Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went viral after she was recorded in a heated exchange with protesters who demanded she label the ongoing crisis in Gaza a “genocide.” The New York lawmaker was leaving a Brooklyn movie theater with her partner Riley Roberts when the exchange took place.
“You refuse to call it a genocide,” someone off-camera can be heard saying.
Ocasio-Cortez then responds: “I need you to understand that this is not OK.
The protester then proceeds to state “It’s not OK that there’s a genocide happening and you’re not actively against it,” to which the legislator responds “You’re lying.”
The demonstrators then follow her as she leaves the building.
“Over 30,000 people are dead AOC, can’t you just say it for once? Just say the word—that’s it, that’s all we want you to say,” another protestor can be heard saying.
As they all walk outside, Roberts attempts to deescalate the melee by requesting the protestors to stop.
“Stop,” he said. “OK? Stop.” “We’re not doing anything.”
“We’re just talking to an elected public official,” a protestor responds.
AOC is then seen speaking to a person who is recording the encounter stating: “You’re gonna cut this and you’re gonna clip this so that it’s completely out of context. I already said that it was. And ya’ll are just gonna pretend that it wasn’t, over and again.”
“It’s fucked up, man. And you’re not helping these people.”
The video ends with Ocasio-Cortez stating “you’re not helping them.”
In 2022, Shine My Crown reported that the Bronx-born representative received a high level of threats since taking office.
The representative for New York’s 14th congressional district said it took her two-and-a-half years to receive the additional requests she needed for her safety. She also expressed concern that members of Congress who are not high-ranking are more likely to be in harm’s way.
“In Queens, a man who had traveled across the country waited in a cafe across the street from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office to confront her, part of a near-constant stream of threats and harassment that has prompted the congresswoman to switch her sleeping location at times and seek protection from a 24-hour security detail,” the report reads.
After Capitol Police saw a perceived “threatening” tweet directed at Ocasio-Cortez, officials granted her extra security, although she didn’t quite understand why they granted her the additional protection at that time.
“When I saw what it was, I was like, ‘I’ve gotten so much worse,’” she said. “Why now?”
The congresswoman, who has been in office since 2019, said that party leaders informed her that more death threats than any other member in Congress except Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Her office has had trouble keeping up with the amount of threats, which have since increased since the riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, she said.
Ocasio-Cortez has now implemented a system that includes the furnishing of a daily document containing images of individuals who have issued threats in order to easily point out and avoid such people, she added. Last year, her office spent over $120,000 on security.
“You are now extra tasked with providing and coming up with your own financial resources for your own safety,” she said.
The Capitol Police adheres to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of a threat, which represents “statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.”
