# Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke harasses, threatens Packer fan. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636 "2017-01-20T16:31:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/121 "2017-01-21T22:36:04Z")
> [@](#): > > …Equal abuse for all!.. > [@](#): > > …And I went down to the demonstration > To get my fair share of abuse… Sir Michael Jagger, 1969 ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/122 "2017-01-21T22:36:06Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > How will a “frank exchange of ideas” assist us in determining the number of sharps in D major? Two. Cycle of fifths. C has none, G has 1, D has 2. And so on. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/123 "2017-01-21T22:42:06Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Was this proper use of police power? Personally, if I was the local cops, and I got called in by some out of state Buford T Justice, I’d expect that anything serious to warrant that much attention would result in an investigation and charges. If it was bullshit (as it seems to be from the lack of charges) and no witnesses testimony justified an arrest, I would be PISSED at that sheriff guy, and be serioulsy thinking of putting the cuffs on him. For wasting my time, making false statements, creating an incident, whatever I could “make fit”. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/124 "2017-01-21T22:42:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Nor do I believe every thread is about the law. > > But a thread that accuses a sheriff of misuse of official resources and makes declarative claims about how he “can’t” post something on the “official” sheriff’s Facebook page certainly suggest a legal assertion. > > Perhaps the real claim is that the sheriff _should not_ do such things? That’s clearly opinion about what should be done. > > My point about the sharps in D major seems to have escaped you. Let me state it plainly: no matter what your opinion may be, there is an actual answer to the question. I suspect this bothers you, because you want to make a contribution to the discussion but don’t know enough to meaningfully do so. So you furiously insist that the issue is one of opinion, since in the arena of opinion your ill-informed one stands on equal ground with informed opinions. > > Your opinion is meaningless when it comes to music theory questions concerning the number of sharps or flats in a key. No matter how passionately we revere democracy, in this area, democracy does not carry the day. > > Do you understand now? As the question in the OP was not “Is this legal?”, while your input is valuable (as I personally would have thought that such activity would be beyond the legal scope of a sheriff), the idea that your input of, yes, it is legal, should take over the entire conversation, and not allow anyone to express their opinion without you hopping in to tell them that their opinion (as they very well know) has no legal bearing is a bit over done. The question in the op was in fact “What the simple fuck?” _My emphasis_. Personally, if I were of the opinion that what the sheriff did was wrong, but also of the legal knowledge that what he did was legal, my post would be along the lines of, “Yeah, what a piece of shit he is, unfortunately, nothing he did actually broke the law.” By leaving out the first part, you implicitly condone the actions that you legally allow. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/125 "2017-01-21T22:45:20Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Sheriffs are elected. So there is no carpet they can be called up upon. > > I’m going to be really careful who I shake my head and walk away from. Wrong. They can be un-elected, next time around, they can come under state and federal investigation (and go to prison), etc. So yes, there is “a carpet”, if it can be justified and proved. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/126 "2017-01-21T23:23:12Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Personally, if I was the local cops, and I got called in by some out of state Buford T Justice[…] Unless I’m misunderstanding, Clarke is the local Sheriff. They were both coming home from Dallas. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/127 "2017-01-22T00:05:05Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Here’s the thing that many posters don’t seem to understand. YOU, individually or collectively, don’t get to decide for the rest of us what is abusive, illegal, unreasonable, or improper. Um, yes, we do. That’s how our government works here in the United States. It’s how societies in general work, too. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/128 "2017-01-22T01:34:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Yes, we certainly have those discussions, and yes, there is no room in them for personal opinions. But where do all those discussions take place? In General Questions. Where are we know? We’re in the pity, where personal opinion and moral judgement is not only allowed, but expected. > > If, one day, the Powers That Be decide to open a Professional Legal Opinion subforum, I’m sure your approach to debate would fit in perfectly. Until then,you’re like a man wearing a three-piece suit to the beach. Get with the program. On a website devoted to fighting ignorance, it seems odd indeed to passionately defend one forum as a safe spot for ignorance. I disagree with your conclusion that the Pit is a haven for arguments from opinion. