Milwaukee Sheriff and frequent Fox News contributor David Clarke said Monday that the Democratic National Convention was “embracing criminality” by inviting the mothers of unarmed black men fatally shot by police to speak onstage.
“Donald Trump is the law and order candidate, and this DNC seems to be about embracing criminality and criminal behavior, trying to mainstream criminal behavior, hold these individuals up as if they’re martyrs of the civil rights movement,” Clarke told Fox’s Megyn Kelly.
Seven mothers whose children were killed by law enforcement will take the stage on Tuesday, including those of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and Michael Brown.
Clarke, who has called Black Lives Matter a “hateful ideology,” earned applause during his speech at last week’s Republican National Convention for insisting “Blue lives matter.”
The sheriff blamed several of the most high-profile victims of police killings, including Brown, Garner, and Freddie Gray, of resisting arrest and threatening officers. He blamed absent fathers for the fatal shootings of unarmed black men.
“Where are the dads?” Clarke said. “When there are no fathers around to shape the behavior of young boys growing up, they grow up to be unmanageable misfits that the police then have to deal with aggressively.”