What these neighborhoods really need is a “Squad” car.
Major crime rose by an eye-popping 70% in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Bronx and Queens district since the ‘defund the police’ socialist lawmaker took office in 2019 — more than double the citywide increase of 30% over that same span, a Post analysis of NYPD data shows.
The 110th Precinct in Queens, which covers part of the infamous “Market of Sweethearts” human-trafficking and prostitution mecca on Roosevelt Avenue, saw a 105% surge, the highest increase of any NYC precinct in that period.
Major crimes consist of murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft.
The 115th Precinct, which also serves part of Roosevelt Avenue in addition to Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, and north Corona, saw major offenses rise by 85%.
The other four precincts in her Queens-Bronx congressional district similarly saw major-crime increases higher than the citywide average.
Some residents blamed the increasingly lawlessness squarely on the no-show lawmaker.
“She’s not doing s–t. She doesn’t live in the neighborhood, she doesn’t care,” vented Elmhurst resident Guadelupe Alvarez, who has lived in the 110th Precinct her whole life and is one of several constituents who ripped the jet-setting absentee “Squad” member for letting the district turn to “trash” while she focuses on elevating herself on the national stage.
Alvarez, 34, a former AOC supporter, has had to endure a brothel setting up across the street from her childhood home, and the drunken men she says constantly swarm in and out of the place. She said she also regularly witnesses gang activity, car thefts and assaults, but nothing gets done.
She used to dream of building a life in the neighborhood, but not anymore.
“I can’t wait to get – pardon my language – the f–k out of here. It makes me so sad that they’ve done that to push me out of my neighborhood. And I’m not the only one. . . . I could never have a family here.”
Alvarez tried raising the issue with Ocasio-Cortez when she met her at a town hall in the Bronx last year, but got nowhere.
“I asked, ‘Are you aware of how horrible it’s gotten? When was the last time you were in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst?’ She ignored me and told me, ‘You can ask this person questions’ … who I guess was her assistant. She did a very silent exit through the back.
“I think it’s disrespectful. You’re there because of people from my community, and you’re not doing s–t for our community.”
Elmhurst’s Ramses Frias, a Republican City Council candidate, also lambasted the absentee AOC.
“You have a mouth to speak up. People are suffering. They’re scared to go outside,” he told The Post.
Residents even pleaded with the federal government in January to clean up the streets, telling them illegal brothels, brazen gang activity and regular assaults have made it a public safety emergency.
AOC has kept quiet on rising crime in her district.
For a brief period, it worked, but was back to business as usual by March, with prostitutes offering sex in broad daylight, elderly people getting pushed down the stairs, and random beatings and robberies.
Not only is AOC mum on crime, critics say, her inflammatory anti-cop rhetoric has contributed to the unprecedented recruitment crisis at the NYPD.
“Nobody wants to be a police officer, it’s been so villainized,” said Hannah Meyers, director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute. “And that affects every function that the police do.
“It’s her district, she’s supposed to be looking out for people there. She has such a myopic focus on race,” she added, noting that most of the victims of crime in her district are black or Hispanic. “You’re not helping the victims of crime by talking about how the system is racist.
“Rhetoric is really powerful,” said Meyers.
At the height of the defund the police movement, Ocasio-Cortez slammed a proposed $1.5 billion cut to the NYPD as not going far enough. That year, New York Finest’s canceled an incoming cadet class that would have added 1,163 officers to the force.
“Defunding police means defunding police,” the socialist lawmaker declared in June 2020. She has since doubled down, in 2021 brushing off concerns about rising crime as “hysteria,” and in 2022, arguing “police budgets have nothing to do with crime levels.” Last year, she and other “Squad” members voted against a resolution condemning efforts to defund local law enforcement agencies.
“She talks about the whole fighting the oligarchy, and that’s what she’s all about – the poor people. And yet most people in her district are fearful, they don’t feel like they can walk out the door without encountering a drug dealer or a purse snatcher or a hooker,” said National Police Association’s Betsy Brantner Smith.
“And that goes against everything that you know she stands for. If you don’t feel safe, you’re not free.”
For the analysis, The Post looked at the NYPD’s historical crime data for the seven major felony offenses for the precincts that remained part of Ocasio-Cortez’s 14th Congressional district throughout her time in office — the 43rd and 45th precincts in the Bronx, and the 109th, 110th, 114th and 115th precincts in Queens.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not return The Post’s request for comment.
