REDISTRICTING PROCESS
UNDERWAY FOR 2024
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Believe it or not, the Republican-led NC General Assembly is once again in the process of redrawing voter district lines statewide to determine both Congressional and legislative districts for the 2024 elections. Hearings were held in Raleigh, Hickory and Elizabeth City two weeks ago where citizens came forward to offer their viewpoints about, if not criticisms of, the redistricting process, hoping to impress upon Republican state lawmakers the need to make it much fairer.
Many complained that they felt the process was being rushed, that state lawmakers already knew how they were going to redraw the voting maps without public input, and that there was little transparency to what was being done.
History suggests those citizens may have good reasons for concern.
Democratic House Minority Leader Robert Reives recently wrote in a News and Observer newspaper op-ed, “Redistricting is one of those issues in politics that does not seem too important until you dig into what the power to draw the maps really is. It is the power to protect yourself and your party from being accountable to voters.
The redistricting process is supposed to take place every ten years, and yet the last time voting districts were redrawn was last year when the Democratic High Court majority ordered redistricting maps made by the GOP-led legislature redrawn by court-appointed special masters because they were found to be illegal extreme partisan gerrymanders.
The subsequent special master voting maps produced an evenly split 7-7 Congressional delegation, which many felt best reflected North Carolina political reality as a purple state.
But Republicans then won the majority of state Supreme Court seats last November, 5-2, and then immediately reversed the former Democratic-majority’s finding that the previous maps were unconstitutional because of extreme partisanship.
That opened the door for Republicans to now redraw the voting maps again, but this time, without fear of the GOP-led state Supreme Court countering what they do. Citizens and observers say they now expect the new voting maps coming will be anything but a fair representation of North Carolina’s partisan split.
“I strongly suspect that on the congressional seats, which are now split 7-7, that the Republicans are going to draw something to give it more like 9-5,” Rep. Abe Jones, a Raleigh Democrat and a member of the House Redistricting Committee said after a hearing, told NC Newsline.
But this time, especially with the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruling that it has no role in partisan gerrymandering cases, there will be little anyone can do about it.
And, according to Minority Leader Reives, the situation is even worse.
“Deep in the recently-passed budget was a provision excluding redistricting communications and drafting documents from being part of the public record,” wrote Reives in his recent N&O op-ed. “Public records laws already allow legislators a lot of discretion on what to release, but redistricting was one bright spot that allowed both the public and the courts, when necessary, to understand the deliberations behind the map-making process. Moving forward, redistricting in North Carolina will be veiled in even more secrecy than before.”
The new Congressional redistricting maps are expected to be ready shortly for legislative approval, followed by the legislative maps by the end of the month.
Both redistricting maps need to be completed and approved before December 4th when candidate filing begins for the March 5, 2024 primaries.
-30-
HATE CRIMES RISE IN NC
ALMOST 50% SAYS FBI
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The level of murder, arson and vandalism against certain racial, ethnic or religious groups in and across North Carolina has risen so dramatically, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has now decided to mount a public advertising campaign warning against the prevalence of hate crimes.
According to the FBI Office in Charlotte, incidents of hate based on bias in North Carolina have exploded, up almost 50 percent from 2020 to 2021, with 185 incidents reported by local law enforcement agencies in 2020, to 273 in 2021.
Hate crime incident stats in North Carolina for 2022 are expected to be released shortly.
Nationally, according to the FBI, reported hate crime incidents increased 11.6% from 2020 to 2021.
The nature of the latest hate crime incidents is so troubling - from bomb threats made against a Jewish synagogue in Durham recently, to racial slurs with a weapon yelled at a Black man in traffic - that the Charlotte FBI is launching its advertising campaign not only to bring awareness about the current status of hate crimes, but also encourage the public to report incidents of hate bias to the FBI.
It was just last May when Pres. Joe Biden told graduates during a Howard University commencement ceremony in Washington, D.C. that white supremacist hate is “the most dangerous terrorist threat’ to the United States.
“No one should be targeted because of how they look, where they’re from, or any part of their identity,” says Robert M. DeWitt, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina. “Hate crimes have no place in our country, our state, or our communities. We encourage victims to report hate crimes to the FBI. We are here to listen and to help.”
The Anti Defamation League has also been tracking an increase in antisemitic and white extremist incidents across North Carolina and the nation over the past five years, including the targeting of electrical infrastructures for attack, to white supremacist propaganda flyers being distributed in mixed race neighborhoods.
For 2022, the ADL list of North Carolina cities reporting hate crime incidents include Raleigh with 20; Charlotte with 12; Clayton with 9, Asheville with 8; Greensboro with 7; Durham with 5; Cary with 4; Smithfield with 4; Hendersonville with 4; and Chapel Hill with 3.
The FBI’s anti-hate crime ad campaign will include social media messages, as well as billboards in Charlotte, Raleigh, Lexington and Laurinburg.
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
If you believe that you are either a victim of, or witness to a hate crime, please report it to 1-800-CALL-FBI, or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment