{"id":17577,"date":"2017-01-06T10:30:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=17577"},"modified":"2017-01-06T10:30:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T15:30:59","slug":"six-arrests-in-naacp-protest-of-senator-jeff-sessions-as-ag-nominee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/01\/06\/six-arrests-in-naacp-protest-of-senator-jeff-sessions-as-ag-nominee\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Arrests in NAACP Protest of Senator Jeff Sessions as AG Nominee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">(Courthouse News) \u2013 1\/4\/17 &#8211; Six protesters were arrested Tuesday after engaging in an NAACP-organized sit-in at the Mobile, Alabama office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">The sit-in, which began on Tuesday morning, was orchestrated by the NAACP in protest of Sessions\u2019 U.S. attorney general nomination by President-elect Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">The November announcement of Sessions as possible attorney general was promptly met with pushback by a variety of civil rights organizations over his conservative record and alleged history of racism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">Sessions, who served previously as a U.S. attorney and Alabama attorney general, was nominated in the 1980s for a federal judgeship by then-President Ronald Reagan. That nomination was derailed over allegedly racist comments that Sessions made to a colleague.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">In a Tweet on Tuesday, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said that the group of protesters would continue to occupy the office until Sessions \u201cwithdraws as a AG nominee or we\u2019re arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">Brooks continued to live Tweet the protest from the floor of Sessions\u2019 office, at one point saying \u201cthe police have just arrived. We are about to be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">The head of the Alabama NAACP, Bernard Simelton, was also among those protesting Sessions\u2019 nomination. The six protesters who were arrested were reportedly arrested for criminal trespass.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">Sessions, a Republican from Mobile, was first elected to the Senate in 1996. Known as a hardliner on immigration and vocal supporter of Trump, Sessions currently serves as the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-17578\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Jeff-Sessions.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"170\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">Sessions allegedly made racially insensitive statements to a colleague during his tenure as U.S. attorney in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">Among the more controversial statements attributed to Sessions was the assertion that he\u2019d found the Ku Klux Klan to be \u201cOK\u201d until he learned that its members smoked marijuana. Sessions disputed the allegation, saying the comment was made in jest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">A spokesperson for Sessions, Sarah Flores, called the picture of Sessions being painted by protestors \u201cfalse portrayals\u201d and said that the charges against him had been \u201crebuked and discredited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">According to a Dec. 30 statement by the Alabama NAACP, Tuesday\u2019s sit-in was part of a statewide effort to protest Sessions\u2019 nomination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">\u201cDespite 30 years of our nation moving forward on inclusion and against hate, Jeff Sessions has failed to change his ways,\u201d Simelton said in the statement. \u201cHe\u2019s been a threat to desegregation and the Voting Rights Act and remains a threat to all of our civil rights, including the right to live without the fear of police brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #444444; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;\">The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin its confirmation hearings for Sessions on Jan. 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Courthouse News) \u2013 1\/4\/17 &#8211; Six protesters were arrested Tuesday after engaging in an NAACP-organized sit-in at the Mobile, Alabama office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions. The sit-in, which began on Tuesday morning, was orchestrated by the NAACP in protest of Sessions\u2019 U.S. attorney general nomination by President-elect Donald Trump. The November announcement of Sessions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17579,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17577\/revisions\/17579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}