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He can quarterback in jail. The longest yard style
Get caught selling drugs in Cleveland? Get humiLiated lol
- Thread in 'General' Thread starter Started by Animal Thug,
- Start date
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David Boston be the WR
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He signed off saying "Go to jail or the cemetery soon"
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Richmond Mall about that life now? This generation's Randall Park?
2007?
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way to be real with that man but he probably doesnt even care...shame
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Turns out son is a straight scumbag though, you can't eem be mad.
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gran's gotchas
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2007?
Even more surprising. I mean I knew it wasn't Beachwood Place, but damn. Been gone from the area for awhile. /older NTer who remembers being the one white boy in line to cop the Carolina XI retros at Randall Park.
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God son across the belly...
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Originally Posted by Gmbybryant
Originally Posted by WE GET MONEY
Didn't even chuckle. That's classless
A lot of good that councilman is doing for his community
THIS.
He put all this effort into writing the letter, when it could have been used to provide guidance of some sort. Some people dont need torment, they need help.
Guidance? Where you at? Some cats out here on the streets are just flat out dumb as hell. You can't counsel stupid. You see cuz went down on some more +#%#.
Besides, you don't even know what happened before the letter to lead up to something like that.
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You're absolutely right! Someone who is carjacking people, robbing banks, selling crack, and poisoning his community really need that "high school guidance counselor" type help. Being heavy handed with him isn't the way to go. Maybe a second, third, or even a forth chance will finally straighten him out. That is outrageous that they sent him away for 11 years. He was just trying to earn a living.Originally Posted by Gmbybryant
Originally Posted by WE GET MONEY
Didn't even chuckle. That's classless
A lot of good that councilman is doing for his community
THIS.
He put all this effort into writing the letter, when it could have been used to provide guidence of some sort. Some people dont need torment, they need help.
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I dont know anything about Arsenios life to make a real statement about how I feel about the councilman's opinion on him, but that letter was disgusting.
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Yup, I honestly think this is pretty damn good.
I'm tired of little idiots going around thinking they can do what they want because they are under 18.
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guess the trap was slow in he started jackin smh damn he was workin wit dem people too?
got wat he deserve i guess
swag odie
Banned
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Total lack of tact and class. Not surprised most NTers are cosigning it
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Originally Posted by Gmbybryant
Originally Posted by WE GET MONEY
Didn't even chuckle. That's classless
A lot of good that councilman is doing for his community
THIS.
He put all this effort into writing the letter, when it could have been used to provide guidence of some sort. Some people dont need torment, they need help.
Not everyone can be saved. Say what you what about Polensek's strategies and tactics, but he's a white dude on his 10th council term from an East Cleveland ward that's 75% black. He's not real life trolling.
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[h1]Councilman Mike Polensek unrestrained, unapologetic and unabashedly passionate as senior councilman[/h1]Source: http://blog.cleveland.com...mike_polensek_unres.html
John Kuntz/The Plain DealerCleveland Councilman Michael Polensek, shown in this 2002 file photo at a youthful 53, has never been shy about speaking his mind.
Mike Polensek says he's just old-school.
He says that as the senior Cleveland city councilman, he's never going to be even remotely politically correct. He says he is unabashedly passionate about protecting and bringing back his beloved-but-frayed Collinwood neighborhood.
And he says he's angrier today than ever before about three decades of decline and degradation in his community and his city.
Come to think of it, there's not a whole heckuva lot that Mike Polensek doesn't say.
Because whether it's a complaining constituent, a political colleague or (maybe especially) a nosy reporter with notepad, camera or microphone standing before an increasingly curmudgeonly and always quotable Michael D. Polensek, his motor starts running and doesn't stop until his audience stops him.
"Yeah, he's definitely got a style all his own and he'll keep talking as long as you let him," said fellow Councilman and Collinwood native Jeff Johnson. "I also know there's times that I've cringed over something he said, but I also knew it was honestly how he felt.
"Let's just say he wins fans and irritates people at the same time."
Unrestrained and unapologetic
And he's been doing it for more than 30 years.
From the late 1970s up to the cusp of 2011 -- in January that will mean in portions of nearly five decades -- Polensek, 61, has been known to call criminals and vandals in his community anything from "thugs," "gangsters" or sometimes even "two-legged hood rats."
