Why Is My Sister Dead, Sheriff Clarke?

 

The Milwaukee County sheriff might become Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security. But the families of three inmates and one newborn baby can’t get answers for why they died in his jail—including a man who died of thirst.

By Casey Tolan 

MILWAUKEE—On July 18, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. strode onto the stage of the Republican National Convention. In a fiery speech, he called Black Lives Matter protests “anarchy,” praised Donald Trump’s “belief in our American system of justice,” and declared, “I would like to make something very clear: blue lives matter.”

Four days earlier, Shadé Swayzer was giving birth in the jail that Clarke runs. She went into labor in a solitary confinement cell, and when she cried for help, according to a recently filed lawsuit, a guard laughed at her and left her alone. By the time medical staff checked on her the next morning, the lawsuit reads, her newborn baby was dead.

Swayzer’s baby wasn’t the only person to die in the Milwaukee County Jail. Since April, as Clarke has campaigned around the country for Trump, three other inmates have died in his custody. One was a 38-year-old with mental health issues who died of “profound dehydration”—thirst—after guards apparently turned off the water in his cell.

Now Clarke, a darling of the Tea Party and Fox News and known for his inflammatory statements, is reportedly in the running to be Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security. He met with the President-elect at Trump Tower on Monday afternoon, decked out in his trademark cowboy hat.

Kristina Fiebrink, 38, was found unresponsive in her cell on August 28. Inmates who talked to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said they heard her screaming for help overnight but no guards came to check on her. 

Fiebrink’s brother Leon Limon said it was hard to imagine Clarke running detention centers around the country.

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Source: The Daily Beast