State Rep. Ryan Clancy stands by comments about police derided as 'inane' and 'clueless'

MADISON – A Milwaukee lawmaker is standing by his declaration that police officers' jobs "have neither dignity nor value" — a comment critics slammed as "inane" and "clueless" in a year that 16 children have died by homicide in the city.

Criticizing law enforcement is "a third rail," Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "but … we have a responsibility to have this conversation, and to do better because it's, especially in Milwaukee, just a terrible drain on our economy."

"Their profession is deeply rooted in systemic racism and classism, and there's no 20-hour training course that will change that," Clancy said. "We really need to look at alternatives to policing in a serious way. And I think the most important of those is investing in our community in a way that reduces crime in a way that policing never, never can and never will."

Clancy, who is one of two members of the Legislature's Socialist Caucus and also serves on the Milwaukee County Board, made the original comment while engaging in a back-and-forth on a recent Facebook post. "All work has dignity and value," he wrote, followed with a footnote: "not cops, though."

"They may be perfectly fine individuals, but their jobs have neither dignity nor value," he wrote in another comment.

Clancy serves on law enforcement-related committees in both of his elected roles. In the Legislature, he is a member of the Assembly Committee on Corrections. On the Milwaukee County Board, he serves as chair of the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee.

He previously sued the city and county of Milwaukee, alleging law enforcement officers violated his civil rights when he was arrested during a police brutality protest in 2020.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, said Clancy's statements were "so inane and grossly disparaging that it’s difficult to take them too seriously."

"The broad brush with which he paints the entire law enforcement profession is ill-informed, out-of-touch and over-the-line," Palmer told the Journal Sentinel. "Law enforcement officers have answered a call to public service that requires them to selflessly risk their safety to provide for the security of others, and Wisconsin has been a pioneer in the area of meaningful police reform."

Police official points to public polling indicating respect for policing

Clancy's views of police are out of the mainstream, Palmer argued, citing several public polls including a 2022 survey commissioned by the WPPA and conducted by the St. Norbert College Strategic Research Institute. That study found that 77% of those surveyed approve of the job their local police are doing. Broken down by race, 93% of white respondents had "some" or "a great deal" of respect for police in their community; that percentage was 83% for non-white respondents.

The last time the Marquette University Law School polled on the question, 80% of voters had a favorable view of police.

Gov. Tony Evers has signed several bipartisan bills into law that seek to reduce the likelihood of law enforcement officers taking action that results in death, particularly of Black men who have disproportionately been subjected to policing. However, Evers and others have argued more measures are needed to address Wisconsin's stark racial disparities, especially as they relate to policing.

Those laws include measures that bar police agencies from disciplining officers for reporting colleagues' use of excessive force, require officers to report when they use force or when they witness their colleagues using force, and bar police from using chokeholds except in life-threatening situations or in self-defense.

Clancy argues no amount of reforms can separate modern-day policing from the slave patrols that existed hundreds of years ago, or the enforcement of "Black Codes," Jim Crow, segregation and other racist laws that followed.

"There's just no way out of it," Clancy said. "The answer clearly is to go another way and to replace as many police as quickly as we can with systems and people that are focused on meeting people's needs, rather than putting them into the criminal legal system."

That means, Clancy said, things like free public transit, more support for people experiencing homelessness, and establishing systems in which police are not the first responders in a mental health crisis. He pointed, for example, to Denver's Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program, which sends paramedics and clinicians, rather than police, to certain calls (for example, welfare checks), and to Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS crisis response program.

"That is not to say that we send a social worker or an EMT out to a bank robbery. When there are still immediate pending acts of violence that are happening, for right now, until we can stop those from happening in the first place, we do need a police response," Clancy said. "But I can envision a time in the future in which policing looks very different and its footprint is much smaller than it is now."

State Sen. Jesse James, who previously served as Police and Fire Chief of Altoona and now works part-time as a police officer in the village of Cadott, said Clancy's comments show a lack of understanding of the law enforcement profession.

"If he were to talk to my brothers and sisters in blue across Wisconsin, he would learn that this position is all about honor, respect and serving our state. If he would like to educate himself on what community-oriented policing looks like, I invite him to join me sometime for a ride-along up in my district. In the future, it may be a good idea to stay out of the comments section," the Altoona Republican told the Journal Sentinel.

Clancy said he's been on several ride-alongs — "some of them have even been voluntarily" — but would be interested in taking James up on his offer.

Sen. Van Wanggaard, a retired law enforcement officer, told the Journal Sentinel he would say Clancy should apologize, "but he’s the type of guy who is so sure he’s absolutely right all the time that there’s no point."

"It’s always amazing when someone acts like such an ass. All work has value, even someone as classless and clueless as Clancy," the Racine Republican said. "Is it any wonder Milwaukee has a major crime problem when it elects someone who thinks this way?"

According to data compiled by the Milwaukee Police Department, serious violent and property crimes overall dropped 13% in the first half of 2023, but homicides and shootings remained elevated.

At least 16 children have died by homicide in Milwaukee this year.

From 2016 to 2019, no more than 10 children died by homicide in Milwaukee, but 20 or more have been killed in each of the three years since, according to police and the city's Homicide Review Commission.

As of Wednesday, homicides were down 24% from last year, but on par with 2021. Rape cases were up 5% from last year but down 5% from 2021. Non-fatal shootings were up 4% from 2021 and 5% from last year, and carjackings were up 27% from 2021 and 6% from last year.

Spokesmen for the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for comment.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ryan Clancy stands by comments about police derided as 'clueless'