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American politician and activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a.k.a. AOC, sparked debate online after she pretended to be handcuffed during an abortion-rights protest outside the Supreme Court.
On July 19, the 32-year-old lawmaker, along with Carolyn Maloney, was ushered away by a policeman after she blocked traffic outside the court premises. A viral video shows AOC smirking while holding her hands behind her back in an apparent handcuffed position.
After taking a few steps, she raised a fist in solidarity with the protestors before crossing her wrists behind her back again in a handcuffed pose, even though she was not restrained.
Several netizens bashed Cortez for faking the pose when law enforcement approached her and Maloney. However, it remains unclear if the Capitol police officer asked her to keep her hands behind or not.
AOC's actions outside the Supreme Court fuels intense debate on Twitter
At the time of writing this story, the video of AOC pretending to be handcuffed had garnered 7.2 million views on Twitter. Cortez was slammed for her faux pose, with many netizens calling her out for misleading people during such a serious protest.
However, a few Twitter users hailed the Democrat for representing women's rights outside the US Supreme Court and bashed those stating that AOC "pretended" to get arrested for media attention even though she was protesting against the Roe v. Wade overturn peacefully.
What else happened during the protest?
As per The Guardian, lawmakers stood outside the US Capitol on Tuesday, July 19, and chanted phrases like "we won't go back" and "our bodies, our choice."
Aside from AOC, some other politicians present in the protest were Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush. They were sitting in the middle of the street when a squad of police authorities surrounded them and announced that they will be arrested for creating an obstruction on the street.
Authorities then began escorting the politicians present there to a location away from the street.
Capitol Police reported that out of a total of 35 people taken into custody during the protests, 17 were Congress members.
After Ocasio-Cortez received criticism online for faking her arrest by a law enforcement official, she took to her Instagram story to address the situation and said:
“Republicans’ favorite hobby is to make conspiracy theories out of everything to distract you and keep you from talking about what’s actually important — which is the fact that they are trying to take away your right to bodily autonomy. If I was faking that, why would I intentionally first pump somebody? It’s so silly.”
On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which proclaimed a constitutional right to abortion. With the new ruling, abortions have now been banned or are on the brink of being banned in 60 percent of American states.
