We Have a Justice Department More Willing to
Prosecute Laughter Than Murder
It's a bonkers moment in our Justice Department.
By Ebony
Slaughter-Johnson
May 15,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- - Heard
any good jokes lately? Desiree
Fairooz did.
But laughing at it got her thrown in jail.
That’s right: Fairooz was just convicted for
laughing during the confirmation hearing of
now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January
2017. She’d attended the hearing, in her own
words, to
“oppose his ascent to the most powerful law
enforcement position in the country.”
From his vote against the 2013 renewal of the Violence
Against Women Act to
his openly
hostile rhetoric towards
immigrants, Sessions’ record is spattered with
examples of efforts to discriminate against
marginalized groups.
So, when Senator Richard Shelby began his line
of questioning by praising Sessions
for his “extensive record of treating all
Americans equally under the law,” Fairooz did
what anyone who’s just heard a joke would do:
She laughed.
Fairooz was then ejected from the hearing room
by Capitol Hill police, then jailed and
processed. Stunningly, she was convicted of two
counts of unlawful
conduct on Capitol
grounds. She faces a
year in prison with
the possibility of additional fines and
community service as well.
Desiree
Fairooz was right to laugh at the misplaced
praise heaped upon Sessions. The former Alabama
senator’s civil rights record is laughable.
For proof, look no further than the decision
from the Sessions-directed Department of Justice
to forgo
prosecuting the
two police officers responsible for the death
of Alton
Sterling, an
unarmed black man in Baton Rouge whom the
officers pinned to the ground and shot to death
last year.
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In the
entirely false dichotomy between defending
police officers and pursuing justice for the
victims of police violence, Sessions has
maintained no illusions about which side he
falls on.
As a senator, Sessions participated in a hearing
provocatively titled “The
War on Police,”
in which he chided the Obama administration for
investigating police misconduct. Sessions disdained
such investigations as
indicative of “an agenda that’s been a troubling
issue for a number of years.”
As attorney general, Sessions announced in April
that his Department of Justice would review
all reform agreements the
Obama administration made with local
departments. He’d previously disparaged those
civil rights reforms as “dangerous”
for their tendency to “undermine
respect for our police officers.”
That decision signals that Sessions not only
intends to undermine existing reforms, but that
he’s taken the first steps to make good on his
professed interest in doing
away with them
altogether.
Now, it
seems that the attorney general’s conception of
“respect” for law enforcement extends to
empowering officers to commit violence with
impunity as well. By not prosecuting the
officers who killed Sterling, he’s sending a
powerful message: Victims of police violence
have no advocate in the Department of Justice.
At
best, the department now makes excuses for
police misconduct. At worst, it seemingly
encourages it.
Alton
Sterling didn’t end up pinned on his back of his
own volition. Nor did he fire the stream of
bullets that ultimately ended his life. Sterling
was wrestled to the ground and shot to death by
a police officer for being a black man at the
wrong place at the wrong time.
Alton
Sterling didn’t deserve to die — and he didn’t
deserve to have his memory vandalized by this
further injustice offered by the Department of
Justice.
The
American justice apparatus has revealed that
it’s more willing to prosecute laughter than
murder. So, the next time Sessions attempts to
tout his civil rights record, do what Desiree
Fairooz did: laugh and resist.
Ebony Slaughter-Johnson is a freelance writer
whose work covers history, race, and the
criminalization of poverty. Distributed by
www.OtherWords.org.
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
See
also -
Jeff Sessions
Re-Escalates the Drug War By Ordering
Prosecutors to Seek Maximum Sentences:
In 2013, former Attorney General Eric Holder
ordered federal prosecutors to avoid charging
certain low-level offenders with drug charges
that triggered long mandatory sentences.
Texas Senate Votes to
License ‘Baby Jails’ as Child Care Facilities:
The bill was written by GEO Group, Inc., the
nation’s second-largest for-profit prison
corporation. It advanced on a 20-11 party-line
vote, with all Senate Republicans in favor.
