Ocasio-Cortez Blames Rising New York Crime on Shoplifters After Week’s Shootings Triple

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested that a recent spike in violent crime around New York City happened because residents are forced to shoplift in order to eat.

During a virtual town hall Ocasio-Cortez held on Thursday, constituents asked for her reaction to the uptick in crime the city has seen lately. As Ocasio-Cortez argued that the spike couldn’t be connected to the #DefundThePolice movement that took off after the death of George Floyd, she eventually attributed the crime spike to the socioeconomic devastation the country has seen because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Do we think this has to do with the fact that there’s record unemployment in the United States right now? The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “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…so they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.”

Last week, the New York Police Department recorded 43 shootings around the city, including a 15-hour period in which 15 people were shot. According to the New York Post, this amount of shootings more than triples the rate New York saw this time last year, and it comes after a rash of violent crimes throughout Independence Day weekend.

Ocasio-Cortez is a vocal supporter of the #DefundThePolice push, but she said that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed $1 billion budget cut for the NYPD hasn’t gone into effect yet. She also claimed the NYPD’s data undermines their argument that the recent crime uptick has to do with pushes for bail reform.

Watch above, via The Hill.