Back when he was a high-ranking detective within the Milwaukee Police Department, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke—now a national lightning rod figure for the political right—did me a small but memorable favor.
I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee at the time, working my way through college as a part-time night-shift crime reporter at the former Milwaukee Sentinel. It was the early 1990s, long before Clarke had really displayed any political leanings of any sort.
A shooting had just taken place at a residence in an impoverished area on Milwaukee’s north side.
Whereas typically police cordon off the crime scene with yellow tape and keep the media at bay, on this particular occasion, for whatever reason—I’m guessing it was because I was a print journalist and the only one there that bitter cold night—Clarke allowed me to observe as officers shined a floodlight on a suspect for an on-the-spot show-up.
To the delight of my editor, I included this small but significant detail in my article, making the brief news account just a little more vivid than it would have been otherwise.
I thanked Clarke for granting me this unusual access to the proximity of a crime scene.
“Sure, no problem,” the towering Clarke told me—the condensation from his breath dissipating into the cold Milwaukee air—before we went our separate ways.