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/129 "2017-01-22T01:37:32Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Um, yes, we do. That’s how our government works here in the United States. It’s how societies in general work, too. Cough…WITHIN the rules of the system…if YOU decide the system is TOTALLY broken and has been for awhile…welll break out the pitch forks…well, if not, maybe CTFD and see what transpires when the system keeps chugging along. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/130 "2017-01-22T01:41:08Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Was this proper use of police power? By what standard? My opinion? Your opinion? The law? A poll of all red-headed left handed pipe-fitters under 40? Tell me what standard you wish to apply and I’ll try my best to answer. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/131 "2017-01-22T04:02:58Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > As the question in the OP was not “Is this legal?”, while your input is valuable (as I personally would have thought that such activity would be beyond the legal scope of a sheriff), the idea that your input of, yes, it is legal, should take over the entire conversation, and not allow anyone to express their opinion without you hopping in to tell them that their opinion (as they very well know) has no legal bearing is a bit over done. > > The question in the op was in fact “What the simple fuck?” _My emphasis_. > > Personally, if I were of the opinion that what the sheriff did was wrong, but also of the legal knowledge that what he did was legal, my post would be along the lines of, “Yeah, what a piece of shit he is, unfortunately, nothing he did actually broke the law.” By leaving out the first part, you implicitly condone the actions that you legally allow. **Bricker** , I would be interested in your response to this. I almost always find your legal posts useful but this time you seem to be insisting that the legal point of view is the only thing worth discussing, and I wonder why. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/132 "2017-01-22T04:10:51Z")
Our society—any human society, really—works only when people voluntarily adhere to codes of conduct that are not defined in law. To use a political example—although these kinds of things aren’t necessarily political—the last few years of Republican control of Congress and Trump show what happens when a group of people in power decide to reject standards of conduct that are not enforced by law, but by custom and voluntary agreement. Right now our democratic institutions are on the verge of collapse and we’re sliding toward some kind of anarchy or authoritarianism, and all that because a group of people have decided that they will not be bound by examples set in the past. Insisting on narrow legal interpretation of every public interaction is driving us into the ground. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/133 "2017-01-22T04:18:28Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Um, yes, we do. That’s how our government works here in the United States. It’s how societies in general work, too. Only if you have the necessary votes, which you obviously didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/134 "2017-01-22T04:22:20Z")
Apparently we had the votes just not in the right places. If you mean what I think you meant. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/135 "2017-01-22T04:25:22Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Apparently we had the votes just not in the right places. If you mean what I think you meant. That’s how our system works. People need to stop whining about the “popular vote”, which is irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/136 "2017-01-22T04:37:17Z")
Whining? Speak for yourself. The remarkable number of people who do not support the president right now is not irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/137 "2017-01-22T04:48:24Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Whining? Speak for yourself. The remarkable number of people who do not support the president right now is not irrelevant. Yes, it is. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/138 "2017-01-22T04:52:23Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > By what standard? My opinion? Your opinion? The law? A poll of all red-headed left handed pipe-fitters under 40? > > Tell me what standard you wish to apply and I’ll try my best to answer. Is it appropriate for a police department to obliquely threaten a private citizen in a public forum? And secondly, is it legal? Would it be legal for the policeman in question to approach the private citizen in person and say the same thin to him? (If I were to really harass you wouldn’t be around to whine about it? ) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/139 "2017-01-22T07:04:28Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Yes, it is. Yah think? Ya think that incumbent Congresscritters aren’t looking at those big-ass numbers, and wondering when might be the exact right time to hit the silk, as in “Geronimo!”. Well, OK. Sure, why not? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636/140 "2017-01-22T07:08:41Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > …Tell me what standard you wish to apply and I’ll try my best to answer. Has to be an “objective standard”, doesn’t it? Isn’t that what you say when you are **Bricker** splaining stuff to us? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milwaukee-county-sheriff-david-clarke-harasses-threatens-packer-fan/777636.md?page=8)