Illinois Democrat: What About the Everyday Violence in Our Inner Cities?

When asked about the George Zimmerman case, an Illinois Democrat said more media attention needs to be paid to the everyday violence that plagues our inner cities.

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) said on MSNBC that she supports the Justice Department “investigating and doing everything they can do to see what the issue was with the case” in the civil-rights probe of Zimmerman.

“Well, I represent a portion of Chicago and, as you know we have been dealing with a lot of urban gun violence,” Kelly continued. “And really my concern is with all due respect, all due respect to Newtown and Arizona and the mass murders, I think there needs to be more voice given to the everyday many massacres that are occurring in the urban cities and attention needs to be paid to that.”

Regarding those out protesting over the verdict, she said, “yes, you can be angry, but take action; look at who you’re electing to office.”

MSNBC kept prodding the congresswoman on the Zimmerman case and asked whether she thought the DOJ should bring a civil-rights case against him even if it didn’t seem likely they could get a conviction.

“I don’t know. Is it worth it to really go through that if you thought it wasn’t going to bring a conviction?” Kelly responded. “I know the bar is really high. I definitely support the investigation, but I want to see what the investigation brings.”

Kelly succeeded Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) in a special election this year.

“You gather people. There has to be an organized way to gather people. We are having not a gun summit but a urban violence emergency summit in Chicago on July 26th,” she said. “As I shared, we are working on an advocacy day in Washington to bring urban parents to Washington, actually to train them on advocating and then having them speak to Congress.”

“I think the pressure needs to come from all entities, all ages, all races. I’ve gotten calls from many of my friends and some are black and some are not. There are a lot of people concerned about this, but I do think it needs to be an organized, concerted effort. And I think that is what they are trying to do today, but we all need to work together and kind of sing from one choir.”