Jack & Jill Politics

I have some concern right now (in addition to the victims of Sat’s shooting) for Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). He had to close his local offices in Yuma and Tucson back in April 2010 because of threats arising from racists over immigration and the infamous S.B. 1070 law. From HuffPo:

The Arizona Daily Star reports that Grijalva spokesman Adam Sarvana released a statement Friday saying that the congressman’s office received “some pretty scary calls,” including one from a man “who threatened to go down there and blow everyone’s brains out then go to the border to shoot Mexicans.”

According to the Daily Star:

Grijalva staffer Ruben Reyes said the office has been flooded with calls all week about Senate Bill 1070. About 25 percent are “very racist” in nature, Reyes said, characterizing some as “telling that tortilla-eating wetback to go back to Mexico.”

That last part sounds special, don’t it? So has anything changed? Let’s use our time machine to travel to the present. From HuffPo Hill today:

Capitol Police have been slow in providing protection for Tucson’s other representative, Raul Grijalva, a top House Democratic aide familiar with the response tells HuffPost Hill. Grijalva is flying to Tucson today. The aide said that threats against Grijalva, which are commonplace in Tucson politics, have increased since the Giffords shooting. “They’ve upped their rhetoric in the past 48 hours against him,” said the aide. On Sunday, members and their staff were told on a bipartisan conference call to report any threats to the Capitol Police’s threat assessment division. Grijalva’s office has reported “at least two very credible threats” to the division, yet the Capitol Police responded by directing the office to the Tucson Police. In the past, said the aide, the Capitol Police would immediately send the FBI to investigate the source of the threat to determine its seriousness. Late Monday night, the threats division called Grijalva’s office to apologize for the slow response, said the aide, but still had little interest in the threats. On Tuesday, the FBI began investigating the threats, the aide said. A spokesman for Arizona Democrat Ed Pastor, meanwhile, said that the congressman has received several threats in the past year, though none since Saturday.

Is anyone besides me a little freaked out that sales of Glocks, the very gun used by Loughner in his mass murder & assassination attempt, are going through the roof in AZ  since the shooting? Seriously…what is WRONG with these people? Who does that?

I think it does a disservice not to talk about what’s really happening in Arizona — just shrugging our shoulders at a lone crazy gunman is not going to address the violence-charged and trigger-happy environment threatening citizens and lawmakers there. Because if we let it happen there, where will it spread?

In the meantime, please join me in praying for the safety of Rep. Grijalva and his staff as they have generously, courageously agreed to take on the constituent services for his neighbor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in her time of need “beginning Tuesday and indefinitely.” That guy is risking his life to serve his community and is actually willing to take on more work. Now that’s heroism that deserves protection and support.