One of the things to admire about Marxists is their stubbornness. Since the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848, these class struggle warriors have claimed that crime is merely a reflection of economic inequality. True to her Marxist roots, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blames lockdown-related poverty for the striking surge in crime, especially the shootings and murders ravaging New York City.
AOC had this to say about the uptick in violence: “Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent & are scared to pay their rent & so they go out & they need to feed their child & they don’t have money so… they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry.”
AOC on increased NYC crime: "Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren't paying their rent & are scared to pay their rent & so they go out & they need to feed their child & they don't have money so… they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry." pic.twitter.com/oHSTWWJZ6a
— The Hill (@thehill) July 12, 2020
That was on Thursday. Fast forward to Sunday night. In Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood after 11 p.m., men got out of a car and began spraying bullets into a BBQ held near a housing project. A one-year-old child was shot and killed. No loaf of bread or case of baby formula was stolen. This was not a righteous crime attacking up the racist food chain. This was the evil taking of a child’s life.
But for AOC, this kind of crime does not exist. If not for the horrible systems of racist oppression, she implies, this crime would never have occurred. This even though plenty of white people who are supposedly beneficiaries of our systems of oppression also commit horrible violent crimes. But perhaps those white people also are victims of some capitalist conspiracy she will get to the bottom of, like the Scooby Doo gang.
If you want to know why criminals are now running around New York City carrying guns, shooting children, and generally doing whatever they please, look no further than this video. This shows exactly what has happened to our police department under leaders like AOC and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
.@NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio @NYCCouncil @NYCSpeakerCoJo are endangering the lives of every New York City Police Officer, and the new limits on the physical restraints are also going to lead to a quicker escalation of deadly force. @NYGovCuomo DO SOMETHING! .pic.twitter.com/re1KsZi9O6
— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) July 11, 2020
What we see in this video is vitally important because several things are wrong here. First of all, the officers clearly appear to feel limited in what they can do to restrain the suspect. This means the suspect successfully fights off the officers, creating chaos. This leads to another individual assaulting an officer. At that point, anything could have happened.
There is a secondary message here. These assailants clearly had not the slightest fear of the police. They attacked them with impunity, cheered on by the guy shooting the video. This is exactly the attitude that has led to New York City’s criminal class returning to the streets with a vengeance. And it is an attitude too many Democrats have sympathy for.
That’s what is really happening in New York City right now. The problem isn’t scared dads who are shoplifting food, although that is probably happening too since Democrats won’t let anyone go to freakin’ work. But it’s not why people are being killed. People are being killed because de Blasio and his allies like AOC have basically stood down the greatest police department on earth.
I don’t like to accuse politicians of having blood on their hands. Politics is a job of choices, often between competing bad options. But in this case, as shootings surge in New York City, the progressives calling the shots need to call a time out and restore order. At a certain point, these lives being lost become their fault.
