Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., questions FBI Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division Michael McGarrity, during a House Oversight and Reform Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee hearing on confronting white supremacy and the adequacy of the federal response, Tuesday, June 4, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
AOC is dumping on Mike B.
What would a self-declared socialist — a system in which she and her fellow politicians have all the power — have against a guy who built an empire as a private citizen?
Whatever the enormity of her beefs, currently, she’s firing on the billionaire over, essentially, white supremacy.
Mike’s namesake media company, Bloomberg News, recently published a report on how the 2020 candidate wants to get “past the ‘stop and frisk’ controversy.”
Michael Bloomberg seeks to move past "stop and frisk" controversy https://t.co/xVWgMItYzU
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) February 13, 2020
On Twitter, the New York representative reached into her tool belt.
And hammered:
“New York City is about 60% [non-white]. Stop and Frisk was an unconstitutional, devastating practice for the entire city that intentionally exempted White people from harm. It was one of the most racist policies I’ve ever lived through that deeply impacted the entire city.”
New York City is about 60% people of color.
Stop and Frisk was an unconstitutional, devastating practice for the entire city that intentionally exempted White people from harm.
It was one of the most racist policies I’ve ever lived through that deeply impacted the entire city.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 13, 2020
Was Alexandria stopped and frisked?
Either way, she wants America’s youth freed from a silky, sticky entanglement:
“Will young people sucked into the spiderweb of incarceration get their lives back?”
On top of that, Ocasio-Cortez demands “restorative justice”:
“Unless there is restorative justice, there is no ‘moving on’ from Stop & Frisk. It’s just a billionaire trying to cover up authoritarian & racist policy.”
New York City is about 60% people of color.
Stop and Frisk was an unconstitutional, devastating practice for the entire city that intentionally exempted White people from harm.
It was one of the most racist policies I’ve ever lived through that deeply impacted the entire city.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 13, 2020
With the former bartender — as well as other critics — Mike’s audio isn’t helping his optics.
Earlier this week, a 2015 clip made its way to America’s ears in which he discussed crime control.
Here’s a sample:
“95% of your murders – murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed. You want to spend the money on a lot of cops in the streets. Put those cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods. So, one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? ‘Cause that’s where all the crime is. And the ways you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk ’em. And then they start, they say, ‘Oh I don’t want to get caught.’ So they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”
Share this far and wide. Unless the mainstream media picks it up, it will be isolated to twitter. pic.twitter.com/Fm0YCi4ZRy
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 11, 2020
And now, the nation’s youngest member of Congress is swooping in with punches, including an accusation of defending ‘redlining.”
In 2008, here’s what Mike offered on bank loans during a lecture at Georgetown University:
“[I]t probably all started back when there was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone. Redlining, if you remember, was the term where banks took whole neighborhoods and said, ‘People in these neighborhoods are poor, they’re not going to be able to pay off their mortgages, tell your salesmen don’t go into those areas.’ And then Congress got involved — local elected officials, as well — and said, ‘Oh that’s not fair, these people should be able to get credit.’ And once you started pushing in that direction, banks started making more and more loans where the credit of the person buying the house wasn’t as good as you would like.”
AOC retweeted a post by a New York Times Magazine writer, claiming he presented the lining of red as “rational”:
Redlining was an explicitly racist policy that ensured that until 1968 98 % of federally insured loans went to white Americans. It created one of largest white affirmative action programs we’ve seen and is a direct cause of the devastating black/white wealth gap. https://t.co/P8WjFKyzZ2
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) February 13, 2020
How do those clips strike you?
Should Bloomberg be disqualified?
Politics, for the most part, is a continuous fight between two sides.
But every few years, we get a treat: Each side begins to clobber its own teammates.
As November looms, Democrats will turn on each other like Lord of the Flies.
And what’s more, Alexandria seems particularly ready — all year long — to trash her fellow Blues (like here).
It keeps things interesting, and for that, I’m glad.
AOC vs. Bloomberg: Who ya got?!
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
Nasty: CNN Releases the Audio Between Bernie and Liz After the Debate, and It’s Colossally Ugly
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