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As of December 1, 2011, citizens throughout North Carolina had the legal right to defend themselves from a threat of violence without first being required to retreat. This was the date that North Carolina's Stand Your Ground law took effect.

Since the death of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 and with the ongoing criminal case of George Zimmerman in Florida, North Carolina's own self-defense laws have been questioned. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder felony charges in the shooting death of 17-year-old Martin; he asserted that he acted in self defense and should be exempt from prosecution under Florida's Stand Your Ground Law.

Stand Your Ground laws exist in at least 25 states, including North Carolina and Florida. Sometimes called "Shoot First" laws or "Make My Day" laws, the extent to which one can legally go to defend himself or another are dictated by these rules.

North Carolina Stand Your Ground law ( N.C.G.S. 1451.3) currently reads, in part, as follows:

[A] person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat in any place he or she has the lawful right to be if either of the following applies:

a) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.

b) Under the circumstances permitted pursuant to G.S. 1451.2, generally that you are in your home, workplace or car and are in fear for yours or another's life

Subsection (b) is often referred to as the Castle Doctrine. This subsection recognizes that a home should be one's castle and that you should be allowed to legally defend yourself and your family when an intruder or trespasser poses a threat.

There are exceptions to the use of deadly force in self defense against the following people:

In addition, if the person has retreated or has stopped the threatening behavior, the use of deadly force may no longer be justified because the threat is no longer considered imminent.

Prior to enactment of stand your ground laws, and in states that don't currently have these laws; you generally have a duty to retreat before you will be justified in using force against an attacker. That means that if you can get away and avoid a confrontation, you must, or you risk criminal prosecution for assault, battery or, depending on the outcome, manslaughter or murder.

You also, generally, are limited to using reasonable force in the absence of a Stand Your Ground law similar to that in North Carolina. You cannot respond with deadly force when you have been punched with a fist, for example. Exchanging blow for blow has typically been a justifiable use of force in self defense, but using deadly force to respond to non-deadly force has not.

Stand your ground laws remove the duty to retreat and generally allow for the use of deadly force under reasonable circumstances. You do not have to try to get away before reacting to a threat with reasonable, and sometimes deadly, force.

In the wake of the Martin/Zimmerman criminal saga, the North Carolina legislature is considering eliminating the stand your ground law in this state. Entitled the "Gun Safety Act," a proposed bill in the 2013 session seeks to completely remove the right to defend yourself from another using deadly force in your home, your car, your workplace or other place in which you are legally present.

House Bill 976 would repeal North Carolina's Stand Your Ground law and revert the right of self defense in this state back to the common law, which requires an attempt to retreat before force is justified. The Castle Doctrine would be left intact, allowing the use of reasonable and even deadly force, to protect you or your family in your home.

The bill also seeks to change laws related to the storage of firearms and concealed-carry weapons permits.

If you have been charged with a crime after acting in self defense, you should seek the assistance of an experienced criminal lawyer immediately. Self defense is not a cut-and-dried legal issue. As we have seen with the Zimmerman trial, there is always more than one account of what actually happened at a crime scene.

Self defense is an affirmative defense, meaning you admit that you attacked or caused harm to another person, but that you were justified in causing that harm to protect yourself or another. To succeed on a self defense claim, you must not:

Convincing a prosecutor, judge or jury that you acted in self defense should be left in the hands of an experienced defense attorney.

North Carolina vs. M.W. Charge: Charge: Robbery with A Dangerous Weapon (4 Counts), First Degree Burglary, Conspiracy to Commit Robbery with A Dangerous Weapon Facing: 12 - 17 years in prison Result: Dismissed

An incarcerated defendant accused our client of participating in the robbery of a group of youth at a party. We were able to raise doubt as to the credibility of this individual. In the end, the prosecutor dismissed these charges, citing a lack of evidence.

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Self Defense In North Carolina: Can You Stand Your Ground?

Salt Lake City (KUTV) For the first time in decades, Utah is at the center of the political universe, and that means many of

In what is expected to be one of the biggest online votes conducted so far in the U.S., Utah residents will have the option of

Utahns are expected to turn out in record numbers to neighborhood caucuses across the state on Tuesday, given a rare chance for some presidential race

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) At least 30,000 Republicans are expected to participate in an online presidential caucus vote in Utah Tuesday. The Utah Republican

SALT LAKE CITY Ted Cruz has won Utah's Republican presidential caucus to score a key victory in his bid to close the gap on

UPDATE: 3:25 a.m. EDT Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the GOP race in Utah, garnering over 50 percent of the votes in the

It's another election day here in the U.S. In Utah, as many as 30,000 members of the Republican Party will pick a presidential candidate in

