‘PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES TIME’

Milwaukee’s controversial black pro-Trump sheriff issues Twitter call to arms to fight 'corrupt' media and White House

By Jennifer Smith

Daily Mail
October 16, 2016

A controversial pro-Trump sheriff has issued a worrying call to arms, commanding Twitter followers that it is 'pitchforks and torches time' in the apparent fight against 'corrupt media' and the White House.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. made the order on Saturday, posting a photograph of an angry mob alongside it.

Failing to specifically reference any one issue, he echoed the Republican candidate's earlier assertion that the election was 'rigged' against him.

It came as the ninth woman to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct shared her story.

'It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time,' Clarke Jr. told his 311,000 followers.

Intrepid in the face of controversy, Clarke Jr. has been linked to several race-related police brutality scandals.

The 60-year-old won the support of the GOP after speaking at the Republican National Convention earlier this year where he solemnly told crowds: 'blue lives matter'.

This awarded him somewhat of a public profile on the subject, prompting him to take part in radio and television interviews since.

He has repeatedly spoken out against Black Lives Matters activists, labeling them blood thirsty and 'hate filled'.

Last year, he insisted that police officers indicted in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after suffering a fatal spinal injury in the back of a police van, be freed.

The white officers, none of whom were ever convicted, were 'political prisoners' in Clarke Jr's assessment of the case surrounding Gray's death.

It was in his Milwaukee County Jail where Terrill Thomas, a mentally ill 38-year-old arrested for firing shots aimlessly at a casino while he had a nervous breakdown, died from dehydration in April.

Thomas's family claim other prisoners heard him begging for water in the days leading up to his death.

Clarke Jr. has not spoken of the man's death, citing an ongoing investigation in to its circumstances as the reason for his silence.

In 2013, he urged residents of his district to arm themselves. 'I need you in the game,' he said ominously in a 30 second radio advert.

'With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option,’ he said.

Earlier this year Clarke Jr. detained a drunk black man on board a flight from Milwaukee to Charlotte in North Carolina.

The black man reportedly screamed that Clarke Jr. was 'not one of us' and accused him closing the areas parks.

Writing for Patheos on the incident, Clarke Jr. said his vitriol was not directed entirely towards him. If it had been, he said he would have 'kicked his ass'.