Yes, yes, their only crime was stealing baby formula … (1 Viewer)

[NatMorton]

Yet one more beaut from AOC. From The Daily Mail, some details behind the story of a recent shoplifting bust that I’m sure the likes of the NY Times (or AOC’s press staff) will somehow never get around to mentioning (emphasis added):

The accused New York City shoplifters that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended as struggling families forced into a life of crime due to lack of federal support are actually repeat offenders who have lengthy rap sheets.

After a string of shoplifting thefts of retail stories in the Bronx, NYPD officers in the 44th Precinct arrested a dozen people on February 8, 9, 11 and 12. Police touted the arrest on Twitter with photos of the arresting officers and the $1,800 worth of household goods, including diapers, recovered.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the upper middle class Long Island City neighborhood in Queens and portions of the Bronx, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the arrests, suggesting that police had gone after impoverished people who were stealing to supply their own babies with diapers and formula.

‘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 had tweeted on Thursday.

But a look at the defendants’ criminal records released by the NYPD indicates that this was far from the criminals' first run-in with the law, except Jose Perez, 42, of Soundview. His first arrest came on February 8 when he was arrested for shoplifting, possession of stolen goods and drugs.

Among the dozen arrested, Weston Coot, 38, of Grand Concourse, had been convicted of assault after he glassed a man in the face in a Hell's Kitchen bar fight in 2009. It was his second felony arrest. He has eight arrests in his rap sheet.

Tanya Thomas, 43, has 26 priors, including prostitution and robbery. Euniya Morales, 34, of Claremont Village, has been arrested 22 times, including for assault. Annieza Saulmarshall, 39, of Highbridge, has a past arson charge in addition to burglary, evidence tampering and contempt. Carlos Bonet landed in jail after obstructing someone's breathing, in addition to 15 other criminal offenses over his lifetime. He has something in common with Urayoan Reyes, 39, who was busted for strangulation, along with criminal mischief and other violent crime.

…

Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

 

[HIP56948]

Like many people, every so often, I'm a little confused about this latest trend in New York and also San Francisco regarding not prosecuting shoplifters. thieves
and other social times. Of course, society tends to "Pass" on prosecuting the wealthy and the powerful...as it always has been.
I remember dating a city female prosecutor in my younger days. I also remember her saying a few times..(After I asked why the justice system is so weak with the rich) "There are powerful forces that you and the public just don't-want-to-know"
Yep, I'm confused and a little depressed about the whole damn justice system.

 

[code1211]

Yet one more beaut from AOC. From The Daily Mail, some details behind the story of a recent shoplifting bust that I’m sure the likes of the NY Times (or AOC’s press staff) will somehow never get around to mentioning (emphasis added):



Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

You'd almost think that there might be some sort of "mitigation measures" we could use to protect us from catching this.

Maybe a really heavy duty mask or extreme social distancing? If we gagged her and kept her away from every media outlet and any communication device, maybe we could mitigate her damage to the rest of us.

 

[Monica33]

Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

A very wealthy woman from the Elite , chosen by them for Project Chaos but fairly stupid .

Am amazed that her handlers do not exert greater control of the fluff head .

 

[Cardinal]

Yet one more beaut from AOC. From The Daily Mail, some details behind the story of a recent shoplifting bust that I’m sure the likes of the NY Times (or AOC’s press staff) will somehow never get around to mentioning (emphasis added):



Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

It's a bad public relations campaign by the NYPD in any case. Bragging that you arrested people for stealing diapers and baby formula is a super weird flex.

 

[Roadvirus]

Yet one more beaut from AOC. From The Daily Mail, some details behind the story of a recent shoplifting bust that I’m sure the likes of the NY Times (or AOC’s press staff) will somehow never get around to mentioning (emphasis added):



Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

She's an idiot. Nothing else needs to really be said.

 

[NatMorton]

She's an idiot. Nothing else needs to really be said.

I agree, but the occasional reminder serves a purpose.

 

[Roadvirus]

It's a bad public relations campaign by the NYPD in any case. Bragging that you arrested people for stealing diapers and baby formula is a super weird flex.