His colleagues in city government? He once dubbed veteran Councilman Jay Westbrook a "weasel," publicly called former Mayor Mike White a "son of a !@*#@" and has questioned whether "people at City Hall have lost their minds."
Maybe Polensek's most infamous rant was in the summer of 2007, when he fired off a letter to Arsenio Winston, an 18-year-old who had been in and out of juvenile court for several years and had recently been charged with selling drugs near a convenience store in Polensek's East Side neighborhood.
Polensek called Winston an "idiot" who "must be dumber than mud" -- and reminded him that his "fate was in his own hands."
The letter, written on city letterhead and sent to the teen's Glenville home, also said: "There are only two places you will end up, at the rate you are going -- that is prison or the nearest funeral home. Quite frankly, I don't care which you get to first."
Some rapped the councilman for going too far and others lobbed charges of racism, but Polensek never wavered.
"Hell, I write those kind of notes twice a week," he said in a recent interview. "That one just got a lot of notoriety."
Polensek says he received several hundred e-mails and phone calls after the Arsenio Winston letter, "and over half were from African-Americans who were also fed up with the crime and the violence."
"People are angry all over, but maybe especially here because of what's been happening to their community," he said. "I'll always wear Collinwood on my sleeve, and I'll always fight for this community against the people trying to ruin it."
Johnson said race never had anything to do with Polensek's anger at Winston, even though Polensek claimed that earlier that summer the young man had told him to "kiss his black [posterior]."
"I was uncomfortable when he sent the letter and a lot of people tried to make it racist, but that's not Mike," Johnson said. "For him, there are people who respect other people and property and there are criminals. That's it."
Pushing back against Polensek
Council President Martin J. Sweeney said, however, there's a side to Polensek that might be quotable -- but ends up counterproductive.
"When I first started on council, I thought it was normal every other week to have an overthrow of the president," he said, referring to Polensek's ultimately successful effort to become council president in 2000.
"I've asked him, 'Is there anybody out there you haven't fought with?' " Sweeney said.
His love-hate relationship with Sweeney has produced many memorable sound bites, including Polensek saying he needed a stiff drink before he could vote to re-elect Sweeney as council president in November 2009.
Then there's this one, after Sweeney actually performed the Heimlich maneuver when Polensek was choking after swallowing some water: "I'm surprised he wasn't squeezing higher, like up around the neck," Polensek quipped.
There are others who aren't amused with the Polensek shtick.
Ed Maltba, who lives in Councilman Jay Westbrook's ward, shared an e-mail exchange with Polensek. Maltba complains in his letter to the councilman about a number of things and then suggests that maybe he should move into Polensek's ward to run against him.
Polensek responds by telling Maltba that he wouldn't be accepted in Polensek's ward because "our standards are much higher than on the West Side."
"It's unacceptable for a councilman to talk to a resident like that," Maltba said. "I'm an American, a taxpayer and a veteran and he could have just said he respected my opinion, but instead he has to retaliate nastily."
Another Clevelander posted on youtube.com a nearly 11-minute video mash-up of Polensek quotes and television appearances, blasting the councilman for yakking but not doing much else for the Collinwood neighborhood.
It includes a profanity-filled audio recording of conversation with the councilman.
Another resident reads aloud the letter to Arsenio Winston.
When asked whether he regrets any of those confrontations -- whether posted online for the world to see or not -- Polensek erupts.
"Hell no! I was probably too diplomatic with a lot of those people," he said.
Supporters applaud 'straight shooter'
Even his supporters aren't likely to ever use that phrase -- "too diplomatic" -- with the often caustic Polensek, but they'll defend both his style and substance.
George Forbes -- longtime president of the City Council, a political legend in his own right and a frequent combatant with Polensek -- now lauds the councilman.
"I like Michael, I really do," he said. "We're friends now and we talk on the phone about a lot of issues."
Forbes said he "admires his stance against hoodlums," but not Polensek's recent stand in favor of a sewer rater increase that many say will hurt the poor throughout Cleveland.
"He's wrong on this one, but he's good at getting his point across even when he's wrong," Forbes said.
Johnson, a few years younger but who grew up on the same Collinwood street as Polensek, said that's why Polensek has respect from friends and enemies.
"No matter who is on the other side, he's fearless," Johnson said. "And he has no problem standing alone."
Johnson said it's amazing that Polensek has been able to stay in office during a 30-year period when his ward has incrementally shifted from a mainly white to predominantly black neighborhood.
