BLUF:
This is another example of “rules for thee but not for me.” If “The Squad” truly believed defunding the police was a good idea, they wouldn’t hire off-duty cops for self-protection. ……….It’s time for them to sit down, shut up, and put their money where their mouth is. They should have to live like the rest of us, even if they are in the public eye.

No Surprise: ‘Squad’ Members Pay the Most in Private Security While Working to Abolish the Police

Over the last few years, “The Squad” – comprised of Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Cori Bush (D-MO) – have worked to “defund the police.” Although they continually say stupid things, like they want to “reimagining” what policing in the United States looks like, the reality is simple: they want to do away with law enforcement agencies across the country.

Americans across the country rely on two things to keep themselves and their families safe: law enforcement and/or their Second Amendment rights. When an emergency takes place, most people call 911 and know at least one law enforcement officer will be there to help them in their time of need.

What’s amazing – although not surprising – is “The Squad” wants to do away with emergency services for you and me. But that decision wouldn’t impact them. In fact, the five women have spent a large sum of money on local law enforcement officers for private security. That’s right. Our lives aren’t worth protecting but theirs are.

But the real kicker? They spent more than any other House members on private security.

The New York Post broke down their security costs:

In the two months between April 15 and June 28, Bush spent nearly $70,000 of her campaign funds on personal security, the most of any House lawmaker. That’s almost $20,000 above the median household income for residents in her district, which covers St. Louis and adjacent communities. Bush, who often wears a Black Lives Matter or a “Y’All Gone Stop Killing Us!” t-shirt, says she believes defunding the police would prevent the deaths of people like Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor. But it’s unclear who would stop the killing that would then ensue. Of the 130 homicide victims in St. Louis so far this year, half of whose residents are African-American, all but ten victims were African-American (98 men and 22 women). The vast majority of these involved firearms — not one fired by a police officer. …

Though Bush’s security payments made up a third of her roughly $200,000 second-quarter campaign expenditures, most of that portion—$54,120.92 — went to RS&T Security Consulting, a New York firm with two addresses in Manhattan and a website under construction. The sole local recipient, Nathaniel Davis, whose address is the same as Bush’s campaign committee, received three payments totaling $15,000.

AOC has spent less on security and kept some of that spending local. The $4,000 she spent during 2021’s second quarter represented a big drop from more than $45,000 in the first quarter. Though she represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, about $35,000 of Ocasio-Cortez’s local spending in the first quarter went to firms with Brooklyn addresses, including three payments of $3,000 each to C’est Bon Collective and two payments totaling about $25,000 to Three Bridges, LLC. In February, she also paid a Houston firm $1,552.50 to provide personal security when she visited the city during its hurricane-relief efforts.

Like RS&T, the firm used by Bush, neither C’est Bon nor Three Bridges provide much online information about their businesses. But Tullis Worldwide Protection, the Virginia firm that Ocasio-Cortez paid about $4,000 in January, touts the experience of its CEO, Devin Tullis, including stints with private military contractor Blackwater, whose employees were accused of committing war crimes in Iraq. Questioned about his work for AOC, Tullis said little but noted that he is “not hiring social workers”—the Squad’s preferred option to replace police.

Pressley and Omar were more modest than their colleagues in their security expenditures, but they still spent far more than most House members. Pressley spent more than $4,000 in the first quarter of 2021 and more than $3,500 in the second quarter. While some of her spending was local, she employed a Virginia company in January and a Washington, D.C., firm in March. Omar also reduced her security bills in the second quarter, from slightly over $3,000 to $2,800, all spent locally in St. Paul and nearby Ramsey, Minnesota.

This is another example of “rules for thee but not for me.” If “The Squad” truly believed defunding the police was a good idea, they wouldn’t hire off-duty cops for self-protection. If “The Squad” believed social workers could deescalate situations that law enforcement officers would otherwise handle, they would hire social workers to travel with them to handle scenarios that would typically require private security.

It’s time for them to sit down, shut up, and put their money where their mouth is. They should have to live like the rest of us, even if they are in the public eye.