AOC OKs Mob Violence in Poor Neighborhoods: 'They Have No Choice but To Riot'
If it’s a day of the week that ends in the letter “y,” then it’s probably a safe bet that democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has said something dumb.
The latest instance of this came Tuesday, when AOC — during an interview on the hip-hop radio program “Ebro in the Morning” — said “marginalized” groups “have no choice but to riot.”
Her remarks came as she was speaking with host Ebro Darden about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Now you look around the globe and you have multiple corrupt governments working together — you’ve got Israel, you’ve got America, you’ve got Russia, you’ve got the Saudis, right — all working in concert,” Darden said, according to the Washington Examiner.
“And I bring up Israel because you’ve been vocal about Palestine, the occupation and what needs to go on there. And specifically, I even think people in Israel are trying to get rid of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu as well,” the host continued.
AOC, for her part, seemed to have no problem with that statement.
“I agree, I agree with that,” she said.
Darden wasn’t done.
“How do you have white supremacist Jews?” Ebro asked. “How do you have people like [White House adviser] Stephen Miller? How do you have these individuals who are legit aligning with racism and white supremacy, but they’re Jewish? And it’s something that most people can’t wrap their brains around. But it’s a real thing.
“And what’s going on with Israel and Palestine, while it’s very, very, deep, it is very, very, criminal, and it is very, very unjust.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she agreed with this too.
“Criticizing the occupation doesn’t make you anti-Israel, frankly. It doesn’t mean that you are against the existence of a nation,” she said. “It means that you believe in human rights, and it’s about making sure that Palestinian human rights are equal to Israeli human rights, and there are a lot of troubling things happening there.”
That’s when she defended the right of “marginalized” groups to engage in mob violence.
“Jewish people have been persecuted throughout all of human history, but I don’t think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety,” she said.
“I believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all people, because once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and marginalized — once someone doesn’t have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right?” she said. “And it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t just referring to Palestinians when she spoke about “marginalized” groups.
“I’m not even talking about Palestinians,” she said. “I’m talking about communities in poverty in the United States, I’m talking about Latin America, I’m talking about all over the world.”
“Social destabilization is what happens when people do not have a plan or feel like there’s no vision for their future,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
AOC is essentially saying that living in a poor neighborhood gives you a license to riot, which is a ridiculous claim.
Poor people are more than welcome to peacefully protest, but violence is never the answer.
Rioting, as we’ve seen countless times, simply exacerbates tensions even further and further destroys the neighborhoods they’re supposed to help.
The fact that AOC doesn’t get this is disappointing, to be sure, but I suppose at this point, I’m not even surprised.
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