Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the latest New Yorker to criticize the NYPD over their dance team.
“How many school music programs were defunded because of this?” the Democratic Socialist asked while sharing a clip of the dance team on X on Monday.
While the team was created in 2022, it sparked backlash over the weekend after appearing on local television.
The very public promotion of the seven-officer team comes as New Yorkers worry about the city’s ongoing immigration crisis and a recent wave of crimes involving asylum seekers.
Still, some of AOC’s own critics took her position as an opportunity to criticize her and her progressive politics.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the latest New Yorker to criticize the NYPD over their dance team.
While the team was created in 2022, it sparked backlash over the weekend after appearing on local television.
One comment read: ‘How many school buildings were closed to immigrants @AOC?’
Another said: “Isn’t this the kind of police you like, the ones who don’t actually enforce the laws?”
Others found common ground with the controversial congresswoman after her tweet targeting the dance team.
One X user said: “This is the kind of ‘defund the police’ I think we could both agree on.”
Members of the dance team are apparently aware of the backlash, and the team’s vice president, Lauren Pagan, defends the initiative.
“I’m just answering 911 calls all day, all day, all day off the list until it’s time to go home,” he said.
‘The music is amazing. And when I sit here and listen to 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 it here.’
Martinez said the club was designed to give officers a place to “express themselves creatively.”
“We have a dance team because mental health takes a toll doing this work,” she explained.
The dance group’s recent appearance in local media comes at a time when highly publicized cases of anti-immigrant crime have drawn attention and robberies continue 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 be bused from Texas, where record numbers are crossing the border.
In one of the most viral incidents last month, three New York police officers were beaten by a group of immigrants in Times Square and left with minor injuries.
In another case, a 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant opened fire in a sneaker store during an attempted robbery.
He was arrested and charged as an adult after the bullet hit a Brazilian tourist and he continued shooting at police while fleeing.
More than 170,000 immigrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022.
That number only increases as Texas Governor Greg Abbot continues busing people north in retaliation for the federal government’s border policy.
Appearing on ‘Good Day New York’ in January, Mayor Eric Adams estimated between 2,500 and 4,000 new arrivals each week.
However, the NYPD touted declines in several major crime rates in January.
Murders fell 25 percent; rape by 24.4 percent; burglary by 19.8 percent; grand theft of automobiles, 3.8 percent; and felony assault by 1.5 percent.
Additionally, arrests for all felonies citywide increased 5.7 percent year over year.
But statistics for other types of theft-related crimes saw an increase: robbery rose 5.4 percent, while grand theft saw a 0.4 percent increase last month.
The department attributed the increase to “organized pickpocket teams” and so-called “exuberant workers” who attacked drunk or sleeping victims on the subway.