About 50 people took part in a protest Friday inside the Milwaukee County Safety Building with the mission of putting pressure on Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to resign.
Roughly half of the protesters were members of Progressive Moms of Milwaukee, an activism group that has nearly 500 members on Facebook. Others were part of groups such as Uplifting Black Liberation and Community, or UBLAC.
They read a letter asking for Clarke’s resignation after four deaths occurred this year at the Milwaukee County Jail, which Clarke runs.
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The mothers also dropped off clean diapers near Clarke’s office to honor one of the deaths at the jail in July – an inmate’s newborn baby. Protest leader Andrea Rodriguez-Strock said the diapers were also a symbol for the sheriff to consider.
Members of Progressive Moms of Milwaukee drop off diapers at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office as part of the group’s protest. Chuck Quirmbach/WPR
“For him to understand this individual, this baby, is gone forever. This is a citizen of his county, under his watch, and he didn’t even care,” she said.
Rodriquez-Strock said the coalition of groups also wants the U.S. Justice Department to investigate all of the jail deaths. Milwaukee County auditors are already looking into medical care for jail inmates.
Clarke responded to the protest in a statement posted on his Facebook page, where he said the media has focused on the mothers rather than recent fatal shootings in Milwaukee.
“The name ‘Progressive Moms’ alone tells me everything I need to know about this politically motivated and politically-orchestrated Democrat Party operative … These Progressive Moms’ time would be better spent demonstrating in front of abortion clinics that kill babies every day.”
The protest came as Clarke has been pursuing a job in Donald Trump’s administration. Dana Oswald, of the mothers group, said problems at the Milwaukee jail show Clarke doesn’t deserve a federal post.
“Absolutely not. No,” Oswald said. “If this is a person who can’t care for the people in this city, then I don’t want him caring for the people of this country, at all.”
Clarke recently told a conservative website that if there’s problem at the jail, questions should be directed to a private contractor that handles medical care at the facility. Clarke recently met with President-elect Trump, but did not get named Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, a job Clarke reportedly sought.
However, Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said this week that Trump wants Clarke involved in the administration “at some level.”
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