Former Sheriff David Clarke on pro-Trump protesters: “Somebody might have to go to jail to make a point here”

Clarke: “We got to fight this thing. ... Rosa Parks went to jail. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail.”

David Clarke: "Somebody might have to go to jail to make a point here"

Audio file

Citation From the November 5, 2020, edition of Compass Media Networks' The Joe Pags Show

JOE PAGLIARULO (HOST): We are also hearing about Republicans not being allowed to observe the count. How is that possible that you got two major parties in America and only one party gets to observe the count? I mean, that's fraught for fraud. How are we here?

DAVID CLARKE: Yeah how's that for transparent government, right? We want to stick a camera on every police officer in America so we can see what they're doing 24/7, but yet we won't allow just human observers over something as important as an election. Look, those folks have the right, the right to observe that counting process, and they're being denied. They were pushed away in Philadelphia. They were pushed away in Detroit. And what should have happened though is that the people who showed up to do that, they should have resisted and they should have demanded and they should have staged a protest on the site there. Do a sit-in whatever, but do not leave that room; they walked away and that's a little discouraging.

We got to fight this thing. And if it means you're going to go to jail -- you know, everybody doesn't want to go to jail, but somebody might have to go to jail to make a point here. Rosa Parks went to jail. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail. These folks did this to enfranchise Black voters during the civil rights era in order to get the right to vote. So, you know, sometimes people are going to have to sacrifice. It's not a huge deal to get arrested for disorderly conduct. It's going to be thrown out anyway because all you have to do is say I'm protesting and there's your defense.

PAGLIARULO: Yeah, it's a very good point. The left always does circle the wagons. The left always does protest and raise their voices. The left does, and successfully, what you're saying the right should do but the right never does. Do you have any idea, Sheriff, why the right is afraid to do it? They want to still be friends with the left? They don't want to miss dinnertime? I mean, what's the problem?

CLARKE: Don't have the stomach for it. They still think that this is a country club affair, a gentleman's affair, and it's not. This is political warfare. I know some people don't like to hear that. That oh there's got to be a better way. There is no better way right now. We're being asked to fight with one arm tied behind our backs, sometimes both arms tied behind our backs and we're not willing to stand up for ourselves and push back on some of this nonsense, especially when it comes to voting. Look, this is huge, this is important. This president went out there and worked his rear end off for the American people, endured a lot over the last four years, the lies, the left's establishment -- or the attempt to remove him from office over nothing. The least we can get right now is the opportunity to be heard at the voting booth and we're being denied that. That's how we have to look at it. We have to use the right language, which is why you heard me say disenfranchise. We are being disenfranchised.