Dear Piece of Trash ~ Cleveland Councilman Sounds Off Against a Drug Dealer
 

JULY 19--Incensed by the most recent arrest of an alleged drug dealer, a Cleveland politician wrote the perp a scathing, profanity-filled letter that referred to the man as a "crack dealing piece of trash" who should "go to jail or the cemetery soon." In a July 12 letter, a copy of which you'll find below, Councilman Michael Polensek, 57, tore into Arsenio Winston, 18, after learning of the teenager's arrest earlier this month on a felony drug trafficking rap. The letter's writer and its recipient are pictured above. Winston's bust came in Cleveland's 11th Ward, which Polensek has represented since 1982. Writing that jail or a funeral home would be Winston's next stop, Polensek noted, "Quite frankly, I don't care which one you get to first as long as your dumb stupid ass is out of my neighborhood." While Polensek defended the confrontational letter in an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Winston's mother said she considered the missive a threat to her son and was conferring with her lawyer. (1 page)

Go to Smoking Gun to read the letter
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive....html?link=eaf

:eek: Will this become a new trend?

While totally unprofessional, I'm CTFU @ this letter. Sorry guys, but that is funny. Somebody should have cussed him out a long time ago.

That councilman will pay for that, though.

I had to call my granny to read it to her and I used the abbr. so I wouldn't be cursing at her. She said she wish this would happen more often. If we leave it up to my granny there will be drive-by a$$ whoopins!

Man you have to respect his gangsta! Not only did he write the letter he cc'd all the correct people on it.

Clearly this isn't his first encounter with this young man. Sounds like he's been thumbing his nose at the system and doesn't realize he's now 18 and its a different set of rules now. Mom should have been this concerned BEFORE he got to this point.

I was starting to feel bad because I thought I was the only one who CTFU at this. 1908Revelations, I agree with your granny! I have a few folks who we could start with. LOL

I don't think it was unprofessional at all. I would rather the Council member representing me to be more grassroots rather than bureaucratic and go after drug dealers the same way. I mean many of them were regular Joes or Janes doing community organizing before being elected to the position. Kudos to him.

BWHAAAAAAA!! I don't apologize for laughing. Sometimes people need to hear the truth. Why sugar coat the letter? Too funny.

Now that's what I call a letter...lol...the sad thing is that it may cost him his office.

I'm a native of Cleveland which is why I was so intrigued by this. I am not sure all of the areas that the 11th Ward encompasses, but it might not cost him his office at all. There are other city councilmen who have a lot of DUIs and have those alcohol monitors for their cars, but they are still in office. Only reason he would be voted out is because his constituents are majority Black and they get an opponent in the next election. Otherwise, he will stay in.

I throughly enjoyed the letter and hope more people take a cue from it. If they're not hearing it at home, they need to hear it somewhere. Kudos to the Councilman for stepping up and saying something.

Ok..cool...we need more leaders that will stand up to do what they have to do...but if that had happened down here...it would have been a whole 'nother story...I guess it just depends on where you are...

That and how committed the residents of the ward, district, etc. are to voting to get rid of politicians like him if that is their mindset.

But I am sure we will hear about Al Sharpton raising ruckus over this sooner or later.

LOL!:D I love it.

When you are a black male selling drugs that kill or stagnate your community, you are called a "piece of trash".

When you are a mentally retarded rich white male who stole his postion and sends people to die with no explanation or reasoning you are called "The President".

I don't condone people selling drugs in their own community. Still, if they are trash what are the people who supply the distributers (or look the other way) called? "Politicians"

It's the same as calling promiscuous black women "whores and freaks".
Stil, when Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, Anna Nicole, etc... do the same thing we call them "GIRLS GONE WILD". They make excuses for them and say they are emotionally disturbed or diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. They check into a substance abuse center, get clean (yeah right), and get a new lease on life. Black women, on the other hand, have to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of their life.

And who says they really get a new lease on life? I don't know anyone who cares for the white hollywood drug addict party girls, either.

