[1]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress

“We are defunding our public schools, defunding our public pools,
defunding our parks, defunding our libraries. When we are taking all of
these resources and demanding that every single department – except the
militarized one – be cut, we are sending a message about who and what we
care about.” - AOC

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On The Daily Show last night, Alexandria gave Jordan Klepper a look inside
a cutting edge program in The Bronx that is hands down one of the most
effective treatments we’ve seen to reduce incidents of violence.

Alexandria secured federal funding for the Stand Up to Violence Program
that runs out of Jacobi Hospital (a PUBLIC hospital!) which has shown a
46% reduction in retaliatory violence for participants in just a few short
years. 

Here’s what Alexandria had to say about violence interruption:

[ [link removed] ]Alexandria walking down hallway with Jordan Klepper

What the data has shown us is that if you respond to violence as a public
health issue, instead of as an incarceration issue, violence decreases.
And that’s what we’re doing here at Jacobi Hospital [in The Bronx]. 

There’s security presence and police presence that is standard in any
hospital, but that’s not what this program is about. In the traditional
response to an incidence of violence – a shooting, or a stabbing – you may
go to the ER real quick, and you get patched up, and then you go straight
to the precinct. 

What we decided to do is say ‘Let's shift the response and see what
happens when we make the center of the response a hospital, instead of a
jail.’ 

And we have case workers, we have social workers, we have therapists, and
we also have people who themselves were once incarcerated. Some of our
most effective people in this work are the former gang members, people who
formerly spent time at Rikers.

We are now at a point [in New York City], officially, where most officers
are paid more than a teacher with a masters degree serving these same kids
involved in these same incidents. We are defunding safety, defunding our
public schools, defunding our public pools, defunding our parks, defunding
our libraries. When we are taking all of these resources and demanding
that every single department except the militarized one be cut, we are
sending a message about who and what we care about. 

[ [link removed] ]Alexandria believes that we can reduce gun violence without expanding
mass incarceration. If you agree, please chip in $3 right
now to keep her in Congress fighting for real, community-based solutions
that work to address the root cause of violence.



[ [link removed] ]Contribute $3



If we want to reduce violent crime and lower the number of people in our
jails, the answer is to stop building more of them and instead, build more
hospitals and get people mental health care, overall health care, and
employment. We must support communities, not throw them away. 

In solidarity,

Team AOC

 

P.S. To watch AOC’s full interview on The Daily Show, [ [link removed] ]click here.

 


 

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