Former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is still using the title “sheriff” even though he quit his job last month. He apparently also has lost the round-the-clock security detail that was afforded to him while he was sheriff, and when a local reporter asked him about it last week, he fired back with an expletive in response to show he was not amused.
Daniel Bice is a self-described “political watchdog columnist” for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Upon being informed that the security detail assigned to the former sheriff’s home was being ended, he sent Clarke an email asking about it.
“Sheriff Clarke,” Bice wrote via email Sept. 13, “Fran McLaughlin said today that the sheriff’s office is ending the round-the-clock security detail at your house. I have a few questions for you:
- Do you agree with this decision?
- It has cost taxpayers more than $226,000 to provide this security to your house. Was this a wise use of taxpayer dollars?
- Are you hiring private security now that the county is not providing this detail?
Thanks,
Dan.”
Clarke has a new “official” email address, and he responded directly from that account to Bice’s inquiry by writing, “‘Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.’ I’m David Clarke and I approve this message.”
Well, then.
Bice posted a screenshot of the email to his own Twitter account Thursday morning. The responses were hilarious.
Bice wrote in his column last week that although acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt had announced at his first news conference that the security detail for Clarke would continue in order to protect him from a “multiplicity of threats,” a spokeswoman for Schmidt announced Sept. 13 that the detail would be stopped, and she did not elaborate as to why.
No more security detail and, apparently, no patience for reporters asking the important questions.
And no more “sheriff,” so stop calling yourself that.