****READER’S NOTE: The following article by Linda Coates appeared 11/19/16 on CNN’s website. cnn.com/2016/11/18/opinions/sessions-appointment-undo-progress-coates/index.html My commentary in reply to this CNN reporter’s statements are in [BRACKETS].
(CNN)The inevitable confirmation of Sen. Jeff Sessions — Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general as the successor of Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, the first African-American male and female to hold that office, will slow, if not halt, the momentum gained during the last eight years to reform our criminal justice system.
[Apparently, using the Department of Justice to oppress whistleblowers from within government agencies, and refusing to enforce Federal laws overwhelmingly approved of by the citezens of the USA can now be described as “reform.” This kind of “reform” has a chilling effect on the rule of law and respect for civil order.]
Holder and Lynch prioritized combating racial profiling and selective policing within communities of color. [They consistently refused to consider factors other than race, income inequality, and guns when confronted with patterns of criminal behavior in locations such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Rather than support for policing tequniques proven to reduce criminal behavior, Lynch and Holder (and Obama) actively encouraged a victimhood mentality in minority communities and praised violent riots as ligitimate protests.]
In a twist of fate, by contrast, Sen. Sessions’ judicial appointment by President Reagan to the federal bench stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee — the very committee on which Sessions now sits. Their refusal to confirm him was largely the result of a number of racially charged statements Sessions allegedly made in the 1980s. [The allegations made by an associate who made further unfounded and unproven accusations agains another colleague of Sessions, were simply vapid: Claiming that Sessions would speak approvingly of the KKK while in the course of successfully proscuting the Alabama head of the organization on capital murder charges (for which he was executed) in the case of the killing of a young black man, subsequently bringing civil charges and a $7 million judgement that bankrupted the Alabama KKK, is transparent political smearing.]
But a man who, because of those statements, was previously deemed unfit to preside over a court of law [by a partisan coalition, based on unproven and unlikely accusations], may now preside over the Department of Justice, placing the future of any progress made on Holder’s and Lynch’s watch in doubt. [Which, if true, would be an unalloyed victory for the American system of law and justice – under which all individuals are ostensibly to be judged by their actions and evidence, not by their skin color or sexual orientation. Holder and Lynch valued Social Justice over actual justice, refusing to prosecute black criminals and releasing violent ilegal aliens to roam freely and cause mayhem, while bringing crushing hate-crime charges against religious individuals who did not follow the ever-expanding politically correct and arbitrary dictates of “civil rights” regulations.]
Sessions’ statements will most assuredly be used as Democratic fodder during his confirmation hearing. But with a Republican majority, the confirmation hearing will largely be a formality. [One can only hope that with a landslide victory in the recent election, Republicans will find the backbone to respect the wishes of their employers – US.]
His rhetoric will, however, have a big impact on minority perceptions of the prominent civil rights agenda of the Department of Justice, which has gained increased visibility and scrutiny in an era of publicized police shootings. [The patronizing and paternalistic agenda of the Obama DOJ has left inter-racial relations in this country worse than they have been since 1968, and the intentional and irresponsible glorification of criminals such as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, who died as a result of (oftentimes) fully justified police actions has shown the political establishment to be fully unhinged from reality. Meanwhile, violent crime in the black community has resulted in the nearly-unknown tragedy of the “execution-style” cold-blooded murder of an 8 year-old black child in Chicago by black gang members sending a “message” to the black gang-member father of the innocent boy. The violence and murder rates in Chicago (a Leftist utopia without a single legal gun store, where pistols are illegal to carry) are staggering, but the DOJ is silent.]
