Obama Touches ‘Tends to Turn to Crap" by Trent Baker18 Jul 2015147 Speaking on Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine” regarding the shooting in Chattanooga, TN, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) said that the United States needs a national strategy to “deal with the home-grown terrorist threat.” He also brought up that President Obama actually “gutted” the Department of Defense 1033 Program, which would have given the local law enforcement the military supplies to aid during a terrorist attack. Clarke used Obama’s mistake of “gutting of the 1033 Program as an...

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin One of America’s most popular sheriffs has issued a “wake-up call” for conservatives following the Supreme Court’s two landmark decisions on same-sex marriage and Obamacare. The way Sheriff David Clarke sees it, the wild horse has broken loose and is halfway out of the barn, threatening to trample the crops. If the court can redefine marriage and force people to buy health care from a private business, there is nothing it can’t do, said Clarke, the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and frequent Fox News contributor. “The thing that bothers me...

While visiting Iowa this weekend, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker commented on the wildly out-of-control “John Doe” prosecution waged by partisan Democrats in his state. One of the many objectionable features of this crusade was that the targets were legally gagged from talking about it. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm responded to Walker’s comments by threatening him. Whatever Chisholm’s virtues as a D.A. might be, a keen sense of irony is evidently not among them.The Wisconsin Witch Hunt has been an abiding interest of mine for years–rarely have so many been terrorized by so few for so little gain, until...

MADISON, Wis. – Democrat Milwaukee County prosecutors tapped the email and text communications of conservative activists as part of a five-year probe aimed at bringing down Republican Gov. Scott Walker, affidavits reviewed by Wisconsin Watchdog reveal. One target of the spying operation told Wisconsin Watchdog the methods used to keep tabs on Wisconsin residents were like those of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program. “It was actually worse because (Milwaukee County prosecutors) were taking the body of emails and looking at actual data,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the prosecutors....

MILWAUKEE, WI — Amid alarming homicide statistics and dwindling officer morale, Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn could soon be getting a contract extension. While there were rumors circulating Thursday that the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission had all but decided a two-year contract extension for Flynn, a commission official said that’s not the case. Contract matters must be discussed and voted on in public. The commission could do just that at its next regularly scheduled meeting July 2. An agenda is slated for release early next week. Flynn’s contract is up in January. [CHIEF CONCERNS: Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn...

MADISON, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Democrats on Monday called for the elimination of nullified language in the state's constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Lawmakers held a news conference to introduce the resolution after the U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday legalizing gay marriage nationwide. State Reps. JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee, and Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, applauded the court's decision and said Wisconsin's constitution should be amended to reflect it. "Finally victory is ours, but with this bill we want to ensure that our beloved state of Wisconsin is on the right side of history by removing this discriminatory...

Last week’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision declaring same-sex marriage to be a constitutionally protected right in all 50 states is setting up battle lines across the country, with many church leaders and some state officials indicating they will stand firm in protecting the religious liberty of those who find the high court’s decision morally offensive. There’s even a high-profile law enforcement figure who has taken to social media with a warning about the “cultural rot” associated with the court’s declaration that gay marriage is legal across the country, despite what individual states and their residents might say. Milwaukee County Sheriff...

The friend of a convicted felon who shot a Milwaukee-area police detective last week is defending him by saying he did no wrong because all he did was shoot a cop. Najee Harmon, 20, was arrested after shooting a 52-year-old Wauwatosa police detective in a parking lot Friday morning. Harmon opened fire as the detective and two others on the Wauwatosa police force approached him while investigating a burglary. A longtime friend of Harmon’s who lived in the house where he was eventually found defended the suspect. “I’m going to keep loving him,” Stephanie King told WISN. Because to me...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to sign two new laws on Wednesday that expand the rights of gun owners by removing a 48-hour waiting period for those looking to purchase a firearm and allowing off-duty or retired police officers to carry concealed weapons at public schools. This action will come one week after a suspected gunman shot and killed nine people in an African American church in South Carolina, yet again prompting a national discussion about gun laws in the U.S. Walker plans to sign the two pieces of legislation — Senate bills 35 and 70 — at a...