Still hard to defend a group of mass thieves, no matter what they're stealing. Whether it be food or luxury items like purses or watches or whatever.

 

[Cardinal]

Still hard to defend a group of mass thieves,

Is that the case though? The OP's source is the daily mail.

no matter what they're stealing. Whether it be food or luxury items like purses or watches or whatever.

If I were the NYPD's pr manager I would have bragged about busting people stealing watches. There isn't a lot of ambiguity over stolen watches.

 

[SoCal]

Still hard to defend a group of mass thieves, no matter what they're stealing. Whether it be food or luxury items like purses or watches or whatever.

Pampers, Huggies, baby wipes, baby shampoo, body wash and Mucinex cough syrup verses whatever, like luxury cars, jewelry, or maybe carjacking and armed robbery. People like you should should never be a trial judge...

 

[Slartibartfast]

 

[KevinKohler]

Is that the case though? The OP's source is the daily mail.



If I were the NYPD's pr manager I would have bragged about busting people stealing watches. There isn't a lot of ambiguity over stolen watches.

Diapers and formula don't have serial numbers, and are very easy to sell to a Bodega on the other end of town. Couple that with the 50-70 bucks per unit, and the fact that they're typically not locked up, or have eas tags on them...and yeah, it's pretty low hanging fruit.

 

[KevinKohler]

Pampers, Huggies, baby wipes, baby shampoo, body wash and Mucinex cough syrup verses whatever, like luxury cars, jewelry, or maybe carjacking and armed robbery. People like you should should never be a trial judge...

Apples to oranges.

What matters are the dollar totals in loss. One baby formula booster can shoplift upwards of 20k in product per week.

 

[Cardinal]

Diapers and formula don't have serial numbers, and are very easy to sell to a Bodega on the other end of town. Couple that with the 50-70 bucks per unit, and the fact that they're typically not locked up, or have eas tags on them...and yeah, it's pretty low hanging fruit.

I do happen to know that Tide is a frequently stolen black market item. Out of context, you're not getting pulled over by the cops and arrested for possession of Tide. It's certainly possible this is more of the same.

Still though. Bad look.

 

[KevinKohler]

I do happen to know that Tide is a frequently stolen black market item. Out of context, you're not getting pulled over by the cops and arrested for possession of Tide. It's certainly possible this is more of the same.

Still though. Bad look.

Yeah, it's no Oceans 11. But it comprises the bulk of retail theft these days. Consider...retail employees can't pursue or apprehend. The perp is wearing a face mask obscuring their face, cuz...covid. They stroll in with a couple re-usable shoping totes, load up about 20 cans of formula at 50-70 a pop, and stroll out. 5 minutes.

And what they do is hit one company. Say, Target. They'll hit 5 stores in 1 state in 1 day. Drive to the next state, repeat. Or they lay low for a few, then pick a different company. BJs, my company, has been getting hit all winter, to the tune of over 200k, in my state alone. It's not small time.

 

[SoCal]

Apples to oranges.

What matters are the dollar totals in loss. One baby formula booster can shoplift upwards of 20k in product per week.

Read the list of stolen items again, would they have been used to take care of a baby or to make big bucks? Were the they caught with a coupe of pallets of diapers? I can't image New Yorkers sleeping more soundly knowing the police are finally getting tough on Pamper thieves. And all for the sake of public safety.

Police usually post pics of the drugs and guns seized in raids, things that kill people, not Huggies. Arresting poor people (women?) who're stealing the basic items needed to care of their babies isn't something to be proud of...

 

[code1211]

A very wealthy woman from the Elite , chosen by them for Project Chaos but fairly stupid .

Am amazed that her handlers do not exert greater control of the fluff head .

I have long thought that political opinion that political opinion that "out there" on either the far left or right are only trial balloons.

Having AOC give voice to these odd and "out there" ideas lets the main stream Democrats measure what the acceptance by the general public might be.

Also "stretches" the area of what might be considered acceptable. Applied to ideas like Abortion, as one example, the topic was taboo in the 50's, less taboo in the 60's, acceptable in the70's and a litmus test in the 80's through today.

