Posted on 02/04/2003 7:21:51 AM PST by robjna
Good for him!
Be Well - Be Armed - Be Safe - Molon Labe!
Sherrif Clarke's assessment of Eugene Kane is dead on. Mr. Kane through his columns in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would have the world believe that conservatives are knuckle-dragging neanderthals without an ounce of compassion or redeeming qualities. Read between the lines of any of his columns, and the mantra is unvarying; blacks in Milwaukee are longsuffering victims of oppression borne of the evil actions by corrupt, racist conservatives, maniacally distorting the well crafted cradle-to-grave support policies justly enacted by guilt-ridden cracker liberals.
Several times in the past he has promoted robbers, thugs and miscreants as the victimized heroes in the tales he tells; brave, misunderstood souls, worthy of our adoration, simply because they are black. Rapists, car-jackers and muggers arrested during the riots in Cincinnati were practically bestowed sainthood by Kane, for no reason other than they had the correct amount of melatonin, and their perceived cause was rightous. Eugene Kane has been spewing this pablum at his audience for as long as I can remember.
Finally, finally we have a sherrif in town with the gravitas to stand up and call these black so-called "leaders" on their half-truths, distortions and innuendo. If Sherrif Clarke is our resident "Uncle Tom", then I'd be proud to be his huckleberry . . .
Clarke hasn't much of a record to stand on
There's been a lot of talk about "black leadership" lately.
The idea being, black elected officials should be doing a lot more to uplift the African-American community.
The issue was crystallized for many after Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. blasted several black elected officials who turned up at a community forum to discuss the actions of Milwaukee County deputies during a well-publicized arrest of a black suspect.
Last week, prosecutors in Racine and Milwaukee found the deputies broke no laws during the chase and arrest.
The Jan. 18 meeting, attended by about 100 people, was supposed to be informational in nature.
Instead, Clarke turned it into a referendum on black leadership, naming names such as state Reps. Polly Williams, Johnnie Morris-Tatum, Spencer Coggs, Leon Young and state Sen. Gwen Moore, who were all present.
Most of the black politicians in attendance "called out" by Clarke struck back, questioning the sheriff's motives.
They also noted he didn't take the opportunity to raise the issue at the actual meeting. Instead, he waited a few days before dropping a friendly note to a local conservative talk show host.
All valid points.
Despite the praise being tossed in the sheriff's direction by some in town, not many people knew that much about Clarke before he became sheriff.
After 24 years on the Milwaukee police force, he was an unknown commodity to many outside the police force, black and white. There aren't many I've talked to who are acquainted with his MPD career who could cite any significant civic service or exceptional professional accomplishment in all that time.
Talk about being under the radar screen!
Rather than join his colleagues in denouncing the sheriff in the media, Spencer Coggs decided to send his own letter to Clarke on Jan. 21.
He shared it with me at my request. Unlike Clarke, who took the self-serving initiative to ask Charlie Sykes to share his critical memo with his listeners.
In his letter, Coggs basically asked Clarke to deal with the issue at hand:
"I am writing in response to the Lamar (Lamarr) Nash high-speed chase incident and the media coverage that followed.
"I totally disagree with your view of the purpose of the community forum on Saturday Jan. 18.
"The intent of the meeting was to provide answers to the public about the performance of officers under your command.
"While we heard from you regarding aspects of the incident, I do not feel that all of the community's questions were answered.
"As an elected official and participant in the forum, I feel I have a duty to bring back answers to legitimate questions asked by members of the community."
Reached in Madison last week, Coggs said he felt Clarke ducked his own responsibility as an elected official by not addressing the conduct of his deputies.
"He made the meeting into something that it was not," Coggs said. "It wasn't supposed to be a referendum on black leadership."
Coggs didn't dispute that some black leaders needed to be called on the carpet. But like many others, he wondered whether Clarke's comments were sincere commentary, or something else.
What's interesting to me is the Nash incident, although widely publicized by the constant replaying of an arrest video, was in little danger of reaching Rodney King-like proportions in the African-American community.
Seeing how there are approximately 230,000 blacks who live in Milwaukee, getting 100 to turn out at a community meeting doesn't exactly represent a groundswell.
Clarke made the meeting a bigger deal than it was. For his own purposes, I suspect.
Like many of the other black elected officials Clarke blasted, Coggs has an actual record of achievement in Madison and Milwaukee.
He led the fight for a statewide bill to prevent lead poisoning. He was the first sponsor of BadgerCare, the state's health insurance program for the working poor.
He also helped create the city's Truancy Abatement Task Force to keep kids off the street when they should be in school.
Polly Williams was a leader in the national school choice movement aimed at giving black parents more control over their children's education.
Gwen Moore has been a tireless champion of poor people, one of the first critics of the W-2 boondoggle that wasted millions of dollars and unfairly - and illegally - sanctioned former welfare recipients.
These are black leaders who shouldn't have to listen to a Johnny-come-lately like Clarke tell them how to lead.
Which doesn't mean there aren't black elected politicians in Milwaukee who deserve to be smacked around for their inefficiency.
White ones, too.
"I think it is always valid to raise the issue of accountability for black elected officials, absolutely," Coggs said.
"But there's also a reason some of us have been re-elected over and over during our careers. We run on our records."
I believe true political leadership is about representing your constituency and listening to their concerns. It isn't about pandering; it's about achievement.
Until Clarke actually gets a record of accomplishment to point to, maybe he ought to keep his thoughts on leadership to himself.
If only it were just a few . . .
The local press has always had their way with the elected officials around here. None ever dare "step out of line" for fear of drawing the ire of the Milwaukee press and their vocal disparaging mouthpieces. There have been countless examples of the phenomenom over the years. Clarke volleys a few rounds back using their own favorite weapon and Eugene Kane is practically foaming at the mouth with derision.
The really unsettling part about this is there is probably a large contingent of black (and white) voters in Milwaukee who assume Eugene Kane's diatribes are the God's own unvarnished truth. Those individuals who see past this excrement have no real means of publically taking Kane to task for his lies and spin. Some self-satisfaction may temporarily be won by dispatching a rebuttal to the source, but no real good becomes of it. Kane lives for the nasty-grams; he uses them to self-access his own effectiveness. He thinks if he gets some Whitey cranked up, he's done a superb job with his column; never mind why the nasty-gram is received.
Have you ever read a discouraging word about any of Eugene Kane's editorials in the letters or commentaries section of the Journal? If so, I suggest you cut it out, matte it, frame it and post it on EBay; it would indeed be a rare and priceless find. I know I've been looking and haven't seen any yet. I'm convinced none are allowed to see the light of day.
So, here we have it; an ELECTED official daring to point out the obvious truth to the audience who most needs to have it brought to their attention in a most public manner. In steps the self-styled, self-appointed "Champion of the Brother's Cause", Eugene Kane, doing what he always does, namely, running to the rescue of the victim class by beating said official about the head and shoulders with his mighty rolled up newsprint column. All the while in the background you either hear nothing, or the sound of polite, fashionable, reserved agreement expressed in the true high-brow liberal fashion, for fear of getting the "R" tatood on their forehead.
Normally I would hope that the elected officials have the good sense not to dive into the media mudpit and go "toe-to-toe" with these clowns; it is a slippery slope, and the results are rarely pleasant. How do you battle with a seemingly untouchable columnist whose dreck is spread over the entire state? Surely as the sun is going to rise, many readers will mistake the feces for shoe polish. Meanwhile, a good sheriff gets embattled while the "Brother on High" leans back with a smug smile and contemplates another hatchet job well done.
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