By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Thursday, July 14, a terrorist drove a truck through a peaceful crowd, while firing a weapon and running over hundreds of people. 84 people are dead. Alabama’s elected leaders expressed their condolences as well as their anger at the attackers.
US Senator Jeff Sessions (R from Alabama) wrote, “My prayers go out to the victims of last night’s horrible terrorist attack in Nice, France, and to their families and friends. France is America’s oldest ally, and we will stand with France in solidarity.”
Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler commented on the mass killing in France included among the dead were ten children and a father and son from Texas. Zeigler said, “It is a shame that we and our allies have not yet taken strong steps to deport and stop these murderers. This father and son and the other 80 people had their lives taken for no reason except pure evil. Stopping or even cutting down on these attacks will not be easy, but we must do all that we can do. Western civilization is under attack. This is war. We must fight like war.”
US Representative Mike Rogers (R-Saks) wrote, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Nice!”
Sen. Sessions said, “This latest attack in Nice, just like the attacks we have seen all across the world in recent years – from Orlando to Belgium, San Bernardino, Paris, and countless other locations – should remind our leaders that we cannot delude ourselves into believing this war is contained. Now is not the time to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we do not face an enemy committed to the destruction of western society. Unlike President Obama, last night following the attack, President Hollande plainly stated the obvious: “France as a whole is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”
US Representative Terri Sewell (D-Selma) said on Twitter, “My prayers & condolences to the victims and their family and friends of the horrific Nice Attack.”
Sen. Sessions said of France, “It has the largest Muslim population of any country in Western Europe. Unfortunately, many have resisted assimilation, rejecting the French culture, choosing to separate themselves rather than integrate. As we have seen over and over again, this leads to more radicalism and violence. It has forced France to extend its state of emergency.”
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R) said, “Once again our hearts are with France.”
Sen. Sessions warned, “We increasingly face the same problems in the United States. In seven years, we will reach the highest level of foreign born in our history. While limited, carefully vetted immigration is in our national interest, the push for open borders and ever higher levels of immigration increasingly isolates new immigrants and threatens our security. Hillary Clinton proposes raising the current level of non vetted Syrian refugees from the present 10,000 to 65,000 per year. It has been reported that migration from Muslim majority countries represents the fastest growing segment of the 1.1 million green cards we issue every year. Since 9/11, we have permanently resettled approximately 1.5 million migrants from Muslim nations in the United States. By the time President Obama leaves office, he will have left our immigration system more vulnerable than ever. As we work to protect Americans from terrorists, we must understand how open we’ve been to immigration from countries with a history of terrorism.”
Pope Francis said, “The pain of the massacre is alive in our hearts.” The Pope lamented the loss of the, “many innocent lives, even children,” who were “mowed down.” “May God, the good Father, welcome all the victims in his peace, sustain the wounded, and comfort their families.”
Sen. Sessions concluded, “As we mourn with France today, we must remember that without a stronger and more careful immigration policy, we only increase the chances of another attack on the United States tomorrow. The only question is, do our leaders have the steadfastness to defeat our enemies abroad and keep those who seek to do us harm from entering the United States, or will they simply accept the inevitability of another attack on the American people in the name of political correctness?”
The killer has been identified as Tunisian born, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. He intentionally drove the large truck through the crowded seafront Promenade des Anglais in the French city of Nice while firing a gun out the window to keep police at bay. He was eventually gunned down by French law enforcement officers; but not before driving over one and a half miles through the city streets running over people, often swerving to hit them. The streets of the beach community were crowded with people there to watch the Bastille Day fireworks.
(Fox News, the BBC, and the National Catholic Register contributed to this report.)