"People love the fact that he fights for them," said Johnson, who is black. "He had an African-American opponent the last time he ran and he still won 80 percent of the vote. I guess it really shows that people can look to character first."
Approaching longevity record
Polensek, a Collinwood High grad and machinist at White Motors in the neighborhood, first took office in January 1978. On Jan. 1, 2011, he'll enter his 34th year on the City Council.
That makes him second in longevity only to Herman Finkle, a councilman from January 1918 to October 1952, when he died in office, according to city archives.
So if Polensek stays in office through this entire term, ending in 2013, he'll have completed 36 years, passing Finkle, said city Archivist Martin Hauserman.
It's a record of which he's well aware.
"Look, there's nothing sexy or sophisticated with me," he said. "I think I've stuck around so long because my passion has not wavered, in fact it has increased. That's why I'll eventually hold that record."
Sweeney also sees the accolades pouring out on his longtime political rival and added one more poke.
"Mike Polensek talks a lot about how much he loves the institution of City Council," Sweeney said. "But there are plenty of people out there who would say that Polensek thinks he is the institution."
In any case, Polensek says he's nearing the end of his council days -- probably at the end of this term.
He's hardly worried that his legacy is unlikely to include any warm-and-fuzzy recollections.
"I don't want to be loved," he said. "I want to be respected and I want my neighborhood to be respected.
"That's really all I've got to say."
John Kuntz/The Plain DealerCleveland Councilman Michael Polensek, shown in this 2002 file photo at a youthful 53, has never been shy about speaking his mind.
Mike Polensek says he's just old-school.
He says that as the senior Cleveland city councilman, he's never going to be even remotely politically correct. He says he is unabashedly passionate about protecting and bringing back his beloved-but-frayed Collinwood neighborhood.
And he says he's angrier today than ever before about three decades of decline and degradation in his community and his city.
Come to think of it, there's not a whole heckuva lot that Mike Polensek doesn't say.
Because whether it's a complaining constituent, a political colleague or (maybe especially) a nosy reporter with notepad, camera or microphone standing before an increasingly curmudgeonly and always quotable Michael D. Polensek, his motor starts running and doesn't stop until his audience stops him.
"Yeah, he's definitely got a style all his own and he'll keep talking as long as you let him," said fellow Councilman and Collinwood native Jeff Johnson. "I also know there's times that I've cringed over something he said, but I also knew it was honestly how he felt.
"Let's just say he wins fans and irritates people at the same time."
Unrestrained and unapologetic
And he's been doing it for more than 30 years.
From the late 1970s up to the cusp of 2011 -- in January that will mean in portions of nearly five decades -- Polensek, 61, has been known to call criminals and vandals in his community anything from "thugs," "gangsters" or sometimes even "two-legged hood rats."
His colleagues in city government? He once dubbed veteran Councilman Jay Westbrook a "weasel," publicly called former Mayor Mike White a "son of a !@*#@" and has questioned whether "people at City Hall have lost their minds."
Maybe Polensek's most infamous rant was in the summer of 2007, when he fired off a letter to Arsenio Winston, an 18-year-old who had been in and out of juvenile court for several years and had recently been charged with selling drugs near a convenience store in Polensek's East Side neighborhood.
Polensek called Winston an "idiot" who "must be dumber than mud" -- and reminded him that his "fate was in his own hands."
The letter, written on city letterhead and sent to the teen's Glenville home, also said: "There are only two places you will end up, at the rate you are going -- that is prison or the nearest funeral home. Quite frankly, I don't care which you get to first."
Some rapped the councilman for going too far and others lobbed charges of racism, but Polensek never wavered.
"Hell, I write those kind of notes twice a week," he said in a recent interview. "That one just got a lot of notoriety."
Polensek says he received several hundred e-mails and phone calls after the Arsenio Winston letter, "and over half were from African-Americans who were also fed up with the crime and the violence."
"People are angry all over, but maybe especially here because of what's been happening to their community," he said. "I'll always wear Collinwood on my sleeve, and I'll always fight for this community against the people trying to ruin it."
Johnson said race never had anything to do with Polensek's anger at Winston, even though Polensek claimed that earlier that summer the young man had told him to "kiss his black [posterior]."
"I was uncomfortable when he sent the letter and a lot of people tried to make it racist, but that's not Mike," Johnson said. "For him, there are people who respect other people and property and there are criminals. That's it."
