Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a habit of making clueless comments. She is facing backlash after her latest suggestion that the recent wave of smash-and-grab robberies plaguing the country are untrue.
During an interview last week with The Washington Times, Ocasio-Cortez said, “A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out.”
“I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up,” she continued.
Following AOC’s ignorant statement, a Walgreens spokesperson told The Washington Times, “Organized retail crime is one of the top challenges facing” the company and that the issue “has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.”
Theft at San Francisco Walgreens locations has spiked the company said. As a result, they have increased security spending in the city to 46 times what’s at the average Walgreens location, according to the Post Millennial.
Moreover, the giant pharmacy retailer has scuttled 22 stores in the city in the past five years due to retail theft. Five new closures were recently announced in October, Law Officer reported.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), a trade association representing leading retailers, threw a jab at AOC.
“Respectfully, the Congresswoman has no idea what she is talking about. Both the data and stack of video evidence makes fairly clear that this is a growing problem in need of solutions,” Jason Brewer, RILA senior executive vice president of communications told The Washington Times in an email. “If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that.”
Ocasio-Cortez was also taken to task by her colleagues, the Post Millennial reported.
“I don’t know what data she is talking about,” said Representative Rodney Davis. “But you don’t really need much data from someplace in San Francisco or California. All you need to do is walk down the street to the CVS in Eastern Market,” he said, referring to a public market area near the Capitol in Washington DC. “I’ve seen on multiple occasions when I’ve been in there buying things, someone will come in and raid a shelf and walk out.”
Another colleague, Representative Jim Banks, criticized her remarks as “tone-deaf and offensive” to the family of Kevin Nishita, a former police officer who was murdered while working security for a news crew that was reporting on the violent crime trend in Oakland.
Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) said AOC is not exactly known for using “appropriate words.”
“It’s important that people use appropriate words when something is clearly happening,” said Issa. “Law enforcement may have to say ‘alleged’ because no one has been convicted, but I think people who know better, should use more appropriate words. But she’s not known for appropriate words.”
The smash and grab crime trends have spread from Northern California to Southern California and now to other states. To deny they are occurring is the equivalent to denying that riots took place following the death of George Floyd in 2020. Yet we know that occurred by left-wing politicians and media types, so AOC’s comments should come as no surprise.
One such lawless crime wave that occurred at Nordstrom’s in Walnut Creek, California, was committed by about 80 thieves dressed in hoodies, wearing masks and armed with crowbars and other weapons. It was a frightening scene for onlookers at a nearby restaurant, Law Officer reported.
Brett Barrette, manager of PF Changs, said he locked all of the doors to their restaurant as the large group of suspects swarmed Nordstrom’s.
“There was a mob of people,” Barrette said. “The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane.”
Chief Michael Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed on Thursday that 14 suspects were collared in connection to 11 smash-and-grab robberies.
Sadly, the chief said also pointed out the impact of bail reform as the suspects “taken into custody are out of custody, either as a result of one juvenile, or the others as a result of bailing out or zero-bail criteria.”
“From Nov. 18 to the 28, the city of Los Angeles had 11 of those types of crimes involving similar MO’s where groups of suspects working in tandem, worked to steal from high-end clothing stores, often using weapons and physical force to overwhelm and intimidate store employees and other patrons,” Chief Moore said.
The problematic crime trend has prompted police union leaders to point at the ACLU for the indefensible public offenses that are quickly becoming a plague to businesses as well as public safety ahead of the holiday shopping season.
“When society removes accountability for bad behavior, criminals get emboldened to commit more crimes, drug addicts thumb their noses at mandatory treatment and vandalism and petty theft turn into riotous looting and murder,” Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League told told Fox News.
“One does not need to be clairvoyant to have predicted that in California the ACLU’s Proposition 47 would turn a family trip to the mall or a Home Depot into a dangerous gamble for our residents.”
The Los Angeles Police Protective League is not alone is their assessment. They are among a list of police unions that are sponsoring a website called ACLU Watch. It is “dedicated to fighting for victim’s rights, accountability for criminals, and exposing those that defend the indefensible.”
Joining the LAPPL are the following police associations:
- San José Police Officers Association
- San Francisco Police Officers Association
- Seattle Police Officers Guild
- San Diego Police Officers Association
- Sacramento Police Officers Association
- Las Vegas Police Protective Association
The website launched last week. The voting public is frequently duped by major funding that is funneled into political campaigns that compromise public safety. Therefore, the website includes informative data that helps educate citizens on issues that impact their quality of life, Law Officer reported.
Someone once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez should keep this wisdom in mind the next time she opens her mouth.