Without the stretching of the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable, the incrementally achieved acceptance does not occur.

This current "stretching" is an odd drive to eliminate domestic tranquility and the free market system of economics in the US. With luck, the fruition of this drive will trail my demise.

 

[KevinKohler]

Read the list of stolen items again, would they have been used to take care of a baby or to make big bucks? Were the they caught with a coupe of pallets of diapers? I can't image New Yorkers sleeping more soundly knowing the police are finally getting tough on Pamper thieves. And all for the sake of public safety.

Police usually post pics of the drugs and guns seized in raids, things that kill people, not Huggies. Arresting poor people (women?) who're stealing the basic items needed to care of their babies isn't something to be proud of...

It was 1,800 dollars. Thief wasn't stealing that much to take care of a child. Maybe 9 children?

 

[MaryP]

Yet one more beaut from AOC. From The Daily Mail, some details behind the story of a recent shoplifting bust that I’m sure the likes of the NY Times (or AOC’s press staff) will somehow never get around to mentioning (emphasis added):



Source: here.

AOC’s talk-first-think-later brand of speech making really does expose her as a special kind of stupid.

Sounds more like a ring, and they probably sell the stuff to people who can get it from them a little cheaper. Pure profit (if you don't get caught).

 

[Roadvirus]

Pampers, Huggies, baby wipes, baby shampoo, body wash and Mucinex cough syrup verses whatever, like luxury cars, jewelry, or maybe carjacking and armed robbery. People like you should should never be a trial judge...

Mucinex can be abused. It has dextromethorphan, which can act like PCP

 

[Deuce]

OP she didn't say "none of these people have ever done anything except steal baby formula" wtf are you talking about

 

[bullseyelqcs]

Apples to oranges.

What matters are the dollar totals in loss. One baby formula booster can shoplift upwards of 20k in product per week.

Da fuq? 20K? Come on man, you almost had a point and then blew it up with histrionics.

Similac averages 32 bucks a can. Shoplifting 30 cans a day would account for 1K. 30 cans is a shitload and would require getting away with it from something like 5 or 6 stores EVERYDAY.

You could have sufficed with saying they steal lots of product, but you had to go overboard and invalidate your post.

Good job.

 

[Mr Person]

Like many people, every so often, I'm a little confused about this latest trend in New York and also San Francisco regarding not prosecuting shoplifters. thieves
and other social times. Of course, society tends to "Pass" on prosecuting the wealthy and the powerful...as it always has been.
I remember dating a city female prosecutor in my younger days. I also remember her saying a few times..(After I asked why the justice system is so weak with the rich) "There are powerful forces that you and the public just don't-want-to-know"
Yep, I'm confused and a little depressed about the whole damn justice system.

Well, you see, cities are blue and that alone proves that living near people that are different from you is evil. And because it's evil, those blue cities are all demon-infested Satan pits, crawling with all manner of vile scum. Open a shop, and it burns within a week. Poop and needles rain from the sky. Sometimes they come out of the sewer. It's a corpse-strewn hellscape, I tell you. That's why liberals should vote Republican.

This country has never waged War on Crime, you see. Never threw up massive mandatory minimums. Never made sure that cocaine was punished 100x more severely if it was that one that those people seem to be doing more often than Real Tough Patriots. Never had the highest incarceration rate in the entire ****ing worl.... heyyyy wait a minute.


This really does fall under the mindlessly attack blue cities rubric, not the crime rubric. Like immigration, they're looking for stunts and not solutions. I have trouble believing that anyone seriously believes that if we prosecute every last shoplifting case fully, that means someone else is going to decide not to try to snuff that rival gang member or murder the ex they thing belongs to them. It's loony tunes. What we're really doing is making harder criminals.

But dear God, you talk about maybe not going so hard after low-level stuff and shunting resources to things that attack the roots (ie, poverty) and you're accused of wanting to be nice to criminals. Criminals who, apparently should be treated as subhuman until they decide there's no point not trying to behave a subhuman, and then can be castigated for self-righteous effect all over again.

tl;dr What I'm trying to say is that I agree and our justice system is ****ed 11 ways from Sunday. The poor-rich disparity being only one of the ****ings.

