From The Smoking Gun:
A Cleveland City Councilman wrote the following to a constituent who was arrested on felony drug trafficking charges. (I had to shrink it to fit this forum, so if you can’t read it, hit Ctrl + to enlarge the document.)
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| Not at all surprisingly, the young man’s mother considers the letter to be a threat, and is conferring with her attorney. Of even more concern, however, is that the letter was copied to the Chief of Police, the Department of Public Safety, and the Commander of the local police district headquarters.I get the impression he doesn’t like the kid, because the kid dared to mouth off to him, so he’s trying to improperly influence the police with regard to the charges and criminal case. Disgusting. |
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aynrkey
bostonteapartygoer
Kenn Jacobine
mattdharris
Mike Seebeck
Miche
paulie
Jim Davidson
ponggod
Stuart Richards
Todd Andrew Barnett
This is not the way a member of the city council should be presenting themselves. However, I have little doubt that the recipient is a POS.
Where is the threat, though. I could hardly read the letter, say I may have missed it.
The mother considers it to be a threat because he references the young man’s death, or at least that is the way I understand it to be. I doubt she can get an attorney to believe the councilman was threatening the young man with death, since it appears rather clear that he is instead predicting that death or prison are the young man’s only options due to his attitude and lifestyle.
I just thought it was bizarre that a city councilman would write those things in his official capacity, and even on city stationery. I wouldn’t have thought much of it had he done so in his capacity as a private citizen, since then there would be no doubt that he is speaking only for himself and he is of course entitled to his opinions.
My main concern is that this councilman appears to have a personal vendetta against this particular young young man, which he made public, and that very public vendetta may make it difficult if not impossible for the young man to receive a fair trial.
I just heard an interview with the man. I liked what he did. He is tired of punks like this kid. He has been dealing with this kid for at least a year.What do you do if punks are running over your town. From what I understand this kid has broke the law in the past.BTW I dont believe drug dealing should be against the law. How do you get the trash out your town.Has he used force or his postion on city council to prosecute this kid?
Commenting on an open criminal case is not appropriate; whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? (Yeah, I know, he did it before…). But apparently, this plays pretty well at home:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/118509315326130.xml&coll=2
Impropriety and drama. Seriously, it’s like a flamewar… but on official stationery. It’s like if the city of Cleveland paid me to write their press releases.
Actually, on second thought, that would be pretty awesome. “Chadron now safest city in Nebraska; Omaha can suck our dicks”, “Another business opens in Chadron, blissfully unaware it is doomed to failure”, “City cops arrest someone for Driving While Native, keep Daylight Donuts in the black”.
Face it. Your city needs to pay me to write their press releases. It’s true.
Format issue in explorer.
I don’t have Explorer, so I can’t tell if you fixed it already. If not, let me know what it’s doing, and I’ll figure it out and fix it asap. Sorry about that guys.
Fixed it.
Thanks, Paulie!
I wish all politicians spoke their mind like this. We’d have a whole lot more honesty and fewer laws passed. Why can’t our congress have fist fights on the floor like other countries?
I live in Cleveland and sent him the following email:
Councilman Polensek,
Rarely do I get to congratulate a public official for saying what needs to be said, but I just had to let you know that your utterly scathing open letter to one of the many thugs that terrorize East Cleveland (Arsenio Winston) is a most brilliant display of public shaming and puts . That’s refreshing, and frankly… unexpected from politicians these days.
I applaud that you have the moxy to step outside of the PC-speak that plagues public politics and addressed an issue in a blunt, common vernacular (without being a completely hypocritical schmuck). Thank you.
Tell that shit like it is,
Stephen VanDyke
Lakewood, Ohio
PS- As a libertarian, my view is that it is the failed drug war facilitates this kind of lowlife criminal thuggery, but does not come close to excusing it. I hope you have perspective on the reality that the drug war has only served to create a class of thugs and criminal lowlifes like Arsenio Winston.
I think Mr. Winston makes his living more honestly and honorably than Mr.
Polensek.