David Clarke, the controversial sheriff from Milwaukee, has made the news several times over the past year. His perspective and approach is decidedly authoritarian and maybe even fascist, and he’s long been known as President Trump’s favorite sheriff. Though not yet confirmed, reports are now saying that Clarke has accepted a position in the Trump administration as the deputy secretary of Homeland Security. Plenty of people find Clarke alarming and his potential new title horrifying, but one US Army veteran has chosen to direct his outrage elsewhere: Clarke’s medals.
In his epic Twitter rant, Charles Clymer questions the legitimacy of the excessive shiny medals covering Clarke’s uniform. He calls the medals “badge replicas” adorning a “toy uniform.” The entire display, Clymer asserts, is childish, unauthorized, and manipulative. Medals and badges need to be earned, says Clymer, and “David Clarke is trying to pull a fast one on average Americans.” The inclusion of novelty pins like the American flag pin adorning Clarke’s lapel further solidify the joke that Clarke’s uniform is to anyone who truly respects the uniform.
Clymer’s Tweetstorm has gotten a lot of attention, with many chiming in with reference to Clarke’s uniform adornments as “flair” a la Office Space. The idea that Clarke’s medals are a joke was even discussed on MSNBC’s AM Joy with Joy Reid. After saying he wears the medals as a way of “making himself look like some sort of heroic military figure,” Joy pointed out that one of the pins Clarke wears, an Israel Traffic Police badge, is readily available on eBay for less than ten dollars. Joy also described that it’s not the first time Clarke has been questioned as being a fraud. CNN broke earlier this month that Clarke may have plagiarized parts of his Master’s thesis on homeland security.
Clymer’s Twitter rant about Clarke has already been retweeted over 10,000 times and it looks like it’s just getting started. No response yet from Clarke about his supposed “stolen valor.”