Now AOC slams NYPD dance team asking ‘how many school music programs got defunded for this’ as furious backlash deepens
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the latest New Yorker to condemn the NYPD over her dance team.
“How many school music programs have been canceled for this,” the Democratic Socialist asked when she shared a clip of the dance crew on X on Monday.
Although the team was founded in 2022, it sparked backlash last weekend after appearing on local television.
The team of seven officers’ very public promotion comes as New Yorkers worry about the city’s ongoing migrant crisis and a recent wave of crime linked to asylum seekers.
Still, some of AOC’s critics took her post as an opportunity to condemn her and her progressive politics.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the latest New Yorker to condemn the NYPD over her dance team
Although the team was founded in 2022, it sparked backlash last weekend after appearing on local television
One comment read: ‘How many school buildings are closed to migrants @AOC?’
Another said: ‘Isn’t this the kind of police you love, the ones who don’t actually enforce the laws?’
Others found common ground with the controversial congresswoman after her tweet targeted the dance crew.
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Dance team members are apparently aware of the backlash, with team vice president Lauren Pagan defending the initiative.
“I just answer 911 calls all day, all day, all day until it’s time to go home,” she said.
‘Music is great. And if I can sit here and just listen, even if it’s the same song over and over again, it’s a nice place to be. Everyone here loves to dance. They love being here.”
Martinez said the club is designed to give officers a place to “express themselves creatively.”
“We have a dance team because mental health takes a toll on this job,” she explained.
The dance troupe’s recent appearance in local media comes as highly publicized cases of migrant crime have attracted attention and theft continues to rage.
More than 160,000 migrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022, and the crisis is only deepening as they continue to travel on buses from Texas, where record numbers are pouring across the border.
In one of the most viral incidents of the past month, three NYPD officers were assaulted in Times Square by a group of migrant men and left with minor injuries.
In another case, a 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant opened fire in a sneaker store during an attempted shoplifting.
He was arrested and charged as an adult after the bullet struck a Brazilian tourist and he continued to shoot at police while fleeing.
More than 170,000 migrants have landed in the city since the spring of 2022.
That number is only rising as Texas Governor Greg Abbot continues to transport people north in retaliation for the federal government’s border policies.
Appearing on “Good Day New York” in January, Mayor Eric Adams estimated that between 2,500 and 4,000 newcomers came each week.
However, the NYPD touted declines in several major crime indexes in January.
The number of murders fell by 25 percent; rape at 24.4 percent; burglary at 19.8 percent; grand theft auto at 3.8 percent; and assault at 1.5 percent.
Additionally, arrests for all major crimes increased 5.7 percent year over year across the city.
But statistics for other types of theft-related crime showed an increase, with robberies rising 5.4 percent, while grand theft rose 0.4 percent last month.
The department attributes the increase to “organized pickpocket teams” and so-called “lush workers” who target drunk or sleeping victims on the subway.