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has made no secret that he thinks criminals can and will obtain permits to carry hidden guns. Supporters of concealed carry say he's overreacting, and the vast majority of permit holders are law-abiding citizens. In between are permit holders like Darrail Smith, who has no prior criminal convictions but who police say has a habit of turning up at shooting and homicide scenes, serving as a human holster. It took months of police work before prosecutors had enough evidence to issue an unusual gun-related charge against him. How many more cases like Darrail Smith are...

On Wednesday morning, the parent company said it will sell some small-group business lines to National General Holdings Corp. but exit the individual-health lines that are based in Milwaukee at 501 W. Michigan St. The first phase of job reductions at Assurant Health will occur this summer and impact an estimated 300 employees of approximately 1,700 positions in Milwaukee and other locations, Assurant Inc. said. Assurant Inc. said it will exit the health-insurance market over the next 18 months. ... Assurant Health has been losing money the past two years, and Assurant Inc. executives cited the challenges of running Assurant’s...

Scott Walker and his legislative minions have no respect for local democracy. One of Walker’s early acts as governor was to sign a law that pre-empted Milwaukee’s paid sick days ordinance — which voters had approved by 69 to 31 percent and which the state Court of Appeals had upheld. Dana Schultz of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, described the state override of the Milwaukee law as “an assault on democracy, local control and working families." The assaults have continued, with Walker and his allies moving again and again to prevent Wisconsin’s towns, villages and cities from acting...

As the toll from shootings continues to increase in Milwaukee — including 11 people injured in seven separate shootings over the weekend — state Sen. Nikiya Harris Dodd is asking the community to not forget about the grass-roots efforts in the neighborhoods most affected by the violence. And she's right. Those efforts are critical; if neighbors don't work together to take back their neighborhoods block by block those neighborhoods have little chance of becoming safer places. That work is happening in many city neighborhoods; Harris Dodd pointed to several such efforts in a meeting with the Editorial Board on Monday,...

May 11, 2015 By Staff Writer A five year old girl who had done nothing wrong was wantonly murdered as she sat on the lap of her grandfather. You haven’t heard about it? That’s not surprising; while the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons of the world posture and bloviate about violence and a lack of respect for human life that permeates communities, they routinely keep quiet about attacks that happen every single day in America unless the victim was a person of color and there are television cameras pointed at them. You see, the left isn’t interested in telling...

Officer Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department will not face charges in the March shooting death of biracial teen Tony Robinson, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Tuesday. "I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr.," he said.

When it becomes successful in their own backyards, even die-hard liberals support school choice. “I support [means-tested, not universal] vouchers, I support homeschooling, I support charter schools, I support changes in the traditional system, [and] I support virtual schools,” Dr. Howard Fuller, author of No Struggle, No Progress and former Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent, said recently at an international educational summit in Austin, Texas. “For me it’s about providing low-income and working-class parents with the capacity to choose” among various schooling alternatives. howard fuller book While acknowledging that “[e]very public policy has an upside and a downside,” Fuller believes “the...

Less than 24 hours after two officers were gunned down in Mississippi, the sheriff of Milwaukee County — a frequent guest on Fox News — blamed the killing on President Barack Obama on Twitter, saying the president “started this war on police.” Earlier Sunday, Sheriff David A. Clarke, noted the shooting that claimed the lives on two officers, 34-year-old Benjamin Deen and 25-year-old Liquori Tate, in Hattiesburg. The sheriff re-tweeted: “Basic traffic stop in Hattiesburg, 2 Police Officers assassinated. The post Ferguson targeting of our Cops continues.”

We have a plethora of black history courses in primary, secondary and post-secondary institutions of learning throughout the United States. Yet and still, there are indications that quantity does not necessarily equal quality. “As the NRA and other groups started to want to use me as a symbol of the Second Amendment — a black voice — I started reading up,” Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke told National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke. “I became fascinated.” “What really struck me was the black tradition of arms. . . . I thought, Wow. This isn’t the black history I grew up reading...

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke (D) reacted to a report that police in Baltimore were told to stand down by stating he would “defy” any such order on Thursday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.

The parent company of Assurant Health said Tuesday that it will sell or shut down the Milwaukee health insurer — which employs 1,200 people in the area — by the end of next year. Assurant Health has struggled to adjust to changes in the health insurance market imposed by the Affordable Care Act and is expected to report an operating loss of $80 million to $90 million in its first quarter. That comes after it lost $64 million last year. The company, whose headquarters is in downtown Milwaukee, specializes in health insurance for small employers and individuals, the two market...