Fox News Guest On Sandra Bland: “If She Had Been My Daughter, I’d Have Been Embarrassed”
Fox News has a rotation of black conservatives that they throw on their programs to help push their particular narratives on race-based issues. One of their favorites is Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, who they turned to quite a bit in the wake of the Eric Garner and Michael Brown killings. On Thursday night, Clarke appeared on The Kelly File to discuss the Sandra Bland case. And, as you’d probably guess, he found that Officer Brian Encinia did absolutely nothing wrong when he threatened to light up Bland with a taser over a minor traffic infraction.
In a segment discussing Bland’s autopsy report and any potential fallout from it, Kelly spoke with Clarke and essentially let him sully the dead Bland’s name and character while describing Encinia as a model of law enforcement. At the same time, while Kelly seemed mildly disapproving of Encinia’s actions during the traffic stop and subsequent arrest, she also told her viewers that they need to listen to the cops at all times and merely complain later. Nice to see Kelly’s penchant for victim blaming hasn’t subsided.
When Kelly asked Clarke what he thought about the dashcam video of the arrest, Clarke insisted that the officer did everything by the book, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his actions. He did say that he probably would have said “I’ll light you up!” like Encinia did, but he saw no problem with him threatening to use a taser to remove Bland from her vehicle. The sheriff also didn’t see any issues with Encinia escalating the situation the way he did, claiming that Bland was the only one at fault, and she should have followed every single one of Encinia’s commands. Because, ya know, the police are infallible.
Now, no one should be shocked that Clarke, with his history of 100% support of anything law enforcement does, would claim that the officer was in the right and Bland was in the wrong when viewing the tape. However, it was what Clarke said personally about Bland that is drawing wide condemnation. After talking about how Encinia did a fucking amazing job in the arrest, Clarke vomited out the following crap:
“Look, what we train officers to say when we’re going to use a taser is ‘Do X or I’m going to tase you. But I’m not going to get hung up on that. I was more appalled by the language she was using with an authority figure. If she was my daughter I would have been embarrassed at the kind of language she was using on the scene.
She did some things that caused an officer to have to move up in terms of his response to keep her safe and to keep himself safe. That’s unfortunate that the autopsy report– umm you know — the manner of death is suicide.”
Fuck you, David Clarke. Fuck you very much.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Fox News:
