Clarke could show real leadership by patrolling central city himself

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has been talking a lot lately about violence in Milwaukee's central city. Seventy-five people already have been murdered in Milwaukee this year, a 50% increase from 2004. Clarke is one of many voices saying that is unacceptable, and that the community must act to change the culture of violence.

Now we know Clarke's plan to stop the killings.

He is sending one white 55-year-old sheriff's deputy, alone and on foot, to patrol the central city.

Starting today, Deputy Michael Schuh's assignment is "to take a county bus to and from the neighborhood, contact every home and business, encourage cooperation with police and distribute a Sheriff's Department business card to those he contacts," the Journal Sentinel reports.

He does get to take a radio, and is supposed to communicate with the dispatcher every time he approaches a home or business. That will make it easier when Schuch needs backup, or when they need to recover his body. Schuh also will be allowed to keep his gun, I assume.

His new foot beat is bounded by North 10th and 27th Streets, between North Avenue and Burleigh. It's the kind of neighborhood where people roll up their car windows and lock their doors when they are driving through. If you think this is an exaggeration, swing by 10th and North or 15th and Burleigh next time you're in the hood.

Schuh, who says he will follow orders, is taking on a dangerous assignment. It's unheard of to send a law enforcement officer into such an area without a partner. Schuh is a Vietnam veteran, but he didn't go on one-man patrols.

What did he do to get this assignment? Schuh wrote an article for the union newsletter, criticizing Clarke. The newspaper reports:

Schuh penned an opinion column known as "The Sacred Cow" in the July issue of "The MDSA Star," the union's newsletter. In it, he said, he was responding to a written comment on roll call message boards that was viewed as questioning the
courage of some deputies.

Felber said that deputies were told Clarke authored the message-board comment, which cited Deuteronomy, from the Old Testament.

In the newsletter, Schuh addressed this response to Clarke: "If you are afraid or you have lost your courage and you need two deputies and a sergeant to escort you every time you fly in and out of the airport and patrol deputies to drive by your house when you're out of town you should resign and go home!"

Schuh said Monday that he wrote the column out of frustration over deputies' belief that Clarke too often blames them when things go wrong.

We have to put ourselves in harm's way so that the law abiding people we serve won't have to," Clarke said in a written statement about Schuh's assignment. Deputies might question the use of "we," given Schuh's description of Clarke's personal security.

The deputies union, to no one's surprise, is contesting Clarke's action, claiming it is retaliation.

Clarke will claim it's leadership. But ledership it's not. It's really a cowardly abuse of power, issuing an order and letting others deliver it to Schuh, then refusing to discuss it. Real leadership would be for the sheriff to lead that patrol himself. Maybe, if he realizes how much media attention it would get him, Clarke will patrol the central city on foot himself -- for about 15 minutes, until the cameras leave.

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UPDATE: Jay Bullock, AKA Folkbum, offers his take: "Milwaukee's murders, Petty Tyrant Edition."

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UPDATE 2: Second day post: "The Clarke caper: Retaliation, pure and simple."