Ex-Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke says Rittenhouse should have had a plan

Protesters were demonstrating in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Sep 6, 2020

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a frequent correspondent on Fox News programs, said on a radio show that armed vigilantes like Kyle Rittenhouse should have a plan to rationalize what they have done.

Clarke implied that shooters who aim at peaceful protesters must have an excuse, according to Mic.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke leaves Trump Tower on November 28, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“I don’t advocate for some of the stuff that’s starting to happen, but I am certainly done … I am through with condemning it. I’m done with that,” Clarke said as a guest on a Milwaukee-area radio show last week.

“I’m just telling people, ‘Hey, you’re on your own,” Clark continued, according to Media Matters. “Think about it, have a plan. Act reasonably. You have to act reasonably. Then you’re going to have to articulate what you did afterwards.”

Conservatives like Clarke, a President Donald Trump supporter and a critic of Black Lives Matter despite being Black himself, are rationalizing Rittenhouse’s killings at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

If you helped give David Clarke the national platform he now uses to encourage death squads and vigilantism, you have a moral responsibility to denounce him and his message in the strongest terms. https://t.co/Ru9Qjs5y6t pic.twitter.com/yOT4taPPoY
— Christian Vanderbrouk 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@UrbanAchievr) September 3, 2020

Clarke’s comments are “the latest development in a growing narrative within conservative circles that Rittenhouse’s killing of two protesters during social justice demonstrations in Kenosha was not only justified, but somehow commendable,” according to Mic.

Protesters were demonstrating in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, a father who was shot in the back seven times by police while his children were present.

“The majority of these gun purchases are first-time gun owners, and when we leave this up to the individual, it’s not going to end real pretty,” Clarke said on the radio show.

“But I don’t blame them. Have a plan, think it through, be able to articulate it, and be reasonable. It’s all the law requires.”

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