Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: More Money for Police Isn’t the Answer to Crime

EXCERPT:

OCASIO-CORTEZ: "I do. I do think that it’s the wrong message to take. I do believe that very heavily because -- and it’s not just a matter of personal opinion, but we also see public polling showing that that is the wrong interpretation to take as well. Now, this is not to say that people should not be concerned with public safety, and what we do know is that that people across the country are increasingly concerned about incidents of public safety. And this is mirrored by public health data that we see there isn’t increase in crime and in incidents of violence as the country really reopens up from the pandemic and the desperation created by, frankly, very poor U.S. response to the pandemic in terms of the economic devastation. And so are things open up, we’re starting to see more crime and incidents of violence. Now, that should absolutely be a point of concern, but the response to that should not necessarily be over-policing. And Americans know that we have seen a recent polling, I believe from ABC News, but I could be mistaken on the pulling outlet. But margins from about 65 to 75 percent of -- of those polled are showing that the way that we counter these increases in -- in incidents is through economic opportunity and community investment in communities where these surges are happening. And we see this that’s not only where the polling is, but that’s what the data shows, and that’s what the evidence shows, is the best way to support reductions in crime. It is with anti-violence programs, which is one of the reasons why I've requested community funding projects help support anti-violence programs, which can help reduce incidents and reoccurrence of violence by more than 50 percent, which is more effective than almost any policing strategy that we know of. And so the message should not be that we should continue to over-police and over-surveil people to -- in order to create reductions in crime and increase public safety."