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Latest Plagiarism Scandal

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The latest plagiarism charge in the circles of the powerful involves Sheriff David Clarke.

Clarke is apparently about to trade the rather humble seeming title of "sheriff" (heck, like Andy Taylor? let's go ask Aunt Bea nice for some pie...) for the more exalted title of Asst Secretary, Department of Homeland Security. He was an important Trump surrogate during the 2016 campaign, and the new job feels like job-well-done reward.

The work in question is a master's thesis Clarke submitted on 2013 to the Naval PostGraduate School. One can read the whole thesis here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170521040645/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3727893-13Sep-Clarke-David.html

The subject is "Making U.S. Security and Privacy Rights Compatible."

One can see a list of the unattributed use of sources here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170521000653/http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/05/politics/sheriff-clarke-plagiarism/
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  1. HenryJune 3, 2017 at 7:42 AM

    An article at Slate reports: "From 2008 to 2013, 10 people died in the jail run by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. In 2016, over a six-month period, four people died in his jail, including a newborn baby. One inmate, Terrill Thomas, died of 'profound dehydration.' He was heard begging for water in the days before his death. When one of Clarke’s deputies crashed his car into a woman’s vehicle, breaking her neck, his office claimed the victim was intoxicated and threatened her with charges. And this past January, Clarke detained and questioned a man who shook his head at him while on an airplane. That’s Clarke’s record. His rhetoric isn’t much better. Clarke routinely condemns Black Lives Matter and other activist movements as 'terrorists,' at one point warning that BLM was collaborating with the Islamic State group to end representative government in America. After the 2016 election, the sheriff called for mass crackdowns on anti-Trump protesters, and in his book, he advocated rounding up American citizens by the hundreds of thousands and sending them to Guantanamo."

    I would say that, in light of the above, criticizing Clarke for plagiarism is comparable to criticizing Hitler for belching at the dinner table. Just as some people's reputation is so low that they are defamation-proof, Clarke is plagiarism-proof. Actually, even apart from his record above, merely to be considered by Trump for a position makes one otherwise scandal-proof.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChristopherJune 4, 2017 at 8:24 AM

    Any stigma will do in a storm. If Hitler's ability to do harm could have been lessened in some degree by some harping about his belching, the harping would have served a good end.

    ReplyDelete

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