While members of a group of Democratic House representatives known as The Squad push to defund police departments in the United States, it appears that these very same people are “among the biggest spenders on personal security”, claims retired MTA-Metro North Railroad Police captain Dorothy Moses Schulz, an emerita professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
As Schulz pointed out in an article on posted on City Journal, Squad members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush all support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, with Bush sponsoring the BREATHE Act, which “calls for total elimination of federal law enforcement agencies”.
Bush, between 15 April and 28 June, spent nearly $70,000 in campaign funds on personal security, with Schulz claiming that the figure is "almost $20,000 above the median household income for residents in her district."
In an interview with CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers last month, Bush remarked that she has private security because her body “is worth being on this planet right now”.
"They would rather I die? You would rather me die? Is that what you want to see? You want to see me die? You know, because that could be the alternative," she said. "So either I spent $70,000 on private security over the last few months, and I'm here standing now and able to speak, able to help save 11 million people from being evicted. Or – I could possibly have a death attempt on my life."
AOC spend $4,000 on security during the second quarter of this year, with Schulz describing it as a “big drop” from more that $45,000 the representative spent in the first quarter.
Pressley’s spending on security reportedly amounted to "more than $4,000" in the first quarter and “more than $3,500” in the second quarter of this year, while Omar "reduced her security bills in the second quarter, from slightly over $3,000 to $2,800".
It was Jamaal Bowman, however, that Schulz branded as the winner of the “chutzpah competition”, as the congressman, who has called some cops agents of “white supremacy”, asked for and received a special police detail to guard his home in Yonkers following the 6 January riots at the Capitol Hill.
"Congressman Bowman’s cry for extra policing at his home is hypocrisy at its worst," claimed Keith Olson, president of the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association, to the New York Post. "Not long ago, the Congressman called for dramatically less policing in the most violent, crime ridden neighborhoods … Asking these same police officers to protect your family while creating policies that make communities of color less safe is simply disgraceful."