AOC, House Dems Demand Probe Into Supposed Wave of ‘Modern-Day Lynchings,’ Claiming ‘Racial Terror’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several other House Democrats are being accused of fomenting racial strife with a letter saying that dozens of reported suicides should be investigated as lynchings. Most of the victims were black men found hanging from trees.Nearly 60 members of Congress — including Ayanna Pressley and Al Green — joined Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in signing the letter to the Department of Justice and the FBI, saying they are “extremely” concerned about the black Americans who were found “hanging in public.”“Each of their deaths should be treated with the utmost seriousness and investigated without bias by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the lawmakers wrote. “For decades, the DOJ and FBI ignored widespread lynchings which motivated more killings. Inaction by the federal government is tantamount to complicity.”Critics, however, say the alarm is unwarranted. Typical of the pushback is a post on X from an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University, Wilfred Reilly, who wrote, “It really is disgraceful — all group banter aside —- when leaders promote this sort of baseless hysteria.”“Suicides, especially males, often hang themselves, shoot themselves in remote rural areas, etc.,” he said. “If you falsely re-define them as ‘lynching,’ old school grievance might creep back onto the menu.”The letter references a report from a non-profit, JULIAN, which was founded in 2020 by an attorney, Jill Collen Jefferson, with the goal of documenting hate crimes and investigating what it deems to be racially suspicious deaths.JULIAN specifically focuses on recategorizing cases of suicide as lynchings and urging law enforcement agencies to reopen investigations. In February 2026, the group released a report suggesting that, based on its own investigations, there have been 70 lynchings in America between 2000 and 2025. The Democratic lawmakers wrote in their letter that in 2026 there “have already been at least 10 reported hangings of black people.”An outlet focused on black Americans, theGrio, first obtained the letter and noted it has been tracking incidents of reported hangings. It referenced the deaths of Demetrius Eugene Fleming, Juliana Nzita, Tasia Fortune, Kyle Bassinga, and Jerard Jackson. In most of the cases, law enforcement ruled the deaths as suicides. In February, Bassinga was found hanging in a wooded area in Cobb County, Georgia. The Cobb County Police Department said there were no signs of foul play and that his death was not suspicious. In a statement, Bassinga’s family thanked the community for its support and said they trusted the process behind the investigation. In some cases, influencers and civil rights attorneys have questioned whether the deaths were actually suicides. Social media users have called for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department to reopen its investigation into the death of Nzita, who was found hanging in a churchyard in May. Police did not perform an autopsy but said that a physical examination did not show evidence of defensive wounds or assault. Police are, however, investigating the death of Fortune, who was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi on August 3, as a homicide. There were other cases that theGrio deemed suspicious, such as the case of Earl Smith, who was found hanging from a tree at Albany, New York. Social media users speculated that Smith had been lynched but the Albany Police Department said that “based on the findings from the Medical Examiner’s Office, the death has been ruled a suicide. There is no evidence to indicate that any criminal activity was involved.”“We have thoroughly investigated this incident and can confirm that the theories circulating online are not accurate,” the department added. The Democratic lawmakers are urging the DOJ and the FBI to revisit the cases, audit the local police departments’ investigations, and, where possible, conduct their own autopsies. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X that she was “proud” to sign onto the letter to “address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror.”Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley wrote on X, “Black folks are being found hanged in America. This is a national crisis and we CANNOT stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country. We’re demanding a federal investigation NOW so we can stop modern-day lynchings.”Mr. Green called for a congressional hearing to “investigate reports of what may be extrajudicial killings (lynchings) of black Americans found hanging from nooses in America.”Criticism of the letter has come from, among others, a former Republican Senate staffer, Matthew Whitlock, who wrote to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on X saying, “Every death is a tragedy — but what do you think ‘widespread’ means if only one of these was actually a homicide. Not sure you’ve landed the point about ‘racial terror’ with this.”“A great example of disinformation used to foment racial strife. A Chinese or Russian bot couldn’t have done any better,” wrote the co-founder of RealClearPolitics, Tom Bevan.An author at the Bulwark, Cathy Young, wrote, “It looks like these are suicides + one domestic violence-related murder. Extremely irresponsible for Pressley & AOC to make such unsubstantiated claims.”The Department of Justice did not respond to The New York Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

AOC, House Dems Demand Probe Into Supposed Wave of ‘Modern-Day Lynchings,’ Claiming ‘Racial Terror’

AOC, House Dems Demand Probe Into Supposed Wave of ‘Modern-Day Lynchings,’ Claiming ‘Racial Terror’

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