Good news bad news. David Clarke has resigned his job as Milwaukee County sheriff…”to pursue other opportunities.” That probably means he’s going to be Trump’s new whatever – expert on human rights perhaps? Good for Milwaukee, bad for all of us.

“After almost 40 years serving the great people of Milwaukee County, I have chosen to retire to pursue other opportunities,” Clarke said. “I will have news about my next steps in the very near future” — in fact, he tweeted Friday that the announcement will come next week.

…

Earlier this year, jailers under his watch drew the attentions of prosecutors, who launched an investigation after an inmate died of dehydration. A jury recommended prosecutors file charges against more than half a dozen of Clarke’s employees for allegedly turning off water to the dead man’s cell.

Clarke, who was not charged himself, accepted the move as “part of the process” and denied any wrongdoing, noting he “cannot control someone who comes in in bad medical health that is a heroin user or has all of these other ailments and they happen to die inside that facility downtown.”

Later this year, CNN reported that Clarke plagiarized parts of his 2013 master’s thesis, failing “to properly attribute his sources at least 47 times.”

Incidents such as these — together with statements from the sheriff such as one declaring that blacks are “uneducated, they’re lazy, and they’re morally bankrupt” — have done little to curry favor with local politicians and national advocates.

That’s a stupid gloss. The issue isn’t “currying favor,” it’s being a decent human and public servant. I wish journalists would stop making it about public relations or “divisiveness” and focus on what’s important.