 

[Mr Person]

Well, you see, cities are blue and that alone proves that living near people that are different from you is evil. And because it's evil, those blue cities are all demon-infested Satan pits, crawling with all manner of vile scum. Open a shop, and it burns within a week. Poop and needles rain from the sky. Sometimes they come out of the sewer. It's a corpse-strewn hellscape, I tell you. That's why liberals should vote Republican.

This country has never waged War on Crime, you see. Never threw up massive mandatory minimums. Never made sure that cocaine was punished 100x more severely if it was that one that those people seem to be doing more often than Real Tough Patriots. Never had the highest incarceration rate in the entire ****ing worl.... heyyyy wait a minute.


This really does fall under the mindlessly attack blue cities rubric, not the crime rubric. Like immigration, they're looking for stunts and not solutions. I have trouble believing that anyone seriously believes that if we prosecute every last shoplifting case fully, that means someone else is going to decide not to try to snuff that rival gang member or murder the ex they thing belongs to them. It's loony tunes. What we're really doing is making harder criminals.

But dear God, you talk about maybe not going so hard after low-level stuff and shunting resources to things that attack the roots (ie, poverty) and you're accused of wanting to be nice to criminals. Criminals who, apparently should be treated as subhuman until they decide there's no point not trying to behave a subhuman, and then can be castigated for self-righteous effect all over again.

tl;dr What I'm trying to say is that I agree and our justice system is ****ed 11 ways from Sunday. The poor-rich disparity being only one of the ****ings.

And more generally, I get it. Stealing is bad. Breaking windows is bad. But we're not God so pragmatism needs a role. And pragmatism is about finding the least worst solution given your moral floors and ceilings, but not entirely dictated by a desire to show one's morality by being "strong" in punishing something.

We do it the worst way possible. It's not just aggressively going after lower-level crime as criminal offenses (rather than, say, civil). It's wrapping it all in court fees that prevent a poor person from ever getting out from under it. It's all sorts of things. We make it damn near impossible to escape without great help once one has gotten "in", and you know what? We should be doing the opposite.

We should put improving the situation on a higher pedestal than showing how ****ing righteous we are by tilting every last part of our governmental and private systems towards punishing anything listed as a crime.


We're locking people in a cycle of poverty, people, and that inexorably leads to crime. WAKE UP!

 

[HIP56948]

And more generally, I get it. Stealing is bad. Breaking windows is bad. But we're not God so pragmatism needs a role. And pragmatism is about finding the least worst solution given your moral floors and ceilings, but not entirely dictated by a desire to show one's morality by being "strong" in punishing something.

We do it the worst way possible. It's not just aggressively going after lower-level crime as criminal offenses (rather than, say, civil). It's wrapping it all in court fees that prevent a poor person from ever getting out from under it. It's all sorts of things. We make it damn near impossible to escape without great help once one has gotten "in", and you know what? We should be doing the opposite.

We should put improving the situation on a higher pedestal than showing how ****ing righteous we are by tilting every last part of our governmental and private systems towards punishing anything listed as a crime.


We're locking people in a cycle of poverty, people, and that inexorably leads to crime. WAKE UP!

I understand what you're saying but I've wanted to tell my American acquaintances/friends (I haven't), that you can't treat sentient beings, no matter if they're dogs or humans with total disrespect and cruelty just because they don't fit your idea of the correct gene and DNA pool. Australians are certainly not much better but most of them realize that early treatment, kindness or not, and opportunities, or not for those beings goes many miles regarding how these beings will interact with modern social reality. True, what I'm saying is a given, but I've never understood (as an example) the treatment of the poor and other so-called lower classes, here in America. The constant and consistent derogatory feelings for other people that, most likely, had absolutely no input to the way that they happened to evolve into adults. I'm ignorant regarding the workings of the mind. I understand the workings of the universe (somewhat) but I can't grasp the workings of the human brain. Kinda' reminds me of someone who says "I completely understand Quantum mechanics" No..they don't. Nobody does.