Photo: NY Assembly
The following statements were released by the South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park United for Justice & Empowerment organization which is denouncing New York Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar (above). The organization alleges that Ms. Rajkumar is trying to “amend and gerrymander” a proposed Assembly district of Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park and Ozone Park to include her apartment.”
Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park and Ozone Park have been the most gerrymandered community of interest for decades, sliced and diced into seven (7) Assembly districts.
The proposed district lines for both the Assembly and State senate relating to these marginalized communities, reflect a refreshingly dispositive and unequivocal consensus across the entire IRC to keep them as indelibly compact and contiguous communities of interest, while aligning with the UNITY community of interest maps that were consensually submitted for the entire state by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, CUNY and Latino Justice, PRLDEF.
Accordingly, everyone involved in the redistricting process have issued their unequivocal support to pass the UNITY map into law, understanding that no one should be allowed to continue to suppress the dispositive census data, or incumbent officials will choose who they represent, instead of voters exercising their sacred and fundamental right to determine who represents them, contrary to the highest standards of democracy and good government.
We therefore condemn the actions of legislators like Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar, who is trying to amend and gerrymander the proposed Assembly district of Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park and Ozone Park to include her apartment, which is located outside of both of the Unity Maps, and both versions of the IRC maps, by blocks.
The problem here is that when this is done, our districts become cut up again to accommodate these selfish and self-serving politicians, at the expense of residents here, and our decades’ worth of advocacy, research and sacrifices, are unconscionably obliterated.
We cannot, and will not, allow our hard-earned gains to be sabotaged, and/or disrespected, this way, by Jenifer Rajkumar, or any other incumbent, or self-serving politician, in any of these communities of interest. It also denigrates the principles of justice, democracy and redistricting.
Moreover, such a deceitful act of betrayal will also cut off thousands of South Asians from being united with their common communities of interest, and ruin all of our efforts, dreams and sacrifices! Enough of this treachery, and hypocrisy, Jenifer Rajkumar!
Stop hampering our progress and our children’s future!
