NAACP President Among 6 Arrested After Staging SitIn Against Sen Jeff Sessions
The president of the NAACP on Tuesday said he and a group of demonstrators were arrested after staging an all-day sit-in inside the Alabama office of Sen. Jeff Sessions in protest of the legislator's nomination for attorney general. The civil rights group broadcasted the peaceful arrest of NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and five others on Facebook Live. The group, which is opposed to Sessions leading the U.S. Justice Department, can be seeing kneeling and praying before they're led out of the lawmaker's Mobile office in handcuffs. "As a matter of conscience and conviction, we can neither be mute nor mumble our opposition to Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions becoming Attorney General of the United States," Brooks said in a statement last week after the NAACP announced plans to protest throughout Alabama. Brooks claimed Sessions did not acknowledge voter suppression accusations during the 2016 election and said Sessions "can't be trusted to be the chief law enforcement officer for voting rights.", , , Brooks also criticized Sessions on how the lawmaker has handled civil rights, immigration and criminal justice reform issues. Sessions was in Washington, D.C. when the group began their sit-in about 11 a.m. in his Alabama office, according to the Associated Press. The six demonstrators were arrested about 730 p.m. and were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass before being released on bond, WKRG of Mobile reported. Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for Sessions, said in a statement to the AP that the senator "has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption." "Many African-American leaders who've known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next Attorney General," Flores added. "These false portrayals of Senator Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited."