Yesterday morning Ms. Cenceria Edwards woke up to find human excrement at her door. It is another in a long chain of events, which have unfolded since Ms. Edwards started collecting signatures, for a petition to run against Assemblywoman Annette Robinson -in Brooklyn’s 56th Assembly District (Bedford-Stuyvesant). Not only did the shit stink and smell up the place, it also made another psychological impact on her two kids (daughters); again. It has been an emotional roller-coaster for the Edwards family since June folks. This is traumatic.
This is so unfair; and all because one brave lady chose to run for the state assembly. Look people; seats are not owned by any clan or kin; not in Bed-Stuy nor in Bed-Room. It’s a democracy (at least that’s what they tell you in ivy-league universities). So why the heck is all this being allowed to go down?
Before I go further with this, let me make it clear that there is bombshell evidence of wrongdoings that I am sitting on; and I am also investigating claims which if proven true, will be embarrassing to many an elected official and some of those who are related by blood. You see people have eyes and ears. Plus, people leave phone records and recordings; others have phone cameras. Plus many people know the law and others refuse to be afraid, bullied and/or intimidated.
Yesterday, I went to the Board of Elections at 345 Adams Street in Brooklyn, to do a line by line challenge with my client Ms. Cenceria Edwards. Her signatures are being challenged by the incumbent Ms. Robinson. Ms. Edwards filed 1348 signatures, needing 500 to qualify for the ballot. The BOE gave her 628 valid ones and placed her on the ballot. But it doesn’t end here.
During the petition process, some of the supporters of Ms. Edwards -she is both an attorney and certified public accountant- were harassed, threatened and intimidated into abandoning her effort. Some were offered bribes to switch their allegiance(s), or to even lie in court against Ms. Edwards and her petition team. Plus, as I told you before, rocks were thrown through her windows. TWICE. Things could have gotten fatal already.
Then after the filing her opposition specked her submission and alleged that 141 were fraudulent. What they apparently did was pull every buff-card of all 1348 signers, and where they found some kind of deviation from the signature on file (including people in their eighties), they claimed fraud. Then to bolster their case, they now want to bring in people who suddenly can’t remember signing their names to her sheet. They even have a lawyer who is supposed to come in, and claim that she was tricked into signing, since she didn’t understand what she was signing: a friggin lawyer with this crap. Plus of course the infamous woman who was allegedly berated in public, by Annette Robinson herself; just for helping Ms. Edwards collect some signatures. Remember this woman’s home was saved from foreclosure by someone we now all know: Ms. Cenceria Edwards. Talk about ingratitude.
What really broke it up for me took place yesterday while in the line by line. I saw the referee disallow a signature that I saw taken with my own two eyes. I am willing, ready and able to go on the witness stand, and testify that an attorney I know personally actually came in and signed the petition sheet, on the day in question. The referee said the signature was fraudulent and illegible. I was livid. My client admonished me to calm down. What she doesn’t know is that they often steal your signatures in the line by line process, and that most of the time you never recover them.
At the end of the first stage of the line by line process, Ms. Edwards still has about 615 signatures validated by the BOE. It is more than a hundred over the required number. In the second phase she can only increase this number and not lose anymore signatures. Now comes the good part: they have even alleged that the candidate’s own signature if fraudulent. So Thursday they are going for a fraud trial. But before this, they are trying to throw out her validating papers on a technicality.
You see Ms. Edwards -acting as her own attorney in order to save costs- did not do a verification letter. The technicality is that the opposing lawyer has to give her 24 hours notice that he is raising it as an issue (see CPLR): and he didn’t. The judge has suspended ruling on this matter pending the line by line. If she loses this ruling she cannot gain signatures she may have on the petition, even if they are found to be those of registered democrats residing in the district. What a ballot-access system!
Yesterday Mrs. Annette Robinson proudly showed up at the board. She told someone that Ms. Edwards disrespected her (by running against her). It was the most ludicrous statement ever heard from a sitting assemblywoman. It reflects a similar statement being bandied about by one of her relatives. There are witnesses to all this.
All in all, it shows you the sense of entitlement from this old woman. Mrs. Robinson is so old that she was a waitress at the Last Supper, and now she feels that because of that she should be sanctified. This sense of entitlement led her to block out two parking spots in front of her house with police barricades, forbidding her neighbors from parking freely on the street. She seems to believe that Edwards needs her blessing or permission before she could run for the 56th Assembly seat. This is so friggin ridiculous it isn’t funny anymore.
Robinson’s minions have gone to near everyone who signed Ms. Edwards’s sheets, and have questioned them, coerced or attempted to, implied all sorts of fraudulent things with lying tactics and with veiled threats, actually threatened (even physically) one or two of the signers and subscribing witnesses, intimidated, and even attempted to bribe some others. There are many people/witnesses to all this, ready to come forth and testify. It is time for the Brooklyn District Attorney to investigate.
