Sheriff Clarke Blasts Liberal Media ‘Propagating...False Narrative’ In Baltimore

May 6th, 2015 11:47 AM

On Tuesday night’s Hannity, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke slammed the ”liberal mainstream media” for ”propagating this false narrative about how law enforcement treats black males and people in the black community” in places like Baltimore and Ferguson.  

The Milwaukee County sheriff accused the media of ginning up “race politics. They support a lot of the leftist agenda when it comes to this stuff, identity politics. They have abandoned their responsibility under the 1st Amendment to be neutral and to get to the facts, and they have become the mouthpiece, they have become the propaganda wing of leftist policy and leftist ideology.” 

Clarke explained that the liberal media loves to peddle “race politics” but when a white New York cop was murdered at the hands of a perpetrator “you don’t hear much” from the media. However, “if the reverse happened and if Officer Moore would have shot and killed a black suspect, the headline would have been...White officer shoots black.”  

Later in the segment, Sean Hannity wondered why “we not as a society now provide the assumption of innocence that we give to every other criminal in society, even some of the worst criminals? There’s a rush to judgment here against cops.” 

Once again, Clarke called out the liberal media, including folks like Al Sharpton, for engaging in “race hustling” in order to push a false narrative that there is an epidemic of cops killing African Americans across the country: 

You have the liberal mainstream media that likes to engage in the race hustling. I mean, they’re always sticking a camera and microphone in front of the charlatan Al Sharpton when these things happen, and he starts to fuel the dissension and fuel the false narrative. You know, it’s almost as if, you know, the cops are expendable in all this thing. You know, a cop loses his life, it’s, Oh, well, we feel bad about that, on to the next story. 

See relevant transcript below. 

Fox News’ Hannity 

May 5, 2015  

HANNITY: Here with reaction, Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke is with us. Sheriff, I don't see that meeting happening. And when you look at the numbers, they -- and then you add black-on-black crime to the statistics, it seems totally completely blown out of proportion. So that tells me there's a political agenda in play. Do you see it that way? And if so, what is it?

DAVID CLARKE: I most certainly do. But first of all, God rest the soul of Officer Moore. And my prayers are with Commissioner Bratton and my colleagues at NYPD as they yet again have to lay to rest one of New York's finest. Sean, you know that the data doesn't support this false narrative that's been going on ever since the days of Ferguson, this”Hands up, don't shoot." You know, you look at the research -- and I’ve looked at a lot of it since then because I wanted to make sure that There was no pattern here. There is no pattern. There is no credible evidence to support that law enforcement officers of any race use an inordinate amount of force against black males.

And I continue and I heard it yet again yesterday, the president of the United States promoting, propagating this false narrative about how law enforcement treats black males and people in the black community. Now, one of the reasons that this thing thrives is because of the liberal mainstream media, all right? They like race politics. They support a lot of the leftist agenda when it comes to this stuff, identity politics. They have abandoned their responsibility under the 1st Amendment to be neutral and to get to the facts, and they have become the mouthpiece, they have become the propaganda wing of leftist policy and leftist ideology.

That’s why you don’t hear much about when a cop suffers or gives up his life at the hands of some perpetrator. You know, the headlines I was reading after the New York incident starting Saturday night, New York officer shot. But if the reverse happened and if Officer Moore would have shot and killed a black suspect, the headline would have been...

HANNITY: White officer...

CLARKE: ... White officer shoots black -- exactly. And so you know, you can see the pattern here. It is sickening. I mean, why isn’t Loretta Lynch -- I realize she’s got her hands full. She just got there. And I want to give her a chance to -- to get settled there. But I would like to see her go to New York. Eventually, she will. She probably already called Commissioner Bratton. But I would like to have her go to New York and look into whether Officer Brian Moore’s civil rights were violated by this suspect.

HANNITY: Interesting point.

CLARKE: Did this black suspect shoot Officer Moore because he was white?

HANNITY: Now, we don’t know what happened to -- we do know what happened to Officer Moore. We still don’t know what happened to Freddie Gray. We don’t have the details. We don’t have the evidence. At best, it’s very circumstantial. And to me, at this point, it’s a leap. The question I have, why do we not as a society now provide the assumption of innocence that we give to every other criminal in society, even some of the worst criminals? There’s a rush to judgment here against cops. Why?

CLARKE: Well, you know, again, you have the liberal mainstream media that likes to engage in the race hustling. I mean, they’re always sticking a camera and microphone in front of the charlatan Al Sharpton when these things happen, and he starts to fuel the dissension and fuel the false narrative. You know, it’s almost as if, you know, the cops are expendable in all this thing.

You know, a cop loses his life, it’s, Oh, well, we feel bad about that, on to the next story. I’m going to give your network, FOX News, credit. I was listening yesterday, and just about every one of your news stories led with the death of the officer of NYPD. And I think that says a lot about where you guys place the importance of law enforcement in the United States. We’re just not seeing that from the liberal mainstream media, Sean.