SALT LAKE CITY Sens. Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders breezed to wins in Utah on Tuesday night, when voters flooded presidential caucuses in unprecedented

Despite changes to the voting process, Iron County Republicans came out in record numbers for Tuesday nights caucus. Numerous precinct leaders reported that caucus attendance

Going into yesterdays caucuses, the big question for many Utah Republicans was whether Ted Cruz would win all 40 of the states delegates. In the

Rep. Mia Love was a rising star two years ago when she became the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress as well

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz swept all 40 of Utahs Republican caucus delegates Tuesday. Almost as impressive, Bernie Sanders won 79 percent of Democratic votes on

SALT LAKE CITY The headline in the New Yorker about the results of Utah's Republican caucus presidential vote suggests the state had a big

SALT LAKE CITY The state is rushing to get nearly 1 million postcards in the mail this week to remind Utah voters that political

Salt Lake City, Utah (ABC4 Utah) In just a few weeks Utah voters will get the opportunity to weigh in on the race for

SALT LAKE CITY Utahns are going to get their turn next month to vote in the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination race, but not

SALT LAKE CITY Utahns are going to get their turn next month to vote in the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination race, but not

SALT LAKE CITY Utahns are going to get their turn next month to vote in the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination race, but not

The rest is here:
Home - Utah Republican Party

Compendium

From 2000 until Election Day 2004, Democrats.com published the leading daily news service for America's 100 million Democrats, giving voice to Democratic activists whose views were - and continue to be - systematically excluded from the Republican-controlled, corporate-owned media. Our daily news was produced by a small team of committed patriots who believe in Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

Democrats.com was the only news site that covered the Stolen Election of 2000 in Florida. Despite the media's insistence that we "get over it," Democrats.com organized grassroots protests to "count every vote." When a partisan 5-4 Republican majority of the Supreme Court threw out 175,000 uncounted ballots to appoint Bush, Democrats.com worked with the Congressional Black Caucus to challenge Florida's electors in Congress - a scene made famous at the beginning of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11. Democrats.com helped organize protests at Bush's 2000 inaugural, and at every public appearance by Bush, Cheney, and the Supreme Court Justices who appointed them - until September 11, 2001.

After September 11, Democrats.com sought the truth about Bush's failure to defend the country against 19 men with boxcutters. We supported the family members who fought for a Commission to investigate those failures, and we exposed the Commission's ultimate cover-up. And we opposed Bush's war in Iraq, which was based on lies connecting Iraq to 9-11 - lies which we exposed daily even as they were "reported" on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

Throughout the first term of the Bush administration, we exposed all of the lies they told, the crimes they committed, the policies that failed, and the core American values they betrayed. We posted thousands of links, making our archive a truly unique resource for these four years.

On Election Day 2004, Democrats.com unveiled a brand new web site, and switched from a news format to an interactive blog and discussion forum. Our .compendium archive provides a complete set of links to all of the stories covered in Democrats.com News from 2000 to 2004, organized into subject categories.

Please note: selecting a single category for each story is difficult, so you may need to try more than one category. For example, the "Bush Dictatorship" category overlaps with "Privacy/Surveillance" and "Bush Doctrine" and "Homeland Security."

You can also search our site using the .compass search box on the left side, where you can enter words, phrases, URL's, or any string of letters or numbers. This will display exact matches only, so you may need to try multiple searches to find the exact results. For example, "Al Qaeda" and "Al-Qaida" would require separate searches. A search for "qa" would cover both at once, although it might find other matches. The searches are case insensitive (capital letters are ignored). For URL searches, start with the text after "http://www."

Originally posted here:
Democrats.com - The first online community for the Democratic ...

The U.S. economy has been on the forefront of Americans minds for several years, and the state of the economy played a pivotal role in the 2012 election season. The major parties tackled economic issues from different perspectives, highlighting the divergence between Democrats and Republicans.

But who are the people who actually vote Democrat? Where do they live, what do they look like, and more importantly, what do their finances look like?

Generally, Democrats live closer to a coast than not; tend to have more women in their groups than Republicans; are much more likely to be gay or lesbian; have more of an attachment to organized labor; are slightly younger than Republicans; and are increasingly less religious.

A demographic breakdown of the economics of Democrats includes location, married status, income, age, education and race.

The strongest Democratic areas of the country are along the East and West Coasts, whereas Republicans tend to be more concentrated in the South and Midwest. Within each state, trends are fairly consistent. Democrats dominate the more populated, urban centers, while suburbs lean Republican, and rural areas are almost exclusively Republican. This trend is nearly universal, even in deep-red states like Texas and dark blue states like Massachusetts.

