Holly MatkinWashington, DC – Four left-wing Democrat U.S. House representatives collectively known as “The Squad” have been doling out tens of thousands of dollars for their own private security, all while demanding police be defunded.
Representative Maxine Waters (D-California) didn’t bother with paying for private security when she traveled from Washington, DC to Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on Sunday night to call on activists at a Daunte Wright protest to take to the streets and get “confrontational” if former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin wasn’t found guilty for the murder of George Floyd.
She simply asked U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) to escort her on the taxpayers’ dime, the Washington Examiner reported.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Representative Cori Bush (D-Missouri), Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) spent a combined total of $79,559.81 on security services from January through March, the Daily Caller reported.
During the first three months of this year alone, Ocasio-Cortez shelled out $39,667.45 for “security,” while Bush paid $32,602 for similar “services,” according to the news outlet.
Pressley paid $4,186.75 for her security, and Omar doled out $3,103.61, the Daily Caller reported.
The members of “The Squad” have been extremely vocal about their anti-police agendas.
Ocasio-Cortez balked when New York slashed $1 billion from its police budget last year, and demanded a bigger hit, The Hill reported.
“Defunding police means defunding police,” she said in a statement at the time. “It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools.”
Bush lashed out at former President Barrack Obama in a tweet late last year after he criticized the “defund the police” slogan.
“With all due respect, Mr. President…we’re losing our loved ones to police violence,” Bush tweeted on Dec. 1, 2020. “It’s not a slogan. It’s a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police.”
With all due respect, Mr. President—let’s talk about losing people. We lost Michael Brown Jr. We lost Breonna Taylor. We’re losing our loved ones to police violence.
It’s not a slogan. It’s a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police. https://t.co/Wsxp1Y1bBi
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) December 2, 2020
Pressley said during an interview last year that defunding law enforcement puts society “on a pathway to reimagining how we ensure the health and safety or communities,” Boston.com reported.
“If you really believe that black lives matter, it is in how we legislate and it is in how we move on these budgets,” she said at the time. “It’s about the investments that we make.”
“There will be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in lives of black Americans,” Pressley added. “The tipping point has been these most recent murders of unarmed black folk, but that’s not the only reason people are in the street. They are in the street because of the unjust outcomes across every issue, from housing to transportation to education to health care.”
Omar declared last year that the Minneapolis Police Department needs to be dismantled because it is “rotten to the root,” The Hill reported.
“You can’t really reform a department that is rotten to the root. What you can do is rebuild,” Omar said at the time. “And so, this is our opportunity, you know, as a city to come together and have the conversation of what public safety looks like, who enforces the most dangerous crimes that take place in our community.”
Although not part of “The Squad,” Waters is also well-known for her anti-police antics and repeated attempts to whip protesters into a frenzy.
“I’m here from Washington, D.C., because I could not sleep, I could not rest, I could not be satisfied that another young black man has been killed by police,” Waters, 82, told a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn Center on Saturday night. “I’m here to say that I stand with you, I stand with his family, and I stand with everybody who cares about justice.”
Maxine Waters is marching in Brooklyn Center tonight and told people to take to the streets if Chauvin is acquitted pic.twitter.com/RemfvCCLAn
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 18, 2021
The congresswoman who infamously urged protesters to harass Trump administration staffers in restaurants and on the street in 2018 called for protests to continue and proceeded to call for jurors to find Chauvin guilty of “first-degree murder.”
“And so, yes I would like to see the bill in Congress pass on police reform but I know the right wing – the racists – are opposed to it and I don’t know what’s going to happen to this. But I know this, we’ve got to stay in the streets and we’ve got to demand justice,” Waters told the crowd in a video from the gathering.
“We’re looking for a guilty verdict,” she continued. “We’re looking for a guilty verdict and we’re looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place after they saw what happened to George Floyd. If nothing does not happen, then we know that we have got to not only stay in the street but we have got to fight for justice.”
“But I’m very hopeful,” Waters told the assembled crowd of protesters. “And I hope that we’re going to get a verdict that will say guilty guilty guilty. And if we don’t, we cannot go away.”
She told reporters that a manslaughter verdict from the jury wouldn’t be sufficient, the video showed.
“Oh no, not manslaughter,” Waters insisted. “This is guilty for murder. I don’t know whether it’s in the first degree but as far as I’m concerned, it’s first-degree murder.”
Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill, who is presiding over Chauvin’s trial, acknowledged in court that Water’s calls for guilty verdicts could result in “the whole trial being overturned.”
“We have U.S. representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case. It’s mind-boggling to me judge,” Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, told the judge after the jury left the courtroom to begin deliberations on April 19.
Cahill agreed.
“Well, I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” the judge said.
“This goes back to what I’ve been saying since the beginning,” Cahill told the attorneys. “I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function.”
“I think if they want to give their opinions, they should do so… in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution and to respect a co-equal branch of government. Their failure to do so is abhorrent,” the judge ranted, showing the most emotion he has ever displayed during the trial.
Waters later disputed allegations that her comments could be grounds for defense to appeal, the Washington Examiner reported.
