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, Tuesday, June 4, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

As my RedState colleague Bonchie noted earlier, Democrats and the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) have gone into overdrive today in having conniption fits about the gun rights rally that is taking place in Richmond, Virginia.

Well before it even started, a lot of (false) comparisons were being made of the Richmond rally to what happened in Charlottesville in August 2017, with “journalists” deliberately mistakenly referring to the Richmond rally as a “white nationalist rally” and warning things could get violent fast.

Fortunately, photo and video reports as well as live-feeds from the event have shown it to be peaceful, with U.S. and Gadsden flags being proudly flown among the diverse group in attendance to show support for our country and our second amendment rights.

Unfortunately, however, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took a moment to weigh in on today’s events and her reaction was as predictable as as you might expect:

.@AOC contrasts today’s gun rights march in Richmond with protests against Eric Garner’s killing: "Why were there almost no police officers” despite protesters “flying confederate flags and [carrying] semiautamtic weapons”? pic.twitter.com/JRL9B76EQW

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 20, 2020

What she leaves out:

First, it’s not uncommon for rallies protesting police officer-involved shootings to get violent. Precedent bears this out. We’ve seen it happen in Ferguson, NYC, and other cities where things have gotten out of hand quickly thanks to protests organized by violent OWS/Antifa thugs and the like. That’s not to say there aren’t legitimate protesters in those crowds, but the professional agitators are usually out front and willing to literally create trouble for The Cause™. And it’s usually captured on video, which is valuable street cred for rank and file social justice warrior types on the left.

Secondly, her remarks assume there were no plain-clothes officers among the crowd to keep an eye on things. Remember, there were widespread but unconfirmed reports that there would be violent counter-rallies organized by The Usual Suspects™ to the gun rights march, so I think it’s a safe bet to say that some of the marchers were probably law enforcement types in regular clothes.

Thirdly, I guess she happened to miss the reports of lookouts or spotters or snipers supposedly being perched on top of buildings in Richmond monitoring the goings on. Where you see this, there are also police officers on the ground to communicate with them about any threatening behavior.

Lastly, I didn’t see a single photo of a Confederate flag today at the rally, nor did I see it in any videos. It’s possible there could have been one or two being carried there but it didn’t appear to be widespread. As AOC often does, she probably just regurgitated talking points from some fanatically left wing website on what to expect, and ran with it. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Here are some of the Twitter reactions to her stunningly ignorant remarks:

The level of stupidity that this woman continues to exhibit it utterly unbelievable. How many arrests were there? How many fights or disagreements? The reason there weren’t many police is because they weren’t needed. These people are law abiding citizens that love this country.

— David Costen (@costen_david) January 20, 2020

Just a flat out lie. There were cops everywhere from multiple jurisdictions and I did not see one Confederate flag.

— JJMurphy722 (@JJMurphy722) January 20, 2020

Thousands of armed people and no anti-riot police needed speaks a lot of conservatives. Compared to the destruction that leftists and progressives bring when they protest.

— Mariano Urquiza (@murquiza) January 20, 2020

I saw a lot of Gadsden flags, an Alaskan flag, a lot of MAGA flags, a Hong Kong flag, but that's about it.

— Gerard Perry (@GerardPerry13) January 20, 2020

There were over 500 state troopers and over 100 Richmond Police officers assembled and ready to deploy if the crowd was violent. It wasn't, so they got paid to just hang out nearby. No need to have them marching through a peaceful crowd.

— C J Meade (@meade6487) January 20, 2020

I guess it’s just too much to ask AOC to actually know what she’s talking about before she speaks. Le sigh.