New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed a majority of her Republican counterparts are against stripping law enforcement of funding because they grew up in privileged families of wealth and opportunity.
Tweeting on Monday, the Democrat said Republicans are unable to empathize with the “movement” to defund police departments throughout the United States because “most” have never experienced the poverty she witnessed growing up in New York City.
“Republicans are all upset that I’m connecting the dots between poverty and crime,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “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
New York is in the midst of a major crime surge as the coronavirus lockdowns and protests following the death of George Floyd have spurred people into the streets. During a virtual town hall meeting last Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez shifted blame to the federal government and suggested crime statistics were up because people couldn’t afford bread.
Amid the spike in violence, 1-year-old Davell Gardner was shot and killed at a cookout in Brooklyn on Sunday. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the death of the child was “painful” and that “it’s not something we can ever look away from.”
Ocasio-Cortez suggested television shows such as Breaking Bad were proof that white violence and crime are glamorized and portrayed in a sympathetic light in contrast to black and brown people committing similar crimes.
“There are entire TV series glamorizing, humanizing, and sympathizing White Americans in this exact situation of selling drugs to live – Weeds, Breaking Bad, etc,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But fact is, Black & Brown communities have been in this predicament forever & get called ‘animals.'”
Ocasio-Cortez also laid out the conditions under which she believes young men are forced to sell drugs in an effort to feed struggling families.
“When you are teenage boy in a fatherless home (his dad passed away), there is a drive to be ‘the man of the house,'” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “To help your mom. And what makes money fast when a full time job doesn’t pay enough to live? Selling weed.”
