He said hardly anything about running the Milwaukee County Sheriff\u2019s Department or the controversies he is involved in within county government. The policy area he talked about the most was education. And he spoke a lot about the Milwaukee of his childhood and the Milwaukee of the future.<\/p>\n
No, David A. Clarke Jr. is not a stick-to-my-own-business law enforcement agency head. Milwaukee\u2019s sheriff since 2002 didn\u2019t say he was going to run\u00a0for mayor during an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program Thursday at Eckstein Hall, but he sure sounded like a candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the vision for the city of Milwaukee?\u201d Clarke asked, faulting Mayor Tom Barrett for not putting one forth. \u201cWhat\u2019s the plan\u201d for getting better student outcomes from Milwaukee Public Schools? A $1.2 billion a year operation ought to get better results, no matter how many problems kids have due to their lives outside of school, he said. \u201cI think they\u2019re mass producing illiteracy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Clarke said a good doctor tells a patient the bad news, when necessary, and what needs to be done to deal with it. That\u2019s what he said he is trying to do for Milwaukee, bringing up some subjects people may not want to talk about, such as the impact on neighborhoods of crime. \u201cI\u2019m not a status quo guy,\u201d he told Gousha, the Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy. \u201cIf it\u2019s going to get better, it\u2019s got to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Milwaukee he grew up in had great schools, lots of jobs, great neighborhoods, and low crime, Clarke said. Now, he said, the city is \u201ccloser to Detroit\u201d than many people want to admit. He did not give specifics of what his own plans would be to change the city\u2019s direction, but said that was the job of a mayor. \u201cIf I were mayor, I\u2019d be setting a vision\u201d for the city, he said.<\/p>\n
So is he going to run for the office in 2016? Clarke said that \u201cwithout a doubt\u201d he will give the possibility serious thought after the November 2014 elections, when he will run for another term as sheriff.<\/p>\n
Asked what schools should do about chronically disruptive students, Clarke said, \u201cKeeping them in the classroom, that\u2019s foolish.\u201d Too many are allowed to do that now in MPS, he said. He also said, \u201cI think we ought to revisit the concept of boarding schools.\u201d He said the fact that some schools in the private school voucher program have waiting lists shows that the voucher program is worth keeping.<\/p>\n
He defended his controversial advocacy for people to own guns as part of defending their safety. \u201cI trust law-abiding citizens with firearms,\u201d Clarke said, and he said simply relying on calling 9-1-1 when there is a crisis is not enough to protect yourself.<\/p>\n
Gousha asked if Clarke had changed the way he does his job in 12 years as sheriff. \u201cI\u2019ve grown more confident in this role,\u201d Clarke said. That\u2019s one point on which both supporters and critics would agree.<\/p>\n