Hard to judge Clarke v. deputies dispute

So is the FBI investigating threats to Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke?

WISN-TV said yes one night, based on info from Clarke's department, but said no the next night, after his spokesperson "clarified" her earlier remarks -- after the station asked the FBI.

Here's the current version: Yes, there have been threats against the sheriff, and the FBI has investigated at least one in the past. His spokesperson: "To clarify, the sheriff receives threats on an ongoing basis. That was just one of several threats the sheriff has received. I don't want to talk about the status of the investigation of any threats, but I can tell you the sheriff received a threat just two months ago. These are something that go with the job and occur on a regular basis. WISN-TV story.

It is an issue because the deputy sheriffs' union complained that its members had been asked, during the busy Memorial Day weekend, to take time from their regular patrols and do some drive-by surveillance of Clarke's home. The sheriff was reportedly out of town. The deputies claimed Clarke was abusing his power for personal services at taxpayer expense.

We'll never know the whole story, because the union has such an intense dislike of Clarke. When he ran for office in 2002, he talked about "empowering" deputies and changing the way the department operated. That helped persuade some unions to endorse him. But the deputies union, which was backing his opponent, didn't buy it for a minute and cast an overwhelming "no confidence" vote in Clarke just before the primary.

Since then, Clarke and the union have been at each other's throats on a regular basis. The only person who's been "empowered" in the department is Clarke, the deputies say, who runs the agency with a "my way or the highway" attitude.

Relations are so bad that it is hard to know when it's a legitimate beef and when it's just more bad blood. That's unfortunate, but unlikely to change anytime soon.

(See earlier post on Clarke below, on June 2: "David Clarke is no Zell Miller, but it's not because he's black.")