:eek::eek:I don't think it is the same.

If you had said calling the promiscuous women whores and freaks then that would be a little different, but you said black women which implies all and that is total bull chit!! If the councilman had said all black people were trash that would be different, but he was talking about that one drug dealer.

All good points but i think the issue at hand is the sheer hilarity of it.

and let's be real, we all know how the media portrays "us" vs. "them," but i aint even mad at councilman! public humiliation is what some folks need. then again, if you gon be big enough to deal drugs AND get caught, i doubt the perp is gonna let this sit on his conscious.

i, too, am ctfu at him cc'ing everyone of importance. he probably decided they should see it before the lawyers come knocking...

"dear mr. mayor. i am packing my office up and thought you might like to know why...enjoy!"

i dont care if this man is black or white. what needed to be said was said to someone who is, apparently, a pain in societies a**.

I wasn't referring to ALL BLACK WOMEN. I thought that my post supported that. However, there is sometimes a difference between the context of what you type and what you are actually trying to say. That is why I edited my post. Anyway, I only meant that there is a double standard.

Black drug dealers are referred to as trash, but white politicians who commit far more heinous crimes are not referred to the same way.

In my opinion, calling a promiscous (left that part out last time, sorry) black women, "Whore" but not calling rich white promiscous women the same is a DOUBLE STANDARD.

Still, I guess I could have saved this argument for another thread. I just felt that the councilman's words were a little strong. The drug dealer is at the bottom of the "so called" trash food chain. Therefore, he gets to be called trash. What do we call the people responsible for flooding the community with dope, "Boys gone wild"?

If white hollywood drug addict party girls are not cared about, why are they the only people you see on television. Why aren't they called hollywood drug addict party TRASH girls, or TRASHY politicians, or TRASHY and mentally retarded president.

Because they are white and rich not black and poor.
So if YOU are referring to drug dealers as trash who deserve to be in a grave, then I can't wait to see what you have in store for the rich white ones...:D

so now we're assuming that al promiscuous black women are called whores because they're poor?

and come on, a whore is a whore is a whore, regardless of money, class, color. hell, you think johns (are we still calling dudes who use whores "johns?") roll down the window of their car to ask a woman of the night "so... what's your net worth these days? what part of town you live in?"

By the way, please don't misinterprit my message. Charge it to my fingers, and not my heart. I love BLACK women more than cookie monster loved cookies.

NO THAT MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE ASSUMING. CAUSE I NEVER SAID THAT. MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ WHAT I SAID. THEN GET BACK WITH ME...

THE REASON WHY PROMISCOUS BLACK WOMEN ARE REFERRED TO (BY SOME PEOPLE) AS WHORES IS BECAUSE OF INDOCTRINATION, IGNORANCE, AND UNAWARENESS OF SELF. I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GO OVER THAT WITH YOU...

The reason I did not address the 'party girls' is sinply because I do not care about them.;) I wish them well, nonetheless I don't give a rats ass about them.

:D Like a fat kid loves cake~ 50 Cent

brothaman. ima need you to back up 10 feet.

i took what YOU said: "Because they are white and rich not black and poor" and YOUR logic: "In my opinion, calling a promiscous black women, "Whore" but not calling rich white promiscous women the same is a DOUBLE STANDARD."

though you left it out from that second statement, if "rich white" women ARENT called whores, (but rather, promiscous, deflecting some but not all negative connotation), but black women ARE whores (labelling them with completely negative connotation), then you're taking the direct OPPOSITE to make your (incomplete) correlation.

in standardized test version:

rich, white : promiscous::_______, black:whores

that's the analogy you made, but with what you've written in your previous posts, that's how it read to me and you (mistakenly or not, subconsciously or not) there's an element of black women being painted as whores not only because of their skin but because of their class. and we ALL know, like i said, that a whore is a whore is a whore. rich, poor, white, black, whatever.

i'm SURE you didn't mean to paint it as such and at the end of the day we're just spitting rhetoric. that's cool, but again ima need you breathe and stop. and ease up on them caps.

thanks for understanding and welcome to GC.