If an area has more than 500,000 people, it will go Democrat about 60 percent of the time. The political balance is even in areas with 50,000 to 500,000 people, and then turns decidedly in the Republicans favor at population levels below 50,000.

Populated areas tend to have a higher concentration of minorities who overwhelmingly vote Democrat and often have large universities, where Democrats also hold a commanding majority.

The Democratic Party has a significant advantage with women. Thirty-seven percent of women affiliate with the Democratic Party, giving them a sizable advantage over the 24 percent who identify as Republicans. Marriage tends to have a significant impact on how a woman votes. Unmarried women vote Democrat about 62 percent of the time, while married women tend to be evenly split between the parties.

Exactly 27 percent of men affiliate with each party, with 43 percent declaring themselves Independent. Gays, lesbians and bisexuals support Democratic candidates around 70 percent of the time.

An individuals likelihood of being a Democrat decreases with every additional dollar he or she earns. Democrats have a huge advantage (63 percent) with voters earning less than $15,000 per year. This advantage carries forward for individuals earning up to $50,000 per year, and then turns in the Republicans favor with just 36 percent of individuals earning more than $200,000 per year supporting Democrats.

Interestingly, the median household income in the United States is $49,777 right near the point where the Democratic advantage disappears and the Republicans take over.

About half of Democrats express satisfaction with their personal financial situation, compared with 61 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Independents.

While Democrats lose support as income increases, there seems to be a tipping point where the ultra-wealthy begin leaning Democratic. The most famous example would be the entertainment industry, where star-studded events have become a significant part of Democratic culture.

But this phenomenon is not limited to Hollywood. A review of the 20 richest Americans, as listed by Forbes Magazine, found that 60 percent affiliate with the Democratic Party, including the top three individuals: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison. Among the riches families, the Democratic advantage rises even higher, to 75 percent.

Democrats support labor unions in my higher numbers than Republicans. Two-thirds of Americans overall agree with the statement that labor unions are necessary to protect the working person.

In all, 82 percent of Democrats believe this, compared with just 43 percent of Republicans.

There are two distinct levels of education among Democrats: those without a high school diploma and those with post-graduate degrees. Republicans gain a majority of support from high school graduates, individuals with some college experience, and college graduates.

Recent trends have seen an erosion of support in the Republican advantage among college graduates, but they still receive a slim majority of the vote in this category.

Democrats tend to be slightly younger than Republicans, with an average age of 47, compared with 50.

Recent trends have shown large growth in Democratic support among the younger generation, which is a turnaround from the young conservative movement of the 1980s. In 2000, 48 percent of young voters went Democratic. In 2008, the number climbed to 66 percent. The young voting bloc (46 million strong) will increase to 90 million in 2020. Their increasing Democratic leaning may be caused by increasing diversity, or be an anti-establishment reaction.

Democrats have a tremendous amount of diversity in their ranks, especially when compared with the 87 percent white Republican Party. The most loyal bloc of Democratic supporters are African-Americans, with women supporting Democrats a staggering 90 percent of the time and men slightly less.

This support is engrained in the culture and cuts across age, income and regional divisions. This support has been longstanding for many decades, but has increased in intensity since Democrats chose Barack Obama as the partys standard-bearer.

Hispanics, the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, also tend to support Democrats voting for them 60 to 70 percent of the time. Unlike African-American support, a Hispanic voters support is more likely to be affected by income or location than by race.

The Hispanic population makes up 16 percent of the country, and is expected to nearly double by 2050.

Democrats are becoming increasingly less religious. Between 1987 and the late 1990s, Republicans and Democrats polled as equally religious. Since then, Democrats have seen a significant decrease in their level of religious participation, while Republican numbers have remained consistent.

The one major religious bloc of voters that Democrats can still rely on is the Jewish community, from which they receive 80 percent of the votes.

One of the clearest policy differences between the parties is the view on government assistance programs and social safety nets. There is a 35-point difference between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats far more likely to support government assistance programs.

Republicans tend to give more to charity, while Democrats support publicly funded assistance programs. This could also be explained, in part, by Democrats lack of religious devotion, as a large percentage of Republican charitable donations support religious programs and institutions.

Bill Fay is a journalism veteran with a nearly four-decade career in reporting and writing for daily newspapers, magazines and public officials. His focus at Debt.org is on frugal living, veterans' finances, retirement and tax advice. Bill can be reached at bfay@debt.org.

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Economic Demographics of Democrats & Liberals - Debt.org

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Houston Internet Marketing | Houston Small Business Marketing