Jeff Sessions hails 'Anglo-American' history of U.S. sheriffs
Source: nola.com / Times-Picayune
In a fleeting comment to the National Sheriffs' Association convention in New Orleans, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday (June 18) hailed the organization's "Anglo-American" heritage. It came at the start of his address, as President Donald Trump's chief law enforcement officer accepted the association's lifetime achievement award.
"So, with 20,000 members, 75 years of history -- actually a lot more history than that, right? -- Anglo-American history," Sessions said, pumping his right fist at the phrase "Anglo-American." "The great sheriffs who are elected by the people, you are really an important part of the entire law enforcement community. This is one of the oldest law enforcement groups in the country."
That might sound like a white supremacist remark, and critics have certainly pilloried Trump, Sessions and others in the president's administration for comments and policies deemed insensitive if not outright hostile to racial minorities. Yet Sessions might have meant something altogether different: In the world of legal academia and courts, "Anglo-American law" refers not to race but to the common legal roots of England and the United States.
Indeed, an essay on the National Sheriffs' Association website says the United States imported the office and title of sheriff from England, where the job dates from the 9th century. And this was not the first time that Sessions has linked the phrase to U.S. sheriffs; he said almost the same thing Feb. 12 while speaking to the National Sheriffs' Association winter meeting in Washington.
Read more: https://www.nola.com/national_politics/2018/06/sessions_anglo-american_sherif.html
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Strom Thurmond would be proud. 
why did he pump his fist during it? 
