Thread: Dems target 'Stand Your Ground' states (Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison)

Dems target 'Stand Your Ground' states

politico.com
By: Jonathan Allen
May 8, 2012 01:41 PM EDT


The authors, Reps. Raul Grijalva (left) and Keith Ellison, hope to make a point on Fla. case.
| AP Photos

House liberals want the government to cut funding for state and local police programs in places that have “Stand Your Ground” laws like the Florida statute at the center of the Trayvon Martin shooting case.

Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will offer an amendment to a Justice Department spending bill as early as Tuesday evening that would slash 20 percent of Byrne Grant funding for states with such laws on the books.

The authors know the amendment has no chance of winning adoption in the Republican-dominated House. But they hope to make a point about Martin’s shooting: that states and municipalities become less safe when citizens are given the right to shoot people who they believe represent a threat of death or great bodily harm.

“The message here is if you have this kind of law that your federal funding is going to take a hit because they make states less safe,” said Adam Sarvana, communications director for Grijalva.

Progressives want lawmakers to choose “whether they want that law or the appropriate level of public safety funding,” Sarvana said. “I think that’s a position they need to be put in and that they should have to explain to voters why are these laws more important than police funding.”

The Byrne grant program provides $370 million to state and local police forces to enforce the law, prosecute crimes, fund drug treatment programs, provide assistance to victims and witnesses, pay for drug treatment programs and other purposes.

George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin, an unarmed black Florida teen-ager who was killed in late February after Zimmerman came upon him while volunteering for a neighborhood watch program in a gated community. Zimmerman had called police to report suspicious activity before the shooting.

source: Dems target 'Stand Your Ground' - POLITICO.com Print View

These two Socialists are a likely pair to call for gun control since it is part of the agenda of Socialism/Communism.

70 avowed socialists in U.S. Congress

DSA lists members of the 111th session

Published: 08/15/2010 at 4:31 PM


In October 2009, the Democratic Socialists of America released in its newsletter a list of 70 members of the U.S. Congress who are members of the organization:
Co-Chairs

Hon. Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07)
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-06)
Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-1
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-02)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)
House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-01)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-02)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-01)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-03)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-0
Hon. André Carson (IN-07)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-01)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-09)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-07)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-07)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03)
Rep. Donna F. Edwards (MD-04)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-05)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-02)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-04)
Hon. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11)
Hon. Alan Grayson (FL-0
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-04)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-02)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-09)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-05)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-02)
Hon. Ben R. Lujan (NM-3)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-07)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-07)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-03)
Hon. George Miller (CA-07)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-04)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-0
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-01)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-04)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Laura Richardson (CA-37)
Hon. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-01)
Hon. Linda Sánchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Hon. José Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-2
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-02)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-06)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)
Hon. Robert Wexler (FL-19)

70 avowed socialists in U.S. Congress