This just in: AOC DENIES smash and grab robberies exist and doubts it even happened at a Walgreens in California.
Fellow Democrats have remained silent on the matter, as even they are embarrassed for her.
Fox News has more on the story:
Democratic California political leaders have remained silent on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comment appearing to doubt the existence of smash-and-grab robberies.
“We have to talk about specifics because, for example, we’re actually seeing a lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Times in an interview last week. “I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up.”
Walgreens would beg to differ:
Walgreens responded after far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., downplayed the growth of organized retail thefts in retail stores nationwide, saying that it was “one of the top challenges” the retail pharmacy chain faces. https://t.co/T76W6sh89I
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 6, 2021
Even Gavin Newsom didn’t respond to AOC’s comments:
Fox News reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press team, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s communication’s director, Sen. Alex Padilla’s press secretary, as well as Mayor London Breed’s and Mayor Eric Garcetti’s respective press teams. Fox News did not receive any response on whether the elected officials agreed with Ocasio-Cortez’s comment.
Republican politicians and business leaders, however, have been vocal in their condemnation of the New York Democrat’s remarks in light of the repeated smash-and-grab crimes that are rocking California.
“I don’t know what data she is talking about,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, told 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, Retail Industry Leaders Association senior executive vice president of communications, told the outlet. “If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that.”
Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks said Ocasio-Cortez’s comments were “tone-deaf and offensive” to the family of Oakland security guard Kevin Nishita. The former San Jose police officer was shot and killed in November while defending a news crew reporting on a smash-and-grab crime.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office told Fox News on Monday that the congresswoman was referring to a San Francisco Chronicle article from October titled, “What Walgreens isn’t saying: Store closures show a strategic shift to survive in the age of Amazon,” when she made the remark.
The article reported on multiple Walgreens closings in San Francisco, and how Amazon’s growth during the pandemic likely played a role in such closures.
Walgreens told the Washington Times last week that “organized retail crime is one of the top challenges” the company faces, and that the issue “has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.”
California has faced repeated smash-and-grab incidents since November, with most of the crimes unfolding in and near Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Mobs of thieves ransacked at least two dozen San Francisco area businesses over one weekend last month, high-end stores such as Nordstrom and Apple have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise stolen and damages to stores, and malls in the state are grappling with increasing security.
Police union leaders in the state have pinned blame for the smash-and-grab incidents on the ACLU for its support of Proposition 47. Under Proposition 47, passed in 2014, shoplifting charges regarding the theft of $950 or less were lowered from felonies to misdemeanors.
Here are some of the responses to Congresswoman AOC’s remarks stating “there is no data to back up these smash and grabs”
— JAFO (@JAFO13977242) December 7, 2021
AOC saying that the crime spike isn't really happening is as delusional as Alec Baldwin saying "I didn't pull the trigger".
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) December 6, 2021
https://twitter.com/stirednotshakn/status/1467889640820588554?s=20
While @AOC benefits from private security, she continues to downplay the dangers that defunding their police has posed for cities.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) December 7, 2021
Sounds like AOC needs to do more research and realize the problem is a direct result of defunding the police and criminals doing what criminals do best-take advantage of the system.
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