Cynthia Nixon, former New York City mayoral candidate and Sex and the City actress, took to Twitter to share a potentially controversial political opinion about the “criminalization of poverty.” Nixon shared an article about the rise in shoplifting basic necessities and how some candidates for the New York district attorney didn’t believe in prosecuting in these instances of shoplifting. “The CVS on my corner has started locking up basic items like clothing detergent,” Nixon tweeted. “As so many families can’t make ends meet right now, I can’t imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them.”
Nixon, an advocate of many progressive policies, obviously meant well with the tweet but was faced with a lot of pushback on Twitter, with many people pointing out Nixon’s position of privilege. “Well Cynthia, why don’t you go down to the CVS on your corner and simply buy these items from the store. Then set up a table outside the door with the items available for anyone to take, for free. Then you can directly help these families you are so troubled about,” wrote one critic. “I grew up poor, and we never took anything that we hadn’t paid for. It’s insulting that you think the less fortunate have no ability to discern right from wrong. Also, allowing widespread theft will result in higher prices, punishing the poor and honest,” tweeted another.
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The CVS on my corner has started locking up basic items like clothing detergent.
As so many families can’t make ends meet right now, I can’t imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them. https://t.co/5RsdMTDWqa
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) May 22, 2021
“You live in a neighborhood of $3 million-dollar apartments and townhouses. No one at your CVS is ‘desperate’ to steal ‘basic necessities.’ This isn’t just moral grandstanding on your part, it’s really incompetent moral grandstanding,” tweeted another follower. After her failed election bid, Nixon has stayed active in politics, but seemed uninterested in running again. “I don’t think I will, but you never know,” she told Time. “Life is long and strange.”
While her political aspirations may have come to an end, Nixon is enjoying a bit of a career resurgence. She co-starred alongside Sarah Paulson in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series Ratched, and will be reprising her iconic role of Miranda Hobbes in the Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That.
