Civil Rights activist Faya Rose Toure, wife of State Senator Hank Sanders arrested
Rose Sanders the wife of State Senator Hank Sanders was arrested Monday, July 16. According a report by to Selma Police Chief Spencer Collier, Sanders was arrested and charged with theft in the fourth degree after a police officer saw her remove a campaign sign from private property. She then led officers on a brief car chase which led to an additional charge of attempting to elude a police officer. Sanders is also known as Faya Rose Toure is a well known Selma activist. She (like her husband) is a Harvard educated lawyer. In 2013 Sanders husband told AL.Com that his wife was arrested for disorderly conduct after speaking out at a rally to protest the city donating land to be used to honor Nathan Bedford Forrest. According to Biography.com, Forrest was a Confederate general known to be one of the best calvarymen in the war. He was also a slave trader who was later involved in the Ku Klux Klan. Sanders defended his wife in a lengthy post on his Facebook page (the original has been linked below but copy posted for archival purposes). My wife, Faya Rose Toure, has been arrested concerning the election in Dallas County. The City of Selma was taking down the signs of Black candidates but not taking down the signs of White candidates. She went to City Hall and complained and wrote a letter, and they continued to take down Black candidates’ signs while leaving White candidates’ signs on city right of ways. And the City Police, who cannot solve the many murders that take place here, sent nine or more police officers to arrest one person, Faya Toure, for taking down the political signs they left while removing all Black candidates’ signs. This is part of the scheme to throw the election, and everybody who sees this needs to tell everyone they know in Dallas County to vote tomorrow and to tell everyone they know to tell everyone THEY know to vote tomorrow. Please share this on your Facebook pages and with your friends. I am at the jail house now as this is being posted. I have not been able to see Faya, but I have talked to some people who were on the scene with her. At this moment they will not allow me – her attorney and husband – to see her or to talk to her. Again, please share this, and I’ll keep you up to date when I know more. Thank you. UPDATE #1: First, I was at City Hall, and they refused to allow me to see her as her lawyer even though she is my client as well as my wife. Every client is entitled to see their lawyer. And when I got there, I saw this big Switzer sign in the police station. Of course, I don’t know why it was there. The sign in the police station reinforced my perception that this is about the election. I did learn that Faya’s arrest was about a sign that was in front of Tabernacle Baptist Church, the very first church that allowed voting rights mass meetings to be held during the Voting RIghts Movement. Church members came out and thanked Faya for removing that sign from right there in front of the Church. The police decided it was a crime, although it was on public property. They had her in the city jail, and now they have moved her to the county jail, which is a few miles away. I am arriving there now, and I will update you further in this post as I know more. Police have set a $2,000 cash bond for her removing a sign outside Tabernacle Baptist Church, and Faya decided she was not going bond out. So she is in the county jail now. Thank you for sharing this and for your words, actions, thoughts, and prayers. I will continue to update you in this main post. Thank you. UPDATE #2: I am now in the Dallas County jail with Faya Rose Toure as her lawyer as well as her husband. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to meet with her and talk to her in private. She has another important legal case set for tomorrow, and I am trying to prepare to handle that case in her stead. They have set her particular case arising out of this sign for sometime in September. I don’t know how long she may stay in jail. She refuses to pay an illegal and unjust bond for an illegal and unjust arrest. The first step is for everybody in Dallas County to see that everybody votes because this is about trying to stop people from voting. The second step is to make sure she is alright while she is here in jail. Her not coming out of jail is designed to focus attention on the injustice not only of this situation but of the Selma authorities in general. If they will do this to a lawyer, who is the wife of the state Senator, what are they doing to others, especially to poor Black people? I will have further updates coming. I have never asked anyone to share any of my Facebook posts before, and Faya and I and our family appreciate the hundreds of people who have done so and continue to do so as well as all those who continue to pray, think of her, and take action. Thank you. UPDATE #3: I want to contrast the reaction of law enforcement about a sign that was illegally on public property with how they reacted on another much more serious case in December of last year. Faya Rose Toure, on December the 12th, the day of Doug Jones’ election victory, was in Orrville, another small town in Dallas County. She was driving my car, which had a “Vote or Die” sign on it. A White man came up and banged on my car, then tore the “Vote or Die”
David O’Mary, Jasper Mayor announces officer suspensions for “white power” photo
An Alabama mayor says four members of his city’s police force have been suspended for making a hand gesture that some say is a hate symbol. Jasper Mayor David O’Mary tells news outlets the four Jasper officers have been suspended and will lose a week’s pay following the publication of a photograph in the Jasper Daily Mountain Eagle on July 12. O’Mary is pictured in that photo alongside several officers, four of whom are making an upside-down “OK” sign with their fingers. He says some have claimed the gesture is meant to express “white power.” The mayor says he arranged that photo to recognize the narcotics team following a drug bust. He says he hasn’t asked the officers what they meant by the gesture, but says they showed “poor judgment.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Once a Trump critic now a Trump endorsee Roby looks for runoff win
Rep. Martha Roby is seeking Republican redemption in an Alabama runoff election that hinges on her loyalty to President Donald Trump. Roby is facing Democrat-turned-Trump Republican Bobby Bright on Tuesday, trying not to become the third congressional Republican to lose her job this primary season. From the outside, the race shouldn’t be close. Roby is a four-term incumbent in deep-red Alabama. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have endorsed her. And her Republican opponent supported Nancy Pelosi when he served as a Democrat in Congress. But as is often the case in the Trump era, the conventional rules of politics do not apply. Roby’s political survival depends on whether Alabama voters are sufficiently convinced that she’s made amends for turning her back on Trump in 2016 after he was caught bragging about sexually predatory behavior in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. The remarks, she said at the time, made Trump “unacceptable” as a Republican candidate for president. She’s spent much of the last two years trying to convince her red-state constituents in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District that she is a reliable vote for the administration. Roby failed to convince a majority of Republican primary voters back in June, earning just 39 percent of the vote in the first primary contest, which forced a runoff against the second-place vote getter. Despite her past criticism, the Trump White House has emerged as Roby’s most powerful backer. Trump himself endorsed Roby on Twitter, calling her a “reliable vote for our Make America Great Again Agenda” and bashing Bright as “a recent Nancy Pelosi voting Democrat.” Vice President Mike Pence recorded automated calls for Roby distributed to district voters beginning on Saturday. He calls Roby a reliable vote for the Trump agenda and urged voters to send her back to Congress. “We can always count on her vote,” Pence says in the call. Armed with an endorsement from Trump, Roby has argued that she’s “a conservative Republican with a proven record.” “I’ve worked with the administration to get conservative policies across the finish line. My opponent voted for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker,” Roby said during a campaign stop at a south Alabama lumber company. She also touted her support for a border wall and opposition to abortion. Bright, who represented the district for two years as a Democrat, argues that he’s more conservative than Roby, whom he calls an establishment Republican who hasn’t “stayed connected” with the heavily agrarian and military district. “I’m not an elitist. I’m not what they refer to as a blue blood. I’m a populist. I talk with the people and so does (Trump),” said Bright, the 13th of 14 children born into a sharecropping family. Roby has enjoyed a 5-to-1 fundraising advantage over Bright. She’s used the arsenal to hammer Bright in television ads over his Democratic background — particularly his 2009 vote for Pelosi as House speaker. A mailer distributed by Roby’s campaign promotes Trump’s endorsement and lists Pelosi’s name five times in attacking Bright. While many Washington Republicans expect Roby to win on Tuesday, the anticipated low turnout in the midsummer affair offers an air of unpredictability. Less than 20 percent of eligible voters are expected to participate. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
