Washington, Feb 14 (RHC)-- U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has drawn outrage and condemnation by referring to the “Anglo-American heritage” of U.S. law enforcement.  

Sessions made the remark in a speech to the National Sheriffs’ Association’s winter conference in Washington, when he said: “The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement. We must never erode this historic office.” 

A spokesperson for the Justice Department defended Sessions’s comment, saying that the phrase “Anglo-American law” is commonly used by lawyers and appears in opinions from the Supreme Court. 

In a statement, the NAACP called Attorney General Sessions’s remarks the “latest example of dog whistle politics,” adding: “His stances at DOJ regarding their reversal of support for cases against voter suppression, his attempt to withdraw from consent decrees to [rein in] police misconduct, and the decision to return to policies including mandatory minimums that played a key role in the expansion of mass incarceration, are powerful examples of why communities of color must pay attention to what he does and what he says.”