The Valor Of Jazmarie Melendez Standing Up To The Bully

Anthony Paoletto

Samia Suliman

Nessah Smith

Karen Jackson

Michele Small

And now Jazmarie Melendez

Their commonality comprises quite a political club: all have represented the 138th City Council District once aligned and now disconnected from the vomit world of councilwoman Maria Pereira who was expelled from committee assignments Monday night for pernicious conduct: calling Police Chief Roderick Porter a pig, flipping a middle finger to the public, insulting the Muslim community, body shaming a mayoral staffer.

All of the above know all too well the venom that flows so darkly from the troublesome-stalking  Pereira, a vengeance junkie backing vengeful mayoral candidate John Gomes who was fired by Mayor Joe Ganim in 2022.

They received the control-freak Trumpian insults, nasty text messages, harassing emails, hateful letters dropped into their mailboxes, the social media projectile threats, bullying, name calling, body shaming.

It’s never easy sitting next to a demagogue in action as was Pereira’s persona Monday night in a recalcitrant defense of the charges, dripping venomously into the record as Melendez waited resolutely for her moment to speak to her peers and a full council chambers, a first-hand retelling of abuse heaped on her and constituents.

“How many people along the journey of me getting elected told me how they are scared of her, how she harasses them, how they feel bullied by her. And that is the truth…I myself is also being bullied by Maria.”

Melendez’s determined delivery was followed by a large roar of approval and standing ovation from many spectators.

Melendez is not some seasoned pol who has built up years of scar tissue from this and that. She’s a 25 year-old who experienced the pain of loss, her 15-year-old brother Jayson Negron killed in a police encounter nearly seven years ago.

Politics is an intriguing avocation. Keeping score is a public duty. One of the many things that burns the bones of Pereira is the gnaw of eating the dust of a running mate.

In last September’s Democratic primary, Melendez ran well ahead of Pereira in the Hooker and JFK precincts. Pereira, for all of the Gomes’ campaign’s meowing about absentee ballots, survived because of the mail-in vote she harvested.

Melendez in the general election also ran ahead of Pereira.

Pereira throws around the word “karma” like nickels and dimes.

We are what we put in, right? Maybe, maybe not.

Melendez’s declaration Monday night was a much larger attribute. She stood up to the bully that transcended a one-on-one beef. She didn’t make it just about herself, she made it about a long line of people undeserving of malevolence as well as weary constituents sending Pereira a powerful message at the ballot box.