Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at the NYPD and her colleagues in Congress over the arrests of 12 shoplifters for stealing diapers and baby formula in the Bronx, saying the removal of the child tax credit by the federal government was to blame for the crime.
‘It’s much easier to frame people who steal baby formula and medicine as monsters to be jailed than acknowledge our politics and economic priorities create conditions where people steal baby formula to survive,’ she posted in response to a police department tweet, showing the arresting officers and the ill-gotten goods recovered by the cops.
Police said that officers from the 44th Precinct, which covers the Grand Concourse and High Bridge where Yankee Stadium sit, busted a dozen shoplifters after getting multiple complaints from storeowners.
‘The arrests made led to the closure of 23 warrants & recovery of $1800 worth of merchandise,’ police said.
The photo of the recovered goods, which has since been removed, showed stacks of diapers, baby wipes, laundry detergent and other household goods that are easy to resell on the street.
Crime is on the rise throughout New York City, especially in the South Bronx where the arrests were made. In the 44th Precinct, overall crime has jumped 27.5 percent, according to NYPD statistics. Car theft spiked 177% since last year, records show, and robbery has spiked by 45 percent.
Overall, crime is up 46.5% across the five boroughs.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed cops for demonizing shoplifters who she says are forced into crime by the lack of federal aid. She chided her colleagues in Congress for not furthering the child tax credit.
‘Child tax credit expired Dec 31st and it was many people’s lifeline to feed and clothe their kids,’ the lefty politician tweeted. ‘Politicians let it expire overnight with a shrug, but now want to feed into the sensationalism around crime acting like shoplifting has nothing to do with their actions. Wild.’
Americans with children received a monthly $250 to $300 stipend from the federal government over the course of the pandemic. The temporary support was set to be permanent in President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar Build Back Better funding project, but the sweeping legislation died in the Senate.
Police did not say from where the items were stolen, but across the country pharmacy chain stores like Duane Reade, CVS and Walgreens have complained of brazen and widespread shoplifting, sometimes by organized rings.
Shelves are already bare in the Rite Aid store, located at the corner of 80th Street and 2nd Avenue because it will shut its doors for good on February 15, the manager told DailyMail.com, a day after a thief was caught on video boldly sauntering out with shopping bags full of stolen goods
Empty shelves are seen at Rite Aid on the Upper East Side just three weeks before they’re set to close. The store’s closure is just one of many in the city. On February 8, a Hell’s Kitchen store which has been rife with robberies in recent months will close, and on the Upper West Side, another store which experienced daily thefts shut down in November
Ocasio-Cortez also claimed in December that there was no data to back up rising crime rates, especially in retail, where rings have targeted stores for multiple thefts.
‘A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out,’ she told the Washington Times. ‘I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up.’
She was slammed by the head of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Jason Brewer, who said ‘she has no idea what she’s talking about’.
‘Both the data and stack of video evidence makes fairly clear that this is a growing problem in need of solutions,’ he said.
In January, four shoplifters armed with hammers broke into a Bay Area Walgreens and nabbed $2,400 worth of cosmetics and other goods.
In November, a van smashed through a Baltimore Walgreens and thieves stole a cash machine.
A lawyer for the pharmacy said that their business was suffering because of the thefts.
Crime in New York is up over 41 percent compared to last year, with transit incidents up 74 percent compared to this time in 2021
Nearly every single police precinct in New York City has seen spikes in crime so far this year – including five in which the rate has doubled, new data from the NYPD shows
‘Organized retail crime is one of the top challenges’ the company is facing, he said. Crime ‘has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.’
In Manhattan, where the newly sworn in District Attorney Alvin Bragg vowed not to prosecute on non-violent shoplifters, some stores have closed because the thefts had gotten so bad.
The Upper East Side Rite Aid pharmacy was forced to close its doors on February 15 because shoplifting had gotten so bad.
In January, Actor Michael Rappaport, who lives close to the store, recorded a brazen shoplifter, boosting two shopping bags worth of goods from the store without fear of reprisal.
‘Back in my Rite Aid,’ he said in a video posted to his on Sunday. ‘And there’s nothing to steal because this Rite Aid like so many other Rite Aids is closing down because everybody stole everything. And the workers here don’t know if they’re getting jobs.
Rapaport said the man in his footage filled two bags with stolen goods before nonchalantly strolling past security and leaving
The Rite Aid in the video will be closing on February 15, with thefts a major reason, the pharmacy chain announced late December
Another store in Midtown Manhattan and a Rite Aid in Brooklyn Heights were also forced to close because of thefts.
The chain announced last year that it was shutting down about 63 stores across the US in the next few years, citing cost-cutting measures to save $25 million a year – but workers say that the thefts are part of the reason for the closures as inventory dwindles.
Walgreens shuttered five stores in San Francisco last year, in part, the company says because of thefts, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
