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Some protesters carried signs calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign because of his failure to disclose contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the fall presidential campaign. Others slammed his record on civil rights. (Photo by Cole Smith)
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Photo by Cole Smith
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Photo by Cole Smith
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Photo by Cole Smith
Frigid temperatures and about 100 protesters greeted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as he arrived at a gathering of law enforcement officials at the SunTrust building in downtown Richmond this morning.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions
“I am determined that this country will not go backwards,” Sessions told the group of federal, state and local law enforcement officers. “It’s the policy of this administration to reduce crime in America, not preside over an increase in crime.”
Other topics Sessions discussed during his speech included introducing a Justice Department task force on crime reduction and public safety, and stepping up prosecution for gun crimes and drug users. Sessions cited Project Exile, a program that started in Richmond in 1997, as an effective way to “lock up criminals and reduce crime.” It allowed felons caught carrying firearms to be prosecuted in federal court. Under his leadership, the Justice Department will encourage those kinds of efforts, he said.
“Some people want to bar all guns,” Sessions said. “That’s not going to happen. The right thing to do is target the criminal element.”
The attorney general also talked about the need to confront the heroin and opioid crisis, both by battling addiction and by dismantling groups that are bringing low-cost heroin into the country.
“Criminal enforcement is our role first and foremost,” he said. “We need to help with prevention. In the short run, prosecuting drug dealers is also prevention.”
He also took aim at efforts to liberalize marijuana laws. “I’m astonished to hear people say we can solve our heroin crisis by having more marijuana,” Sessions said. “How stupid is that?”
Some protesters outside carried signs calling for Sessions to resign because of his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the fall presidential campaign. Others slammed his record on civil rights. One protester carried a picture of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the late Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1986 opposed Sessions' nomination to become a federal judge in Alabama. In a letter to then-Sen. Strom Thurmond, she wrote, "Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts."
"[Sessions is] seeking to divide us,” says Nia Ventall, an employee of Planned Parenthood who joined the protesters. “That hurts everybody in the end.”
Glen Besa of Virginia's chapter of the Sierra Club, a nationwide environmental organization, showed up to protest the Trump administration’s environmental policies in particular.
“We’re concerned with their environmental policies like cutting Chesapeake Bay funding and denying climate change exists,” Besa says. “But at the same time, we also stand in solidarity with the various people who are very threatened by this administration.”
Glen Besa of the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter joins protesters outside the SunTrust building, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with law-enforcement officials. (Photo by Cole Smith)