Civil rights groups denounce Jeff Sessions as AG
Under Attorneys General Holder and Lynch, the Department of Justice has made powerful strides to restore racial minorities’ faith in the criminal justice system. [By playing facvorites and making sure that minorities were not treated to equal tratment before the law. This to the detriment of minority communities in Batimore, Ferguson, Chicago, New York, Philadelpia, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneappolis, Washington, DC, and more. Major upswings in violent criminality, riots, and gang behavior – not to mention a new epidemic of heroin abuse – have been a result of law enforcement being targeted for assasination-style killings and lack of community support.] They acted with an eye toward reversing the devastating impact that President Bill Clinton’s omnibus crime bill had on communities of color, and reducing the astronomical incarceration rate that resulted from harsher penalties imposed for possession and distribution of crack cocaine (more prevalent in economically disadvantaged communities of color) than those imposed for powder cocaine (which was more prevalent within affluent white communities). [This may be true, but illegal seizure of possesions under civil forfeiture rules, without due proccess, have given police an incentive to prioritize drug crime investigation above property crimes. This has not been addressed as yet.]
Yet even under successive African-American attorneys general, the widely publicized use of excessive and deadly force by police officers against unarmed black men [more widely publicized, but not more prevelant], and the seeming inability of local prosecutors to secure convictions against those officers [usually because of a complete lack of evidence to convict upon, other than public opinion], has all but depleted the faith of communities of color in the department’s ability achieve its mission. [Of course, having the POTUS, AG, Sharpton, CNN, MSNBCABCFOX, et al push this narrative 24/7 for weeks in aftermath of any incident, may have played a role.]
Indeed, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division was intended to act as a backstop against failed state prosecutions and serve as a neutral advocate for communities who feared that the objectivity of local prosecutors would be compromised by personal relationships or prejudices.
But with each failure to indict, mistrial and acquittal, the department has been criticized for its lack of effectiveness to ensure justice for communities of color. [Bringing charges for political reasons, or because of uninformed mob pressure, is not a winning plan for winning cases when the facts do not support the charges.]
Still, Holder and Lynch were vocal about their intolerance of civil rights violations. [Hypocritically so.] They were vocal even when they recognized the limitations on their ability to prosecute such violations under a body of Supreme Court precedent that is overwhelmingly deferential to police officers’ assessment of the appropriate amount of force to use. [Again, armchair quarterbacks make very poor referees.]
The perception of a powerful and conscientious watchdog in the Justice Department’s top job gave communities hope for the future and tempered the backlash in response to perceived miscarriages of justice.
Surely Jeff Sessions, a man accused of calling prominent Civil Rights groups like the NAACP “un-American,” [because of strong links to the Anti-American Communist movement, which is a fully defensible arguement] – and condemning the Klu Klux Klan for supposed marijuana use (rather than its legacy of hate) [again, Sessions first executed the head of the Alababma KKK on murder charges, then bankrupted the state KKK], will further undermine the African-American community’s faith that his department will act in — let alone prioritize — the interests of communities of color. [Perhaps the Attorney General will in future actually tak seriously his oath of office, to uphold the US Constituion and the Laws of the United States, without giving favor or consideration on basis of race, color, or gender. Even his political opponents have said that Sessions would be that kind of AG.]
But if the presidential election has taught us anything, it is that offensive rhetoric, perhaps even 30 years removed, may be wholly irrelevant to people who prioritize other issues more.
Frankly, it remains to be seen what types of criminal prosecutions Sen. Sessions will indeed prioritize, but he has already shown his hand as a political operator. Remember when then-candidate Trump promised to instruct his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton? Sen. Sessions has already called for a deeper investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Attorney General Sessions would have prosecutorial power.
More than anything, Sessions’ appointment is an obvious forecast of the impending ideological shift across multiple branches of government.
With one Supreme Court vacancy in hand, and perhaps another two in the bush, Sessions’ nomination signals that President-elect Trump is prioritizing a reversion back to a time when America, and its justice system, was “great.” Sen. Session reiterated that same message on Trump’s campaign trail. When it comes to prosecuting civil rights violations, let’s hope Sen. Sessions’ reference point of greatness is at least in this century.
1787 Cents 