10/31/2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: OCTOBER 31, 2021
BY: DHAR KHONA, CHAIRMAN, EAST BRUNSWICK REPUBLICAN MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE
EAST BRUNSWICK GOP DENOUNCES HATE SPEECH MADE BY MAYOR DURING UNITY MARCH
Not since the Civil War has our nation experienced such division and open animosity among neighbors and family and between states and political parties. In a time when we are fighting back as a community to rebuild our town and state in the aftermath of sickness, death and economic shut down, we often look to our leaders to guide us through and bring us out the other side and into the light.
On Monday, October 25th, during what was supposed to be a gathering of faiths, races, and ethnicities, East Brunswick’s Mayor Cohen chose to incite distrust and violence through his divisive, coercive, and personal attacks on his conservative constituents. A Unity March where we gather to show continued support and celebrate our neighbors and brothers and sisters in our community received a blackeye because the mayor could not let an opportunity pass without condemning half of his constituency. A constituency that includes, Indian, Egyptian, Hispanic, LatinX, African, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Italian, German, Polish, Irish, and LGBTQA Americans of every faith. A constituency that abhors and condemns violence in thoughts, words, and actions.
Although as a community, East Brunswick is a stranger to racial, religious, and ethnic tensions, Mayor Cohen would like the people of this town to believe that we have a threat to our peaceful hamlet with our very own, home-grown domestic terrorists. Mayor Cohen went on to name these domestic terrorists: “Conservatives”.
One look at the diverse members of the East Brunswick Conservative community completely negates the mayor’s assertion. The East Brunswick Conservatives is made up of a rainbow of races, ethnicities, and faiths committed to the betterment of every man, woman, and child in East Brunswick.
The mayor’s statement that, “The enemy of the true strength in diversity is what is on the ballot box today” was a direct reference to the Republican candidate, Dave Herrera. A reference that incited violence against Mr. Herrera with a brutal home invasion and hate filled messages posted around East Brunswick that required multiple police responses in a matter of days. Unfortunately, this is not the first time the mayor’s hate speech has led directly to violence against Mr. Herrera.
As the Chairman of the East Brunswick GOP, I want to make it perfectly clear, that we condemn the divisive hate speech that Mayor Brad Cohen repeatedly exposes the adults and the children of our community to at every public event where he is given an opportunity to speak; including a beautiful 9/11 memorial ceremony was disrespected by the mayor’s divisive actions by using the event to promote political candidates instead of memorializing members of our community whose lives ended that fateful day 20 years ago.
The East Brunswick GOP asks that you take a very hard look at your friends and neighbors whom you have known for many years and in some cases, decades and ask yourself if they are the monsters the mayor wants you to believe they are. Will you judge the people next door because of the lawn sign they bear or the good deeds and acts of kindness you know they have performed? If it is the former, then indeed domestic terror in East Brunswick has won.
The East Brunswick GOP calls on Mayor Cohen to retract his hate filled statement, calls on the town council & chairman of the Democratic party to censure Mayor Cohen.
The East Brunswick GOP calls on the voters of East Brunswick township to send a message at the ballot box that East Brunswick is not the breeding ground for hate filled radical view by voting for David Herrera on Tuesday November 2nd. Response to Mayor Cohen’s speech by council candidate David Herrera can be viewed online, .
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
