AOC: “Republicans Are All Upset Because I’m Connecting The Dots Between Poverty & Crime”

AOCZoom Video Screen Shots

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested on Monday that Republicans are “all upset” because she is “connecting the dots between poverty and crime.”

Ocasio-Cortez made the assumption when retweeting Zoom video clip of herself explaining how “crime is a symptom of a diseased society.”

New York City has seen an overall spike in burglaries and murders in 2020, and soon after the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit on June 15, shootings in the city have soared.

In one clip from her Zoom video, Ocasio-Cortez speculated that the uptick in crime in New York could be due to “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, so you maybe have to — they’re put in a position where they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.”

Then after declaring that giving more money to the NYPD will not reduce crime in the city, Ocasio-Cortez voiced her belief that “crime is a symptom of a diseased society that neglects its most marginalized people, and we do not solve that problem with police.”

“Police can be a band-aid and make some people feel like it’s a band-aid, but it is not the solution,” she added.

WATCH:

AOC retweeted the video of herself making the remarks and claimed, “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.” Continued Below

She went on to try backing up her thoughts with the following “example.”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.’

“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.

“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.”