Collectively, “Squad” members have spent almost $100,000 on private security in the last financial quarter, despite their heavy defund the police rhetoric.
Federal Election Commission records show that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent over $10,000 on private security with Cest Bond Collective, Three Bridges NY LLC, and Tullis World Wide Protection.
Following the death of George Floyd, Ocasio-Cortez said “Defunding police means defunding police”. “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,” she added.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., spent less than half of AOC’s bill, using only $4,000 on private security.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Cori Bush, D-Mo, however, have each spent more than AOC and Pressley combined.
It was revealed in Ilhan Omar’s FEC records that the representative has spent over $22,000 on private security with Aegis Logistics LLC and Lloyd Security Services.
Last year, Omar called the Minneapolis Police Department “rotten to the root”. She also stated “What we are saying is the current infrastructure that exists as policing in our city should not exist anymore, and we can’t go about creating a different process with the same infrastructure in place”.
Between July and late September, Cori Bush’s campaign spent $64,141.26 on private security. The payments were given to multiple firms including Peace Security, RS&T Security Consulting, Aegis Logistics, Whole Armor Executive Protection & Security, and Nathaniel Davis. Those payments are also sent to the same address as her campaign headquarters.