To the Editor:
The purpose of this letter is to bring awareness of unfair practices by political parties. I’ve been a resident of the City of Bayonne for 10 years and have always felt comfortable, protected, and ultimately safe in town. For the holidays, I’ve always dressed up the front of my residence and not one ornament has ever been stolen or lost. This sense of security was lost when on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 9, I noticed the sign for my candidate of choice running for Hudson County Sheriff Juan M. Perez stolen from the front of my residence. The incident appeared to have been deliberately done as the strings that held the sign were finely cut off. My property had been vandalized and I was angered, disappointed, and ultimately violated of my freedom of speech to support my candidate of choice. I proceeded to call the Bayonne Police Department to make a formal complaint of the incident. When the officer arrived, I was surprised to hear that this is a very common practice. The officer on duty informed me that on that same day he had encountered hundreds of Juan Perez’s signs trashed on the streets of Bayonne.
It is my conscious duty as a female professional, Hispanic, U.S. citizen, and Bayonne resident to inform my community of this malicious, unjust, and dishonest behavior that is targeting us. We have risen and progressed to levels where we can be as competitive to any other community.
PATRICIA I. VASQUEZ