SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks at a news conference introducing the 'People's Housing Platform' on Capitol Hill on January 29, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Ocasio-Cortez Rips Bloomberg on Stop and Frisk: 'Just a Billionaire Trying to Cover Up Authoritarian and Racist Policy'
"Stop and frisk was an unconstitutional, devastating practice for the entire city."
Feb 12, 2020
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Michael Bloomberg is "just a billionaire trying to cover up authoritarian and racist policy" if he does not commit to providing relief to those ensnared by the racist stop and frisk policy he supported as mayor of New York City.
"Will people get their records expunged? Will young people sucked into the spiderweb of incarceration get their lives back?" Ocasio-Cortez asked on Twitter in response to a Bloomberg article about its owner's efforts to "move past" his record on stop and frisk, which has received renewed scrutiny in recent days.
"Unless there is restorative justice, there is no 'moving on' from stop and frisk," added Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
Ocasio-Cortez's comments came days after progressive radio host Benjamin Dixon posted to Twitter an audio clip of a 2015 speech in which Bloomberg defended stop and frisk as necessary and dismissed its harms as "unintended consequences."
After the clip went viral, Bloomberg issued a statement distancing himself from his past comments on stop and frisk.
"This issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity," said Bloomberg.
Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Wednesday that she found Bloomberg's statement woefully inadequate.
"I think quite a few things happened under him as mayor," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Frankly, we all know 'stop and frisk'--that was my family, and that was my community, and that was my neighborhood, and we know this was a policy that decimated a lot of families."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Michael Bloomberg is "just a billionaire trying to cover up authoritarian and racist policy" if he does not commit to providing relief to those ensnared by the racist stop and frisk policy he supported as mayor of New York City.
"Will people get their records expunged? Will young people sucked into the spiderweb of incarceration get their lives back?" Ocasio-Cortez asked on Twitter in response to a Bloomberg article about its owner's efforts to "move past" his record on stop and frisk, which has received renewed scrutiny in recent days.
"Unless there is restorative justice, there is no 'moving on' from stop and frisk," added Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
Ocasio-Cortez's comments came days after progressive radio host Benjamin Dixon posted to Twitter an audio clip of a 2015 speech in which Bloomberg defended stop and frisk as necessary and dismissed its harms as "unintended consequences."
After the clip went viral, Bloomberg issued a statement distancing himself from his past comments on stop and frisk.
"This issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity," said Bloomberg.
Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Wednesday that she found Bloomberg's statement woefully inadequate.
"I think quite a few things happened under him as mayor," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Frankly, we all know 'stop and frisk'--that was my family, and that was my community, and that was my neighborhood, and we know this was a policy that decimated a lot of families."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Michael Bloomberg is "just a billionaire trying to cover up authoritarian and racist policy" if he does not commit to providing relief to those ensnared by the racist stop and frisk policy he supported as mayor of New York City.
"Will people get their records expunged? Will young people sucked into the spiderweb of incarceration get their lives back?" Ocasio-Cortez asked on Twitter in response to a Bloomberg article about its owner's efforts to "move past" his record on stop and frisk, which has received renewed scrutiny in recent days.
"Unless there is restorative justice, there is no 'moving on' from stop and frisk," added Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
Ocasio-Cortez's comments came days after progressive radio host Benjamin Dixon posted to Twitter an audio clip of a 2015 speech in which Bloomberg defended stop and frisk as necessary and dismissed its harms as "unintended consequences."
After the clip went viral, Bloomberg issued a statement distancing himself from his past comments on stop and frisk.
"This issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity," said Bloomberg.
Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Wednesday that she found Bloomberg's statement woefully inadequate.
"I think quite a few things happened under him as mayor," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Frankly, we all know 'stop and frisk'--that was my family, and that was my community, and that was my neighborhood, and we know this was a policy that decimated a lot of families."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.