Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez frequently seems like she is on another world with all the take that she often has.
She had a week this week where she was truly able to see beyond the reality.
AOC told the Washington Times that “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 said.
She says it in spite of multiple videos and reports showing smash-and-grabs across Democratic cities, with a particular spike in such criminal acts in California. So, it’s fantasy to deny them.
CNN: “Customers are terrified” as “smash-and-grab” robbers target retailers in Democrat-run cities. pic.twitter.com/PmwYM64Ajd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 27, 2021
Republican politicians and retailers condemned AOC for not stating the obvious.
“Organized retail crime is one of the top challenges facing” the company, Walgreens told The Washington Times, adding that the crime “has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.”
“I don’t know what data she is talking about,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican.
“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 an area of Washington, D.C. near the Capitol. “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.” [….]
The Retail Industry Leaders Association also criticized her comments in a comment to The Washington Times.
“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 said in an email. “If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that.”
A top all this, California’s organised smash-and-grabs turned deadly toward the end last month. security guard Kevin Nishita was killed When he was guarding a television crew that covered a Smash and Grab in Oakland. Nishita was killed by an armed group trying to rob Nishita’s television crew. His death — and the incalculable loss to his family — is very real. His wife, his two children and his three grandchildren are still with him. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said that AOC’s claims were “tone-deaf and offensive” to Nishita’s family.
There were 14 arrests made in the 11 “flash mob” smash and grabs that were committed in Los Angeles in the past month, but LAPD police chief Michael Moore said that all of the people are out of custody because of the “zero-bail” criteria in California.
Proposition 47, another California law, is also important. Proposition 47 cut shoplifting charges for thefts of less than $950, thus making them misdemeanors and not felonies. This reduces the potential punishments that such criminals might receive. When there’s no real punishment, then there’s no stopping some of the criminals from committing such crimes, especially if they’re just going to be let go without any bail.
That’s where you get to why AOC doesn’t want to see this as a real thing. Because she’s in favor of such radical bail reform and letting people out. But it’s one thing to spin that she doesn’t want punishment for criminal actions and another thing again to just deny such things are occurring. This is where we are left with Democrats now — complete denial of reality.
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