I think the councilman's comments were out of line. If that's how he feels and wants to express his sentiment in those terms, then do so via personal means. Call him, write him personally.

But as a ward represenative of the city, he owes it to his constitutency, and by extention, to the rest of Cleveland, to conduct himself on a higher level.

No matter the noble indignation of his intent, his letter was beneath the dignity of his office.

I put it in caps, because you seem to draw your own conclusions when I type in lower case.

Thanks for the welcome. Being new to GC isn't easy...

That's because you are.

I do understand your argument, but I don't think it's so (excuse the pun) black and white in this instance. Whatever color, he needs to stop doing what he's doing. Period. We can't assume in this instance that just because the councilman is white and the offender is black that he's being racist.

Also, I think it depends on who you're listening to or what people you surround yourself with as to who gets called what names. The news I read, the people I surround myself with, etc., think 'the president' is a jack*ss, and so are Paris Hilton and the rest of those fools, lol.

I do understand what you're saying, though.

I can't even look at a color right now. This councilman spoke the truth, period. So sick of us as a people wanting to pull the race card or to sweep crap under the rug because "we don't air our dirty laundry." Hogwash! He spoke the truth and if he had been white, hispanic, or asian it still would've been the truth.

Exactly, lol.

Thumbs up to Mike Polensek to speaking the truth. While His Statement may not be recieved Favorably by some, It's good to know he's been honest with what he said and have no qualms about it.

How do you know that this Councilman would not be calling them trash, too? And quite possibly if ol dude had been white the Councilman still would have referred to him as trash. We are talking about one person calling another person trash because of his heinous behavior. Not everything or every utterance is about race.

No need to yell. I have heard all promiscuous women referred as whores by some people.

Which goes to my point. I would rather have a council representative who isn't too dignify or high and mighty to still do the dirty work. But then maybe it is because in certain wards here in the city we tend elect representatives who do just that.

I understand his intent and certainly his frustration, but fully agree with this. It was lowering himself.

ETA: I also kinda don't trust it. NO politicians are spontaneous or off the cuff anymore- they plan each and every statement and move to appeal to the press and their constituency. This comes off as slightly disingenuous, and pandering in an attempt to come off as hard on crime.

Because they didn't get letters sent to them.
Because they weren't told that the best place for them is prison or a funeral home.
Because they are NOT black and poor.
Personally, I think it's because they didn't tell him to kiss thier black azz.

Again, I applaud him for getting drug dealers off the streets.
But if you are going to refer to him as trash,
then you need to see the bigger trash.
Or does he only see the black poor ones?

Poor drug dealers don't pass unfair laws.
Poor drug dealers don't send thousands of people to die.
Poor drug dealers don't make millions of dollars importing drugs
and then point the finger at drug dealers.
Poor drug dealers don't falsely accuse and then imprison blacks.
But why are they the only ones who get to be called "trash"?

The councilmen felt BOLD enough to call him that and sent him a letter, because poor people have few to zero rights in this country.

There is absolutely nothing funny or dignified about that letter.
Still, as someone pointed out earlier, this double standard will never be resolved in GreekChat.com. So on that note...

ok, let's shift the representative parallel a bit.

how many people would be comfortable if the head of their NPHC organization authored a similar letter, under approximate circumstances?

you sensed that possibility too, huh? :cool:

that could be true. however, i personally would never have done that. mainly because no matter how deep in jail this hoodlum is, aaaallll his friends are still out, running the streets. you know how young black men are about "respect". they'd just as soon pop a cap in said politicians azz for disrepecting their boy...

... Not in Cleveland. Now, if you "disrespect" CT4 you may wind up in Lake Erie, but otherwise you should be good.

sorry, not familiar with Cleveland...i live in Richmond, one of THE top cities for crime in the US. they arent too picky here, they'll kill you over anything...hence i have lost 5 friends in the past year and a half :(