Stephen Lendman

Free expression and assembly in America are only safe if not sharply critical of its ruthless policies at home and abroad.

On Wednesday, a federal district court found CODEPINK activists Desiree Fairooz, Tighe Barry, and Lenny Bianchi guilty of disorderly conduct for publicly opposing Jeff Sessions at his confirmation hearing.

For exercising their First Amendment rights, they may be fined up to $2,000, imprisoned for 12 months, or both when sentence is pronounced on June 21.

Bianchi and Tighe dressed in KKK white hoods and robes to protest Sessions’ deplorable racist history and contempt for rule of law principles.

In response to Senator Richard Shelby (R. AL) claiming his record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented,” Fairooz spontaneously laughed at the blatant lie. She held a sign, saying: “Support Civil Rights; Stop Sessions.”

Commenting on her conviction, she said “I do not regret attending the confirmation hearing of Jeff Sessions and being a part of a visible statement of dissent.”

“I, along with my colleagues at CODEPINK, will continue to speak out against injustice, whether it is mass incarceration, attacks on Muslims and immigrants, or the continuous wars and militarism that is destroying so many lives.”

CODEPINK activists and many others were appalled at the nomination and confirmation of a notorious racist/warmonger as America’s highest legal authority.

According to Barry, he’s “already setting back the progress this country has made in the areas of civil rights and race relations.”

“(H)e sent letters to nine ‘sanctuary cities’ (protecting the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants), threatening to cut federal funding unless they complied with federal immigration laws.”

“Unless we rise up and demand our First Amendment right to dissent, then the joke will be on the American people.”

CODEPINK said “(w)e will not stop until laughter is celebrated and war is criminalized!”

Its members have been protesting against injustice and imperial wars for 15 years. They won’t let Trump administration extremists deter them.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com