Bice: Hassle me at your own risk, Clarke tells critics
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has a message to anyone who wants to hassle him while he's jetting about the country:
Be prepared to get punched.
Clarke made his statement in response to Dan Black, a 24-year-old Riverwest resident who filed a complaint with the county on Tuesday alleging that he was harassed by Clarke. Black claimed he was confronted, interviewed and then escorted out of Mitchell International Airport by a group of deputies after a brief exchange with Clarke on a flight from Dallas on Sunday.
A statement posted Wednesday morning on the Facebook page for the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said:
"Next time he or anyone else pulls this stunt on a plane they may get knocked out. The sheriff said he does not have to wait for some goof to assault him. He reserves the reasonable right to pre-empt a possible assault."
Reached shortly after Clarke posted the statement about the complaint, Black said he was worried about how the get-tough sheriff would respond. But Black said he didn't expect Clarke to issue a threat.
"The guy's unhinged," said Black, a recent University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate. Black said it was "absurd" for Clarke to respond to a harassment complaint by threatening violence. "It's hilarious to see him respond that way."
In the one-page complaint, Black says he saw Clarke — decked out in a Cowboys baseball hat and shirt — on the American Airlines flight at noon Sunday but wasn't sure it was the sheriff because he wasn't wearing his signature Stetson. Clarke is a vocal supporter of the Dallas Cowboys, who were squaring off against the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game Sunday afternoon.
Clarke was flying first class, while Black had a seat in the back of the plane.
"As I passed him," Black wrote. "I asked if he was Sheriff Clarke, and he responded in the affirmative. I shook my head as I was moving on to my seat near the back of the plane. From behind, he asked if I had a problem. I shook my head 'no' again and continued to my seat."
The freelance videographer said he was returning to Milwaukee from a wedding in Dallas.
But when he got off the plane, Black said, he was met by a group of six uniformed deputies and two dogs, all of whom were accompanied by the sheriff. Black said he was then escorted to the waiting area and questioned by two of the deputies, who said Clarke had told them that Black had made "some remarks" to the sheriff on the plane.
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In the interview, he said he was asked who he was, why he was traveling to Dallas and what he thought of Clarke — a question he said he refused to answer. Black, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, backed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during the presidential campaign. Clarke was a frequent surrogate and outspoken supporter for President-elect Donald Trump.
But Black said he did not file his formal complaint over the airport incident, which occurred an hour before the Packers-Cowboys playoff game, because of politics.
Louis Packard, a friend of Black's, vouched for some of the details of Black's account.
Packard, an unemployed Milwaukee resident, said he was to pick up Black at the airport shortly after the plane landed around 2:35 p.m. But he said Black was about 20 minutes late getting to his car and was escorted by two Milwaukee County deputies when he left the airport.
"I see him walking out of the airport with these two cops right next to him," said Packard. "I drove up, and he got in. As we drove away, Sheriff Clarke and a bunch of other cops were on the opposite side of that little, like, tunnel. We looked at each other and continued driving."
It's not clear who would handle Black's complaint, though he said he is looking to hire an attorney.
The Sunday incident wasn't Clarke's first on a flight.
Last fall, Clarke had a Milwaukee man arrested and charged with intoxication and disruptive behavior after he berated the sheriff and others on a two-hour flight from Milwaukee to Charlotte, N.C. Preston Bluntson, 36, of Milwaukee, has a hearing on the misdemeanor charge in Mecklenburg County, N.C., court next month.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.