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The Story About Democratic Whip Katherine Clark's 'Non-Binary' Son Getting Arrested Gets More Interesting

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 25, 2023 6:00 PM

Antifa has been ratcheting up its illegal activity lately, not only in Atlanta, but in Boston. Among those arrested, as Leah covered on Monday morning, was Jared Dowell, 23, who happens to be the "non-binary" child of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA). On Sunday night, Clark tweeted out a statement referring to Dowell as her "daughter" by the name of "Riley," and oddly stated the situation was "a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting." Right, because so many parents have children who are constantly transitioning and charged with assaulting police officers. 

Andy Ngô, who frequently covers Antifa and was assaulted by its members in years past, retweeted Clark to explain some of the details concerning Dowell. 

As Leah covered, a police statement details, "Jared Dowell was placed under arrest and charged with; Assault by Means of a Dangerous Weapon, Destruction or Injury of Personal Property and Damage of Property by Graffiti/Tagging. Dowell is expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court."

The situation is certainly bizarre, including how Clark is handling it. This definitely includes her odd phrasing about "the cycle of joy and pain in parenting," as well as the top Democrat referring to Dowell as her "daughter." However, it doesn't end there.

A Fox News report from Danielle Wallace on Monday, which refers to Dowell as "they" and "Riley Dowell," addresses more bizarre remarks from Clark. For instance, at an unrelated event in Boston, the minority whip said, "I condemn violence against everyone, whether that is against police or against community members as a result of any person or government entity."

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Investigative report Matthew Foldi and Calvin Moore, the communications director for the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), pointed to how the qualifier was a rather odd statement. 

Further, Clark doubled down on her remarks on parenting. As Wallace mentioned in her report:

"I am going to refer to my statements that I’ve already released on this," Clark added at the Watertown, Massachusetts event, where the congresswoman appeared with other state and local officials to announce a sizable federal grant for environmental efforts, including so-called "tree trenches."

"I love all my children and Riley dearly. But this is a difficult time in that cycle of joy and pain of being a parent," Clark added, according to The Herald. "I have full trust in the legal system. This case is before it, and I have confidence that there will be an equitable and fair outcome."

Clark even mentioned "equitable" in her remarks this time, like a true Democrat. 

Wallace's report also mentioned that guilty pleas were entered on Dowell's behalf, who was released on a mere $500 bail. Dowell is due back in court on April 19, after having been arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on Monday. 

There's even more to the story beyond Clark's statements. A subsequent Fox News report from Houston Keene notes how Clark had an anti-police article included in the "In the News" section on her official website. The article was removed before she took on her leadership position.

The article in question, "Defund the police makes some Democrats uncomfortable. That’s the point, activists say," was published in the Boston Globe by Jess Bidgood and last updated on June 14, 2020. As Fox News Digital learned, it disappeared from her website "sometime after December 9, 2022," showing screenshots of Clark's website from the Wayback Machine. 

As Keene explains in the piece:

In the article, Clark defended the Democrats' 2020 police reform bill that did not defund law enforcement, the Justice in Policing Act, as "a beginning, not an end" and that it is worth exploring "how we allocate our resources to move police from being a culture of being warriors to being guardians."

The article, however, is back up on Clark's website, as mentioned in Keene's report, and remains there as of the early evening of January 25. It appears to have gone back up after Keene's report was published. 

In addition to Moore's own tweet, CLF has continued to tweet about Clark, including coverage about changes to Clark's website from Josh Christenson of the Washington Free Beacon. 

Christenson's coverage also mentions more on Clark's anti-police positions as well:

The Globe pointed out in its article that other Democratic leaders including then-House majority leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) and President Joe Biden did not support defunding police. Others, like former House majority whip Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) and former president Barack Obama, distanced from the movement and disparaged it as a "slogan" following a summer of riots.

In a statement issued amid those riots, Clark called for Democrats to pass their George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, saying "policing laws and practices have traumatized Black communities and shielded law enforcement from accountability."

"We must change the policies at the root of these racial inequities so that every mom and spouse has the same assumption of safety for their family that I have for mine," she told the Boston Herald in June 2020.

The removal of the defund the police post does not appear to be part of a wide-scale deletion. Clark shared the Herald piece on her website on June 8, 2020, a week before posting the since-deleted press release. Unlike the latter post, the Herald article notes that Democrats’ legislation "does not go so far as to ‘defund the police.’" The Herald post is live on Clark’s website as of this writing.

In December 2020, Clark also spurred Democrats to do "everything we can" to pass major policing legislation.

"What we can’t do is get derailed by a disagreement over any particular message," she told the Massachusetts outlet Commonwealth Magazine when asked about opposition to defunding the police. "It is a time in our country’s history where we have to look at racism unblinkingly. We have to do everything we can."

In addition to her anti-police views, Clark's regard for defendants accused of violence against law enforcement is also curious. Again, it's certainly noteworthy that Clark talks about an important issue within the context of it being "equitable."

Here's hoping that Clark holds that same view for the defendants accused of assaulting police officers at the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. 

An advanced Twitter search shows that Clark, from her official account, has often referred to the events from that day as a "mob" no less than a dozen times. She's even seemingly dismissed the property destruction and violence of the Black Lives Matter riots that occurred all throughout the summer of 2020. On the day of the riot, Clark even inaccurately referred to the riots as "peaceful." 

Other tweets show her preoccupation with harping on January 6 as she has tied it to other issues. This includes on so-called voting rights.

Clark tweeted about January 6 on its two year anniversary and published a statement to her website. Both referenced Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks from September 11, 2001, as examples of events that have "brought our country together." 

We're not holding our breaths on Clark calling for such defendants to be treated the same way.