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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 11/27/16

Sessions's Old-Time Contempt for Civil Rights

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And that's what he did. He came in and selected a couple of people saying, "I'm going to put you all in jail, and show you all how it's supposed to be done." But we're here. I'm the sheriff and I'm not going to let it be done.

Mr. Jeff Sessions, like I did, went to school here. He went to high school here, and he continues to come back here. This is his home. His family is from here. I'm sure he, like I do, I own a couple of acres here. I'm sure he owns property here too. People who he finished high school with are the ones who summoned him back here, people who we see on a daily basis, that hold positions in, I'm sure, in banks, and stores... Jeff Sessions's classmates.

See, and they have continued to communicate with him over the last, like I said, 18 years since he was down there in the southern district of Alabama. And they have tried down through the years, to get him to come back and do these type of things. Sure, it's simple, it's not complicated. That man has personal interest down here. To get it back the way it was, before I got to be sheriff.

DB: And, you say, he has friends, and back to the way it was. The way it was as in pre-civil rights? As in when Klan-types and white supremacists were around. Is that what we're talking about?

SPA: You know your history well. Yeah, you know your history well. No doubt about it. Wilcox County, the 1990 census, I think, we were 69 point something, black, about seventy percent black. They said black folks run during the census time so it might be more than that.

But, until I ran as sheriff, until I ran for the position, blacks didn't hold a single elected position, not a single one. And people bragged about being able to rule the county... it was something like South Africa. And certain people are not going to be satisfied until it gets back to that, to that position, back in that condition.

So, yes sir, we're talking about pre-civil right days. We're talking about where people are afraid to go and vote. We're talking about where people [are] intimidated to the point where they're just afraid to do anything, besides domestic work.

Alabama has always led the country when it came to being backwards, [on] every civil rights thing. And then we're getting ready to send a man to the Senate, that leads the world in being backwards. But we [are] like that. You know, we're normally lagging about 50 years behind here in Alabama. That's what we're doing. Yes, sir.

DB: In regards to intimidation, I understand that you revealed, by virtue of receiving information in the form of a tape and other related documentary evidence, that there was a plot to kill you. Could you describe, give us some information about that?

SPA: I received a tape from another law enforcement agency, a sheriff's office, they called me and says, "Sheriff, we received information there's a death threat on your life." And I've been threatened many times, over the last 18 years. But this particular time I called in the FBI. I called them in, gave them the tape, sitting right where you're sitting now, two agents. And I told them what had happened, it was during the time that Mr. Sessions was the... prosecutor of that southern district of Alabama, down in Mobile. And I haven't heard anything from those agents as of today.

DB: Over two years?

SPA: Oh, it's been longer than that. Been longer than that. He was down there... it was before President Clinton was elected... But I haven't heard anything from these people.

I know, during the time he was down there when the agents moved they moved when he said, "Go and investigate... whatever. If you understand what I'm saying? Because I've talked to too many of the young people he went to school with then... when I say young... they're my age. And I couldn't get in touch with Mr. Sessions to get him up here. But they could. You understand what I'm saying?

DB: Describe what was on the tape, please.

SPA: Oh basically, it detailed... it talked about...and I know the people who was plotting it. I know the people. Mr. Sessions knows them too, he went to school with them. ... If he heard the tape, if he had any conversations with the agents [he would have known the perpetrators], I'm not saying that he did. I'm just saying that the information was turned over to them while he was down there. That's what I'm saying. They described in detail where I lived, what type of weapon would be used to kill me, where the shooter would be standing, and the type of money it would cost to get it done.

DB: And you provided that tape to the FBI, who investigated for Mr. Sessions, as U.S. Attorney at the time?

SPA: Well, Wilcox County is in the southern district of the state of Alabama. I'm sure any major crime being investigated at some point in time, at some point in time, they give that information to the prosecutor.

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Dennis J Bernstein is the host and executive producer of Flashpoints, a daily news magazine broadcast on Pacifica Radio. He is an award-winning investigative reporter, essayist and poet. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, and (more...)
 

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