Sessions: There’s a Dangerous New Trend of Violence in America

Sessions is the attorney general, and if violent crime is increasing, he’s in charge of reversing this trend.

“Experts are telling me there’s more violence around marijuana than one would think”, Sessions told reporters at the Department of Justice.

Legalization backers were quick to criticize Sessions for suggesting that pot might be sold “at every corner grocery store”.

While the Obama Justice Department vowed not to challenge state laws that allow for medical and recreational marijuana use as long as it did not involve minors or cover for organized trafficking, Sessions said he was troubled by “violence” associated with the drug’s use and distribution.

Sessions promised that his Justice Department would prioritize cases against violent offenders, aggressively enforce immigration laws and work to dismantle drug cartels. Ferguson and Baltimore police operations are subject to such court oversight, but Sessions has not decided how resolve deep problems uncovered last month by federal investigators in Chicago. He added that “where you see the greatest increase in violence and murders in cities is [where] somehow, someway, we undermine the respect for our police, and make, oftentimes, their job more hard”.

(Sessions) “We’ve undermined the respect for our police and made, often times, their job more hard”.

Although Sessions stopped short of revealing his master plan with respect to legal marijuana, he did say it’s something, “We’re going to look at it.and try to adopt responsible policies”.

The move would not be “wrong or insensitive to civil rights or human rights”, he added. “I mean, you know, this is the kind of argument that’s been made out there”. Instead, he said, the federal government must help police combat violent crime in poor and minority communities.

“States, they can pass the laws they chose”, he said, but “it does stay a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana”.

The NCVS shows a decline in 2015, and hasn’t yet released data for 2016.

Again, Jeff Sessions wants you to believe that “determining the best ways to fight crime” and investigating the deaths of civilians at the hands of law enforcement are mutually exclusive goals. “And I’m afraid we’ve done some of that”.

The NCVS rate is higher than the UCR rate because it uses a more expansive definition of violent crime. “There’s going to be some crime in it, some people are going to make errors”.

Sessions also vowed to push the Justice Department to be more responsive to local needs while promising an assertive effort to arrest and prosecute those who commit crimes with guns.

Regardless, he thinks its findings are probably unreliable. But past year, Sessions opposed bipartisan criminal justice overhaul efforts and has warned that eliminating or reducing mandatory minimum sentences weakens the ability of law enforcement to protect the public.