AOC Outraged over Woman Taken in Unmarked Police Vehicle, NYPD Says She’s Wanted for Damaging Police Cameras

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) talks with reporters at the US Capitol, as the House r
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

The New York Police Department (NYPD) addressed the viral video of a woman being taken in an unmarked police vehicle — which drew ire from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — explaining that she was wanted for damaging police cameras “during 5 separate criminal incidents.”

NYPD added that arresting officers were “assaulted” with both rocks and bottles.

“Our civil liberties are on (the) brink. This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans. To not protect our rights is to give them away,” Ocasio-Cortez said, sharing an ACLU video of what they described as an abduction.

“It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism,” she added:

NYPD addressed the viral video in a series of tweets, explaining that the woman was wanted for damaging police cameras on several occasions.

“In regard to a video on social media that took place at 2 Ave & 25 St, a woman taken into custody in an unmarked van was wanted for damaging police cameras during 5 separate criminal incidents in & around City Hall Park,” NYPD said, adding that arresting officers were “assaulted with rocks & bottles.”

The department further explained that officers from the Warrant Squad use unmarked vehicles to “effectively locate wanted suspects.”

“When officers from the Warrant Squad took the woman into custody in a gray NYPD minivan this evening, they were assaulted with rocks and bottles,” the department said. “The Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.”

“When she was placed into the Warrant Squad’s unmarked gray minivan, it was behind a cordon of NYPD bicycle cops in bright yellow and blue uniform shirts there to help effect the arrest,” NYPD added:

Demonstrators expressed similar outrage this month following reports of federal officers detaining protesters in Portland, which has been ravaged by violent protests for weeks, in unmarked vehicles.

Ocasio-Cortez, a vocal supporter of the calls to “defund the police,” is pushing a bill requiring federal law enforcement officers to identify their agency, last name, and identification number while on duty, declaring that the “United States of America should not have secret police.”

Federal Protective Service (FPS) Deputy Director of Operations Richard Cline revealed last week that they were converting officers’ names to their badge number because over three dozen of their officers had been doxxed:

“We are going to convert their name to their badge number because about 38 of our officers that are out there have been doxxed and their personal information has been put online,” he said.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.