John Atang

Atang was born on 17 June 1962 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, to Liberian parents John and Naomi Atang. He and his six siblings were raised solely by his mother, after his father left the family when Atang was 8 years old. Atang speaks publicly about the importance of fathers and the need to support them in seeking to be active in the lives of their children. He has written on the issue.

Atang grew up in Brooklyn. He studied law at the University of New York, obtaining a bachelor's degree. He was admitted to the bar in 1987 and practised as a public defender.

In 1998 he was elected as a Democrat to the New York State Assembly for the 46th district. During the 2000 congressional election campaign Atang won the primaries to become the Democratic candidate for New York's 3rd Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. He was elected to the seat on November 7, 2000.

At the beggining of the 107th Congress in 2001, he was placed on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Education Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services. He voted in favour of authorisation for the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. After the 2006 midterm election Atang was moved from the Education Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services to the Education Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment.

During the 2008 Democratic primaries, Atang originally supported [not John Edwards], saying that he felt it was important to have a candidate who focused on poverty, an issue he claimed "plauges millions of Americans that most politicians seem to ignore", but nonetheless declared his support for Rashid Baharia after [not Edwards] withdrew from the race. After the election of Baharia, Atang pledged his full support but turned down an ambassadorship, asserting a need to remain a member of the House of Representatives in order to speak on a wide range of issues that had arose in his district due to the "money that had been slashed from public services under the Burke Administration".

In 2011 there were suggestions that Atang might stand for election as Mayor of New York in 2013. Atang pledged his support to [not-Bill de Blasio]'s bid to become the Democratic mayoral nominee, declaring him "New York's Mayor in waiting". Atang became [not-Blasio]'s nomination campaign chair.

Atang supported [not-Bernie Sanders] to be Democratic nominee during the 2016 Presidential Election, but later endorsed Diane Clifford after she won the primaries.

Atang has commented on the USA's history of slavery and on many other subjects.

Atang has over the years publicly attributed blame for certain crimes to various specific causes and persons. He has also talked about black and ethnic minority peoples, especially those who are younger, their relation with crime and how they are treated by the criminal justice system.

On 6 May 2015, in an article published in The New York Times, Atang attributed part of the cause for Baltimore's riots of a few days earlier to destructive "cultures" that had emerged under the prevailing policies. He also stated that states imposing legislation that restricted the use of corporal punishment in public schools was partly to blame for current youth culture, that had contributed to the riots.

Atang has blamed President Wolf and the Attorney General for failing to take responsibility over fatal shootings in NYC; he also blames inequality, high youth unemployment among black males, and New York City Council cutting youth services and outreach programmes.

Atang has stated that the criminal justice system deals with "disproportionate numbers" of young people from black and ethnic minority communities: despite saying that although decisions to charge were "broadly proportionate", he has asserted that black and ethnic minority people still face and perceive bias. Atang said that young black people are nine times more likely to be incarcerated than "comparable" white people, and proposed a number of measures including a system of "deferred prosecution" for young first time offenders to reduce incarcerations. Atang has claimed that black and ethnic minority people offend "at the same rates" as comparable white people "when taking age and socioeconomic status into account"; they were more likely to be stopped and frisked, if charged more likely to be convicted, more likely to be sent to prison and less likely to get support in prison.

On 7 August 2009, Atang gave a speech in the House of Representatives in favour of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, critically comparing the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy to the "separate but equal" legal doctrine which justified Jim Crow laws in the 20th-century.

He has written about what he believes to be the shortcomings of the housing market.

Atang is a staunch opponent of President Wolf. He notably refused to appear at his inauguration in January 2017 and has described him as a "national embarrassment."

He has spoken out against alleged antisemitism within the Democratic Party and attended a rally protesting against it. Atang stated that antisemitism has "come back because extremism has come back" and is damaging support for Democrats among America's Jewish community.

Atang married the artist Erica Leigh in 1995; the couple have three sons and a daughter.

In November 2015, he published a book, Out of the Ashes: America After the Murder of Freddie Gray, about the April 2015 police shooting of Freddie Gray.

Atang is a Methodist Christian. He is also a New York Giants fan.

===Political Standpoints===

Abortion - He is pro-choice and supports abortion on request until 28 weeks, after which he has said it should be allowed in case of risk to the mother's life, risk to mental or physical health, rape or incest. He supports the judgement made in Roe v. Wade.

LGBT - Strongly supports LGBT rights like the majority of Democrats, including the right to marry and adopt children.

Gun Control - He supports regulating gun ownership more than it is currently, with more comprehensive background checks.

Affirmative Action - He believes affirmative action should be legal as a necessary step to fix past injustices.

Climate Change - He supports strong government action on climate change, including the GND.

Planned Parenthood - He believes Planned Parenthood should be continued to be funded.

Drug Prices - He supports government-set caps on the prices of pharmaceutical drugs.

Health Insurance: He believes in Medicare for All and government-funded universal health insurance. He also believes it should be illegal for health insurance companies to deny services on the basis of pre-existing conditions.

Body Cameras - He believes police officers should be required to wear body cameras.

Death Penalty - He supports the death penalty but believes that the circumstances under which it can be applied should be narrowed down and that a moratorium on executions should be in place until a transparent investigation into its application in the United States is held.