New York City’s recent crime spike has nothing to do with impoverished residents being hungry, former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy said Wednesday.
In an interview on “America’s Newsroom” with host Sandra Smith, Gowdy blasted New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claims that the surge was due to struggling residents being forced to shoplift in order to “feed their child.”
“Republicans are all upset that I’m connecting the dots between poverty and crime,” the progressive tweeted Tuesday. “I know most of them haven’t experienced or seen these issues first hand, but I have. This may be hard for them to admit, but poverty and crime are highly linked, both violent & nonviolent alike.”
“God forbid my two decades in a courtroom compare with her experience as a bartender,” Gowdy remarked.
“Was the 1-year-old killed in New York because that child was holding a loaf of bread?” he asked. ” I mean, poor people are no more likely to cause you harm than rich people are. That is not the line of demarcation. It is not whether or not you are rich or poor; it is whether you are law-abiding or not law-abiding.”
“So, the spike in murder cases, the spike in auto theft, the spike in burglaries: what in the hell does that have to do with being hungry?” he exclaimed.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has reported a staggering increase in shootings and violent crimes in recent weeks, as officials warn there’s “a storm on the horizon” amid calls for changes. Shootings were up 130 percent for the month of June.
On Saturday, the 360aproko reported 15 shootings in 15 hours, just one week after the city saw a bloody July Fourth weekend with 44 shootings and at least eight killed.
Ocasio-Cortez also suggested in her town hall Sunday that sky-high rents in the Big Apple could be a contributing factor.
“Go check the criminal histories of the people committing these murders. See how many of them are committing their first criminal offense since the pandemic started and see how many of them are career offenders, where this is just the culmination of a lifetime of crime that resulted in murder,” Gowdy urged. “I’ll bet you they are not first-time offenders.”
He said he believes “anyone who believes in logic will take issue with her stance.”
“You can’t be evicted in New York. So, how can you be killing people because you are being evicted?” he concluded. “This is a state, a city run by Democrats. So, if they are having a hard time getting bread, she needs to look at her own party and not blame Republicans. We don’t run New York; she does.”
