AOC says some poor people in US have ‘no choice but to riot’

‘Social destabilisation is what happens when people do not have a plan or feel like there’s no vision for their future’

Poverty in the United States is so bad that some people “have no choice but to riot”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said.

The firebrand Democratic congresswoman argued when a community is so marginalised it has no hope for the future the only option is to take to the streets.

Speaking in an interview with a New York radio station, the 29-year-old said the situation was even comparable with the plight of the Palestinians.

“Once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and marginalized... once someone doesn’t have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot,” she said.

The comments came during a discussion about the Israel-Palestine dispute, but Ms Ocasio-Cortez said it applied far beyond the Middle East.

“I’m not even talking about Palestinians,” she said. “I’m talking about communities in poverty in the United States, I’m talking about Latin America, I’m talking about all over the world.”

“Social destabilisation is what happens when people do not have a plan or feel like there’s no vision for their future.”

America has seen this take place before, she added, noting her own district of the Bronx had seen riots during the 1960s by poor and black communities.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has previously argued that the United States should raise taxes on millionaires, arguing it is “immoral” to allow the rich to hoard more and more wealth “when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health”.

She also hit back during the radio interview at Donald Trump, who has retweeted attacks on the congresswoman describing her as anti-American and fostering “hatred” of Israel.

“There’s this conversation that gets started – and frankly, it’s advanced by the right wing – that, if you engage in any critique, that must mean that you are against the existence of a nation,” she said.

“But we don’t engage in any other country like that. We don’t talk about the UK like that. If you critique any other country, they don’t say, ‘Do you believe in Britain’s right to exist?’”

Her comments have sparked anger among some of her political opponents, however.

Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said: “Ocasio-Cortez could be forgiven for being ignorant about history, about Israel, or about the Jewish community, but these comments don’t come from a place of ignorance,” said Matt Brooks, ­executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“They come from an intolerance of Jews and Israel that is unacceptable in the halls of Congress and in American political ­discourse.”