Wednesday, January 04,
2017
NAACP
Sit-In at Sen. Sessions' Office Puts AG Pick's Worrisome History in Crosshairs
Six people arrested in action Tuesday evening
Saying he
represents "a threat to all of our civil rights," roughly 30 people led
by the NAACP on Tuesday occupied the Mobile, Ala. office of Sen. Jeff Sessions
(R.), President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general.
The @NAACP & @AlabamaNAACP are occupying the
Mobile office of @jeffsessions--untill
he withdraws as a AG nominee or we're arrested.@tvonetv pic.twitter.com/7uceDDpz1Y
— Cornell
Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 3, 2017
The sit-in ended with the arrests of six demonstrators,
including NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks. According
to CNN, they face charges of criminal trespass in the
second-degree.
Brooks posted on Twitter their mugshots and said the action was
"to support a Justice Department for everyone."
Civil disobedience is 1 way for
citizens to honor the rule of law. We were arrested to support a @TheJusticeDept for
everyone.#stopsessions pic.twitter.com/9rg01gLHU2
— Cornell
Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 4, 2017
Since his nomination in
November, Sessions has been criticized by
advocacy groups as "one more way the Trump administration shows its
racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynist colors," and his
nomination described as
"a direct attack against" the nation's minorities. Democratic
lawmakers are also gearing up to
show their opposition to Sessions' leading the Justice Department.
Outlining its opposition to Sessions, the NAACP in an
earlier statement pointed
to the senator's "record on voting rights that is unreliable at best and
hostile at worse; a failing record on other civil rights; a record of racially
offensive remarks and behavior; and dismal record on criminal justice reform
issues."
Speaking to CNN from Sessions' office on
Tuesday, Brooks said the senator should withdraw his name from the nomination
or be prepared to arrest the group.
Explaining the motivations for the action, Brooks said that
"in the midst of rampant voter suppression, this nominee has failed to
acknowledge the reality of voter suppression while pretending to believe in the
myth of voter fraud, and we need at the helm of the Department of Justice
somebody who acknowledges the reality of voter suppression, someone who is
going to stand at the side of people who need the defense of the attorney
general, and a Justice Department that works for everyone."
"Can you imagine Sen. Session as Attorney General going to
a Ferguson in the manner of Eric Holder? Can you imagine him dispatching
federal officials across the country to ensure the integrity of our elections?
So, we're simply saying, either arrest us or withdraw you name," Brooks
continued.
Also on Tuesday, over 1,100 law school professors sent a letter to
Congress writing that they "are convinced that Jeff Sessions will not
fairly enforce our nation's laws and promote justice and equality in the United
States."
The letter, addressed to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),
represents faculty from over 175 law schools spanning 49 states.
They write in part:
In 1986, the
Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan vote,
rejected President Ronald Reagan's nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Sessions
for a federal judgeship, due to statements Sessions had made that reflected
prejudice against African Americans. Nothing in Senator Sessions' public life
since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old
attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court
judge.
Some of us have concerns about
his misguided prosecution of three civil rights activists for voter fraud in
Alabama in 1985, and his consistent promotion of the myth of
voter-impersonation fraud. Some of us have concerns about his support for
building a wall along our country's southern border. Some of us have concerns
about his robust support for regressive drug policies that have fueled mass
incarceration. Some of us have concerns about his questioning of the
relationship between fossil fuels and climate change. Some of us have concerns
about his repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of
women and members of the LGBTQ community. Some of us share all of these
concerns.
All of us believe it is
unacceptable for someone with Senator Sessions' record to lead the Department
of Justice.
The Washington Post reports that
the letter "is also scheduled to run as a full-page newspaper ad aimed at
members of the Senate Judiciary Committee."
That committee will hold a
confirmation hearing for Sessions Jan. 10-11.
Ahead of that hearing, the Huffington Post reported last
week, Sessions "is withholding decades' worth of records from his career
[...] according to an exhaustive report [...] by progressive advocacy
groups," even though he "chided previous nominees for failing to
provide the committee with a full account of their backgrounds."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment