Don't laugh. This is serious. And, don't ask questions either. Forget about your supposed right to express yourself. Be careful about exercising your right to assemble with others, especially for the purpose of addressing your concerns to government hierarchy. And definitely, don't laugh.
What started as a chuckle during Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing for attorney general escalated into a court case and a conviction for the woman behind the laugh.
If you weren't listening closely, you'd have missed Desiree Fairooz 's laughter about 35 minutes into the January hearing. It lasted a few seconds, but Fairooz is paying the price months later. Fairooz was convicted of unlawful conduct this week in the District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington.
the laughter started when fellow Republican Sen. Richard Shelby started discussing Sessions' "extensive record of treating all Americans equally under the law."
The laughter lasted three seconds and Shelby continued with his speech without acknowledging the disturbance.
In a statement, Fairooz said she let out a spontaneous "reflexive noise" because Shelby's description was not true. "It was an immediate rejection of what I considered an outright lie or pure ignorance," she said.
She was found guilty of two counts of unlawful conduct on capitol grounds...
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Here's a joke for you:
As the US attorney in Mobile, Alabama, Jeff Sessions was talking over a case one day in the 1980s with two fellow prosecutors.
It had to do with a young black man who had been kidnapped and brutally murdered by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klansmen slit the victim's throat and hung his body from a tree. They carried out the attack in retribution for a jury acquitting a black man in the slaying of a white police officer.
As Sessions learned that some members of the Klan had smoked marijuana on the evening of the slaying, he said aloud that he thought the KKK was: "OK until I found out they smoked pot."
As the US attorney in Mobile, Alabama, Jeff Sessions was talking over a case one day in the 1980s with two fellow prosecutors.
It had to do with a young black man who had been kidnapped and brutally murdered by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klansmen slit the victim's throat and hung his body from a tree. They carried out the attack in retribution for a jury acquitting a black man in the slaying of a white police officer.
As Sessions learned that some members of the Klan had smoked marijuana on the evening of the slaying, he said aloud that he thought the KKK was: "OK until I found out they smoked pot."
Ha! Ha! Ha! Our attorney general of the United States of America thought the Ku Klux Klan was OK until he discovered that they smoked marijauna... ha! ha!
Of all of the awful things on Earth that they could do, they smoked pot and that was simply too much for the attorney general. Murder, not so bad, but smoking pot was way past the line... that's funny beyond the point of laughing and all the way up to crying...
Of all of the awful things on Earth that they could do, they smoked pot and that was simply too much for the attorney general. Murder, not so bad, but smoking pot was way past the line... that's funny beyond the point of laughing and all the way up to crying...
Desiree Fairooz got the joke and couldn't hold back her laugh. It was funny if nothing else: Sessions' "extensive record of treating all Americans equally under the law." It is especially funny given Sessions well-documented history of discrimination. The whole room should have erupted into laughter at a statement like that, and that's the truth !!!
CodePink activists, including co-founder Medea Benjamin, right, hold up signs against Attorney General-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik)
American Justice Now Feels Laughable
The Justice Department has revealed that it's more willing to prosecute laughter than murder.
from Common Dreams by Ebony Slaughter-Johnson
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.
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 Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies. She researches history and the criminalization of poverty.
The Justice Department has revealed that it's more willing to prosecute laughter than murder.
from Common Dreams by Ebony Slaughter-Johnson
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.
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 Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies. She researches history and the criminalization of poverty.
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