Scott Walker cited shooting of Illinois cop to bash Obama
Madison— A police death linked by Gov. Scott Walker to President Barack Obama and anti-police rhetoric is now being described as a suicide and hoax rather than the shooting of a hero.
As the governor's presidential campaign plummeted in September, Walker wrote a column for the conservative website Hot Air in which he decried the death of an Illinois police officer, Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, and another officer in Texas.
Citing those deaths, the GOP governor said then that the Democratic president was a "divider-in-chief" who had failed to speak up for police and speak out about the "inflammatory and disgusting rhetoric" used by some critics of law enforcement.
"In the last six years under President Obama, we've seen a rise in anti-police rhetoric. Instead of hope and change, we've seen racial tensions worsen and a tendency to use law enforcement as a scapegoat," Walker wrote.
"This kind of attitude has created a culture in which we all too often see demonstrations and chants where people describe police as 'pigs' and call for them to be 'fried like bacon.' "
But Wednesday, George Filenko, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force commander, told CNN that Gliniewicz's death was a "carefully staged suicide" by an officer who had been stealing money from a police department mentoring program.
"This staged suicide was the end result of extensive criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing," Filenko said, giving the conclusion of an investigation into the death.
Walker's office did not respond to requests for comment.
State Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) said the disclosure about Gliniewicz's death underscored how "utterly ridiculous" Walker's column was. She renewed a call that she made at the time for Walker to apologize.
"I think America needs an apology," Taylor said of Walker. "They deserved it two months ago."
At the time of Walker's column, the National Law Enforcement Memorial reports that fatal shootings of police officers were down 16% so far for 2015 compared with the same period last year, though deaths of officers from traffic accidents or other causes were up.
In the other death cited by Walker, Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth was shot at a gas station by an alleged killer who was found to be mentally incompetent in another crime from 2012.
Walker drew criticism at the time from activists for black victims of police shootings. But his comments in September received support from the leader of the state's largest police union, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which has endorsed Walker's opponents.