Pushing back against Polensek
Council President Martin J. Sweeney said, however, there's a side to Polensek that might be quotable -- but ends up counterproductive.
"When I first started on council, I thought it was normal every other week to have an overthrow of the president," he said, referring to Polensek's ultimately successful effort to become council president in 2000.
"I've asked him, 'Is there anybody out there you haven't fought with?' " Sweeney said.
His love-hate relationship with Sweeney has produced many memorable sound bites, including Polensek saying he needed a stiff drink before he could vote to re-elect Sweeney as council president in November 2009.
Then there's this one, after Sweeney actually performed the Heimlich maneuver when Polensek was choking after swallowing some water: "I'm surprised he wasn't squeezing higher, like up around the neck," Polensek quipped.
There are others who aren't amused with the Polensek shtick.
Ed Maltba, who lives in Councilman Jay Westbrook's ward, shared an e-mail exchange with Polensek. Maltba complains in his letter to the councilman about a number of things and then suggests that maybe he should move into Polensek's ward to run against him.
Polensek responds by telling Maltba that he wouldn't be accepted in Polensek's ward because "our standards are much higher than on the West Side."
"It's unacceptable for a councilman to talk to a resident like that," Maltba said. "I'm an American, a taxpayer and a veteran and he could have just said he respected my opinion, but instead he has to retaliate nastily."
Another Clevelander posted on youtube.com a nearly 11-minute video mash-up of Polensek quotes and television appearances, blasting the councilman for yakking but not doing much else for the Collinwood neighborhood.
It includes a profanity-filled audio recording of conversation with the councilman.
Another resident reads aloud the letter to Arsenio Winston.
When asked whether he regrets any of those confrontations -- whether posted online for the world to see or not -- Polensek erupts.
"Hell no! I was probably too diplomatic with a lot of those people," he said.
Supporters applaud 'straight shooter'
Even his supporters aren't likely to ever use that phrase -- "too diplomatic" -- with the often caustic Polensek, but they'll defend both his style and substance.
George Forbes -- longtime president of the City Council, a political legend in his own right and a frequent combatant with Polensek -- now lauds the councilman.
"I like Michael, I really do," he said. "We're friends now and we talk on the phone about a lot of issues."
Forbes said he "admires his stance against hoodlums," but not Polensek's recent stand in favor of a sewer rater increase that many say will hurt the poor throughout Cleveland.
"He's wrong on this one, but he's good at getting his point across even when he's wrong," Forbes said.
Johnson, a few years younger but who grew up on the same Collinwood street as Polensek, said that's why Polensek has respect from friends and enemies.
"No matter who is on the other side, he's fearless," Johnson said. "And he has no problem standing alone."
Johnson said it's amazing that Polensek has been able to stay in office during a 30-year period when his ward has incrementally shifted from a mainly white to predominantly black neighborhood.
"People love the fact that he fights for them," said Johnson, who is black. "He had an African-American opponent the last time he ran and he still won 80 percent of the vote. I guess it really shows that people can look to character first."
Approaching longevity record
Polensek, a Collinwood High grad and machinist at White Motors in the neighborhood, first took office in January 1978. On Jan. 1, 2011, he'll enter his 34th year on the City Council.
That makes him second in longevity only to Herman Finkle, a councilman from January 1918 to October 1952, when he died in office, according to city archives.
So if Polensek stays in office through this entire term, ending in 2013, he'll have completed 36 years, passing Finkle, said city Archivist Martin Hauserman.
It's a record of which he's well aware.
"Look, there's nothing sexy or sophisticated with me," he said. "I think I've stuck around so long because my passion has not wavered, in fact it has increased. That's why I'll eventually hold that record."
Sweeney also sees the accolades pouring out on his longtime political rival and added one more poke.
"Mike Polensek talks a lot about how much he loves the institution of City Council," Sweeney said. "But there are plenty of people out there who would say that Polensek thinks he is the institution."
In any case, Polensek says he's nearing the end of his council days -- probably at the end of this term.
He's hardly worried that his legacy is unlikely to include any warm-and-fuzzy recollections.
"I don't want to be loved," he said. "I want to be respected and I want my neighborhood to be respected.
"That's really all I've got to say."
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Originally Posted by alcstarheel
And he CC'd his boys
