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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on claims she made over the weekend that crime spikes in New York City are the result of residents who are struggling economically and forced to steal so they can “feed their child.”
In a screechy Twitter thread, the New York socialist clapped back at Republican critics by claiming none of them have “experienced or seen” poverty.
“Republicans are all upset that I’m connecting the dots between poverty and crime,” Ocasio-Cortez claimed. “I know most of them haven’t experienced or seen these issues first hand, but I have. This may be hard for them to admit, but poverty and crime are highly linked, both violent & nonviolent alike.”
Republicans are all upset that I’m connecting the dots between poverty and crime.
I know most of them haven’t experienced or seen these issues first hand, but I have.
This may be hard for them to admit, but poverty and crime are highly linked, both violent & nonviolent alike. https://t.co/4t34dCLZlw
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
In an accompanying Zoom video, the New York lawmaker went on to note that “all those billions of dollars” spent on the New York Police Department “somehow have not prevented the uptick in crime that we’re seeing.”
During a virtual town hall she hosted last week, Ocasio-Cortez, 30, was asked why crime is spiking in her home town.
Oh, no! #MissusEd flashes not one, but two (count ‘em) white power signs. Snowflakes will be melting all over the liberal landscape. pic.twitter.com/zMh0Q6xZZ8
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 13, 2020
“Do we think this has to do with the fact that there’s record unemployment in the United States right now?” she responded, without adding that the unemployment spike is directly related to widespread closures of businesses ordered by governors and mayors amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession?” AOC continued.
“Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent and so they go out, and they need to feed their child and they don’t have money,” she continued before claiming that “they’re put in a position where they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.”
In an interview with Fox News, contributor and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called the young congresswoman’s assessment “astonishing.”
“There’s a big difference between shoplifting and cold-blooded murder and for her not to know the difference is frankly astonishing,” he said.
“Her saying, ‘people are hungry so they’re going out and lifting bread,’ no, they are going out and killing people randomly,” Huckabee said in response to host John Roberts noting that a 1-year-old was shot and killed Sunday during a family BBQ in a park in Brooklyn, police said.
“You don’t kill a 1-year-old because you need some bread, that doesn’t put bread on your table and that’s why the absurdity of her [Ocasio-Cortez’s] remarks have to be called out,” he continued.
“She needs to be held accountable for this. She needs to walk it back and recognize that violent crime has nothing to do with people’s lifting some bread,” the former GOP governor added.
The Trump administration also pushed back. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped the New York socialist over her bread comment.
“You have Rep. Ocasio-Cortez saying this is just because people are trying to get food with their families,” she said, after noting that the New York lawmaker had previously criticized the NYPD and its budget.
MOMENTS AGO: Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany slams Rep. AOC discussing uptick in NYC violence: "You have Rep. Ocasio-Cortez saying this is just because people are trying to get food with their families." pic.twitter.com/SREtVGwZtF
— The Hill (@thehill) July 13, 2020
Criticism from Huckabee and other Republicans came after AOC posted a Twitter thread Monday in which she laid out her theory using a real-life experience.
It’s virtually impossible to pay rent on $8/hr.
And when you are teenage boy in a fatherless home (his dad passed away), there is a drive to be “the man of the house.” To help your mom.
And what makes money fast when a full time job doesn’t pay enough to live? Selling weed. /3
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
Mind you, there are entire TV series glamorizing, humanizing, and sympathizing White Americans in this exact situation of selling drugs to live – Weeds, Breaking Bad, etc.
But fact is, Black & Brown communities have been in this predicament forever & get called “animals.” /5
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
It’s our real life.
While it takes months, sometimes years to study crime data, I personally can tell you that fed & state relief is NOT reaching people.
We aren’t getting stimulus checks (mixed status fams), millions can’t pay rent, & summer youth employment has been cut. /7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, job losses reached 50 million this spring — or about one-third of the nation’s entire workforce — but they were nearly all tied to the coronavirus shutdowns.
Regarding the crime wave in NYC, the NYPD reports there have been stunning increases in violent crime and shootings over the past several weeks — spikes that began as demonstrations and protests erupted following the George Floyd incident in May.
The New York Post reported Saturday that there were 15 shootings in as many hours, which came after a bloody Fourth of July weekend in which police recorded 44 shootings, which killed at least eight people.
In recent weeks, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to cut the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion amid a crime wave that police unions blame, in large part, on his “light touch” approach to violent demonstrators.
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Jon@bizpacreview.com
Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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