"Chaos is reigning supreme" with violence in the nation's cities and that will continue and even climb this summer because of the actions of politicians that are undermining law enforcement, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told Newsmax on Saturday.
"I'm talking to the political class," Clarke told "The Count." "They're the ones that screwed up this. The residents, the taxpayers, the business owners, they understand the importance of the police."
Politicians, though, "got into bed with the cop haters and try to appease them instead of allowing the law enforcement to keep control," said Clarke, adding it has lead to increased crime and violence in the nation's cities.
"This is going to be an unbelievable summer, and I don't mean that in a very good way," he added.
His comments come after all 50 rapid response unit officers in Portland, Oregon, this past week resigned in protest when a fellow police officer was indicted for the alleged use of unlawful force during a protest in the city.
Clarke said the situation in Milwaukee is "much the same as in other cities, as shootings and homicides are off the charts there as well.
"There's a cause and effect here and everybody knows it," he said. "This is not a sterling revelation that when they started talking about taking resources away, what it signals is how serious these political figures are about not improving the quality of life in the city."
There is also a "ripple effect" from the increased crimes because businesses are having trouble operating at a profit and home values are declining, meaning property tax revenues are declining.
"It's going to take a long time, even though they're putting more money in," Clarke said. "This stuff doesn't change overnight."
Meanwhile, police departments are being worn thin because of the increase in retirements and resignations, Clarke said, but he added he was glad to hear about the Portland rapid response squad pulling out of their jobs.
"I have long called for job actions, lawful job actions by law enforcement to stem the tide of this constant berating and this bashing of police," Clarke said. "It's just not worth it anymore. So, I'd have a list of demands, but this has to be led by unions, because they're not getting any support whatsoever, and I think it's disgraceful, not getting any support from their law enforcement executives."
He added the rising crime rates are "more than disturbing."
"It's aggravating because we're talking about law-abiding citizens that are caught in the crossfires," he said. "We're talking children in the city of Chicago, murders of children meaning under the age of 16 up 300% so far in 2021."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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