“Hysteria,” she said. “Context,” she said. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insists that the skyrocketing crime that’s alarming — and victimizing — more Americans all the time is little more than hysteria that lacks context.

“We are seeing these headlines about percentage increases,” said the ex-bartender formerly known as Sandy Cortez. “Now, I want to say that any amount of harm is unacceptable and too much, but I also want to make sure that this hysteria, you know, that this doesn’t drive a hysteria and that we look at these numbers in context so that we can make responsible decisions about what to allocate in that context.”

Remember, AOC represents a congressional district in New York City — a city where, Fox News reports, “shooting incidents and murders have risen 53% and 13% since the beginning of the year.” A city where, according to the New York Post, “rapes were up 41.7 percent and robberies were up 21.3 percent” year over year. A city that when the electoral dust settles will have elected a pro-Second Amendment cop to be its next mayor because crime is a huge issue for voters.

AOC says she wants context, so if that’s not enough, let’s give her some more.

After the death of George Floyd under the knee of Derek Chauvin — for which the former Minneapolis police officer was convicted in April and sentenced last Friday to 22.5 years — Democrats fomented a war on cops that included defunding police and Black Lives Matter and antifa riots, which directly led to the surge in crime in American cities.

Given that AOC is the “new face of the Democratic Party,” and given that she often leads the cries for defunding police from the brave outpost of her social media feed and doubly secured congressional office, she bears at least some responsibility for the rise in crime.

It’s not hysteria to be alarmed at a drastic increase in violence, including murder, all over the nation. It’s not hysteria to say that race-baiters are sowing division based on a false narrative of “systemic racism” through the Marxist bludgeoning tool of “Critical Race Theory,” and that the result of this bitter tale of oppression and victimization has stoked violent rage among black men in particular — all while Democrats point the finger at “white supremacists.” It’s not hysteria to be outraged by the fact there’s been a 41% increase in police officers killed in the line of duty this year.

“AOC is mocking ordinary people as ‘hysterical’ who are afraid of violent crime in their neighborhood: people who, unlike her, don’t have reams of private security,” noted lefty journalist Glenn Greenwald. “Yet she just acted to ensure $2 billion more in spending on the police that protects her.”

Meanwhile, if anyone knows hysteria, it’s AOC. She claimed she was “almost” “murdered” during the January 6 “insurrection” and says she’s been in therapy to overcome the “trauma” of it all. Members of Congress at the Capitol that day, she said, effectively “served in war.”

Hysteria indeed.

No less than famed Democrat strategist James Carville has argued that Democrats are the ones who are tough on crime, and that it’s Donald Trump’s fault that this is all happening. Other Democrats are likewise blaming Republicans.

Joe Biden, of course, says it’s a problem of “gun violence.” That’s false.

AOC has a different tack — pretending there’s not much to worry about if only “we look at these numbers in context.” Well, the context is damning for Democrats.