The north may not remember, but 9 August this year marked the 12th anniversary(周年纪念日) of the police killing of Michael Brown Jr(迈克尔·布朗，警察暴力受害者) in Ferguson, Missouri. That day, the US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reassured(使安心，向……保证) an ABC news anchor that she, like other progressive politicians and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates, had “moved away” from statements they made during the pandemic, particularly on police and prison abolition(废除（制度），废奴主义). Questioned further, she explained:
北方或许不记得，但今年8月9日是迈克尔·布朗在密苏里州弗格森被警察杀害12周年。当天，美国众议员亚历山德里娅·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯向美国广播公司新闻主播保证，她和其他进步派政客及美国民主社会主义者（DSA）候选人一样，已经“远离”了他们在疫情期间发表的言论，尤其是关于废除警察和监狱的言论。在进一步追问下，她解释道：
“I have a local city councilman that has this saying: ‘Woke 1(觉醒1.0（贬义指早期激进觉醒）) was crazy’… especially during Covid, I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain(考虑，怀有（想法）) any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful(富有成效的). I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down.(我认为我们今天谈论犯罪的方式与过去降低犯罪率时的方式根本不同。) And I think that we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric(修辞，花言巧语) in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. And I’m grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they’re campaigning on in this moment.”
“我有一位当地市议员有句话：‘觉醒1.0是疯狂的’……尤其是在新冠疫情期间，我认为当时大门敞开，我们愿意尝试任何能让我们变得更好的政策。我确实认为那时的讨论相当富有成效。我认为，当我们今天谈论犯罪时，与我们在降低犯罪率时谈论犯罪的方式已根本不同。我认为我们都认同尽可能降低犯罪率的目标。我认为，你知道，在封锁期间，当然，那时的言论不是我们今天会使用的言论。我很感激这些候选人有机会向选民展示他们是谁，以及他们此刻的竞选主张。”
A few days later, on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani, the progressive New York mayor, who has previously stated that his pandemic-era tweets supporting the defund movement were “out of step(不合拍，不一致)” with where he is now, chimed in(插话，插嘴) on Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, saying: “Sometimes what you believe in can change. I know there are some for whom they still believe in that. I’ve made very clear that I do not believe in defunding(削减（警察）经费) the police and that to me, delivering critical public safety also looks like working with our police department alongside many other partners.”
几天后，周三，进步派纽约市长佐赫兰·马姆达尼此前曾表示，他疫情期间支持削减警察经费运动的推文与现在的立场“不合拍”，他对奥卡西奥-科尔特斯的言论插话道：“有时你相信的东西会改变。我知道有些人仍然相信那一点。我已经明确表示，我不相信削减警察经费，对我来说，提供关键的公共安全也意味着与我们的警察部门以及许多其他合作伙伴合作。”