To this day, DA Charles Hynes hasn’t stepped in to vet these violations of people’s civil rights. He was quick to recently say however, that the people he knows in Brooklyn politics are not corrupt, and that Brooklyn’s politics is not a cesspool. Will someone get a cane for this man’s brain?
And there has been no mainstream media coverage of Ms. Edwards’s fight, despite two police reports, my numerous columns on this issue, and neighbors who witnessed some of this crap. Why is it that these things seem to happen only to insurgents, when challenging incumbents who have been in office for many years -like Mrs. Robinson?
Next week Annette’s son Taharka Robinson is supposed to be ordained as a minister; so he will officially be a man of the cloth so to speak. I have been told not to write this article because of the fear of reprisals from some of Taharka’s minions; well now I have written it. So now the world knows, and any fears for my safety must be put in prayer. To the people who are concerned for me, let me just say that I know Taharka well and consider him a friend in politics (one operative to another). I wish him well in all his future endeavors. He has done some good work with minority youth lately, and I hope that he continues along the rehabilitative path without straying.
As writers/ journalists/ bloggers/ reporters and such, we sometimes have to make the courageous calls: this is one. The truth is the truth; my mother always said that the truth shall set you free: I am free. After I saw what happened yesterday I was determined that this story will continue to get out, until mainstream media takes it on. They can’t keep ignoring this; especially Errol Louis of the New York Daily News, since he knows many of the players involved here, and he also knows the area quite well. This type of behavior shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere in US politics. Candidates should always be able to rein in their rabid supporters.
The reason being advanced for this unlawful behavior, by those who are ostensibly supporters of Methuzaler’s sister (Annette Robinson), is that she doesn’t need a race (challenge) this year; since they claim that her husband is terminally ill. They are advancing that opposition to her this year, will be insensitive and disrespectful. It’s like those in Manhattan who are afraid to tell DA Morgentheau that it is time to step off. Why?
Is it because these people have held office for such a long time that we must grant them lifelong status until death or infinity? Puhleaseeeeeeeeeee. Both Annette and Morgy have long past their usefulness as electeds and we all know this. So leave already. And take Al Vann too. In fact take the whole bloody lot; including Charlie Rangel. Just don’t replace Ed Towns with Kevin Powell (Powell is not deserving). Plus Towns will be retiring in due course; no?
I am sure there are people reading this who think I am kidding, but I swear to you that I am not. These are actual reasons being advanced out there as to why all this aggression is coming towards Ms. Edwards. I could only wish her husband the best of health care and such; but his illness cannot hold-up the ideals of democracy to blackmail. Someone at the BOE reminded us that when the husband of assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs (#42) died; she still got a challenge. They also said that they believe it was during her mourning period, and that it surely didn’t get to all this thuggery.
Look, my client has never wanted me to blow this up as I have done: and I have defied her too. But the truth is the truth, and I hope that the Robinson’s look in the mirror if they are party to all/or any of this, or if they know anything about this at all; the least they could do is publicly admonish their supporters to cease and desist from all this crap. This shit must end. This is the USA, not some third world country where intimidation, murder, mayhem and madness follow every election like a hearse; and is tolerated and expected in some quarters.
There have been mounting pressure on Ms. Edwards to withdraw her candidacy; it seems that there is great fear in the Robinson camp that Annette is rather vulnerable to being defeated this year, after so long a political career. I still think that Annette Robinson is a prohibitive favorite in this upcoming race (if it ever happens), and that Ms. Edwards is nothing but a long shot underdog. Maybe I am wrong.
You see, all over the district people are saying that they are tired of the Robinson/Al Vann combo, and many are caught up in Barack Obama’s “change” movement. Ms. Edwards is steadfast that she will face the voters: win, lose or draw. She is very determined for one who is a political rookie. She can also be quite stubborn at times (and believe me when I say I know this from first-hand experience/lol). They can try, but they are surely not going to intimidate her into withdrawing her candidacy; she has come too far since I first met with her 8 months ago. She is also a tough cookie, despite shedding a tear or two this morning.
If anyone out there in blogland is interested in making a contribution to Ms. Edwards’s campaign, they can call either 1-917-453-3526 or 1-718-666-1117 (she didn’t approve this either, but I did it anyway). It will be a donation towards keeping hopes of a true democracy alive. Send a message to those who are willing to subvert the democratic process for their own selfish reasons. Do this for Cousin Rocky folks. Okay. If they find me with my skull cracked open then you will have to wonder why/lol.
Stay tuned-in folks; democracy is not a spectator sport, nor is it for those who are chicken-hearted. Believe me when I say that no one is going to make me a martyr; so let not your heart be troubled, ye of little faith/lol.