The wealthy are fleeing New York City, and police there are stretched thin and scared of becoming the subject of the next viral video.
Meanwhile, something odd is happening. Weekly robberies in the city have plunged by nearly 27% from the comparable week last year, including a 16% drop in petty larceny. But murders have skyrocketed by 50%. The number of shooting victims is up by a staggering 200%. Year-to-date statistics paint the same picture, with violent crimes way up and larceny and transit crimes significantly down.
Noted crime expert Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mused over the weekend that New York’s killing spree is being fueled not by violent felons taking advantage of weak city leadership and police hesitation, but rather by modern-day Jean Valjean types, stealing loaves of bread for their starving children. And, as impervious to facts as she usually is, she is digging the hole deeper:
Let me give you a real life example that I’ve encountered often (wording vaguely to protect people).
Growing up I was friends w/ a boy who was the son of a single mom. They struggled to pay rent.
As we know, hourly work doesn’t pay a living wage – especially then. /2
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
For Black & Brown communities, especially in the era of criminalization, the choice to sell weed of course is a risky one – not just w/ police, but with those you get tied up with.
Yet when a teenage boy believes the other option is homelessness, they may take the chance. /4
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
I take this issue seriously. Unlike many of GOP pundits theorizing from suburban homes, I’ve had multiple family members shot, shot at, stabbed, etc.
Crime + community violence isn’t some thought experiment to project your thoughts & theories abt communities you’ve never met. /6
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 13, 2020
With unemployment above 11% thanks to COVID-19, there’s no question that ordinary folks are struggling. New York, in particular, the incompetent governance of which needlessly killed thousands of seniors and allowed coronavirus-stricken travelers from China to spread the pandemic across the country, has suffered worse than most other places. A quarter of the city’s renters haven’t paid rent since March, and the city’s unemployment rate may be twice the national figure.
But there is simply no data indicating that the financial suffering of ordinary New Yorkers is fueling the dramatic uptick in murders, even amid a decrease in petty larceny and transit crimes and no change in robberies.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to push for increased Paycheck Protection Program funding and more direct payments to individuals. But Ocasio-Cortez’s make-believe statistics are nothing but an attempt to push a politically motivated lie.
If anything, people should take this occasion, of Ocasio-Cortez being so clearly wrong about this matter and in such a high-profile way, to question the Left’s broader claims about poverty and crime. The crime you would expect to see more of when people are going without, petty larceny, is actually down. Go figure. And it’s a vicious smear on poor people to say that they just go out and start shooting anyone they see because they’re out of work.
