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Editor-in-Chief:
Kenneth Brosky

Managing Editor:
Stephanie Nolasco

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David Clarke and the Police Department

       Ken Brosky (09/01/06)

The Shepherd Express just recently posted an article about Disciplinary order number 8694, which stated as follows: "Police Officer David A. Clarke, Jr. (46015), Third District, charged with violation of Department Rules & Regulations as follows: Intoxicated, Untruthfulness, and Failing to obey lawful order emanating from superior officer (4 counts) (Second offense of misconduct); the charges having been substantiated, he is found guilty as charged, and it is hereby ordered that he be dismissed from the Department. (To be removed from the payroll on November 15, 1983, if dismissal is not appealed)."

Clarke, according to the Shepherd Express, eventually got his job back after all but one charge (insubordination, which resulted in a three-day suspension) were dropped. It wasn't the first time Clarke had gotten in trouble (to read the entire article by the Shepherd Express, click here), and it certainly wouldn't be the last. As early as last year, Clarke was under scrutiny after allegedly punishing an officer for criticizing the department by putting him alone on foot patrols in Milwaukee's most crime-ridden neighborhoods. The decision by Clarke to allegedly punish dissention sparked a furor in the city that wasn't officially put out until the order was terminated.

Just recently, ex-cop Frank Bartlett, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for threatening to blow up a police station(!!!!) and violating probation after buying an arsenal of weapons (click here for the JS article). Bartlett was also one of the defendants in the Frank Jude beating case, which took place last year. According to Frank Jude, he was attending a house party filled with off-duty police officers. When one of them accused him of stealing a police badge, the off-duty officers attacked him and brutally beat him. Of the four who were eventually charged, all of them were found not-guilty thanks to a "Code of Silence" strictly followed by officers who arrived at the scene. Only two officers testified against their "Brothers," and--according to them--were chastised for it.

Frank Jude, it was told by a medical examiner during the trial, experienced (among other things) punctured ear drums that bled for two weeks.