Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke slammed Attorney General Eric Holder during the confirmation hearing for his replacement, Loretta Lynch, saying the outgoing law enforcement chief was so inflammatory in his rhetoric regarding police-community relations that he actually rallied the “cop-haters.”
Sheriff Clarke made the comments in context of saying that Ms. Lynch needs to do a better job of soothing police-civilian relations and patch up the public relations problems — leading to outright threats against law enforcement — that have spiked since the Ferguson, Missouri, protests over former Officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of black teen Michael Brown.
“The incendiary rhetoric used by Eric Holder created the pathway for a false narrative that then became the rallying cry for cop-haters across America,” he said during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, National Review reported. “It sparked unjustified hatred towards America’s law enforcement agencies and its officers.”
He also said Mr. Holder’s views permeated the entire Justice Department.
The agency displayed “almost hostility towards local law enforcement” and “treat[ed] police officers as adversaries instead of allies,” Mr. Clarke said, National Review reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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