The Hate Letter That Shook up the World

It might eventually be called “The Letter That Launched a Movement,” and if not quite a movement, then at least a mayoral campaign. I’m referring to the letter that Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek (who describes his mailings as “hate letters”) sent to 18-year-old Arsenio Winston who was caught selling drugs for the second time in his Eastside ward. The in-your-face tone and tenor of the controversial missive struck a responsive chord with many frustrated Clevelanders both in and out of Ward 11 — and both Black and White — who are fed up with the thuggery, drug dealing and the attendant violence that has the city on track to set a new record in the number of yearly homicides.

The letter, which stated that the councilman didn’t care if Winston wound up in prison or dead, gained international attention when the London-based BBC show “World Have Your Say” (heard here in Cleveland at 1 pm weekdays on National Public Radio) featured an unapologetic Polensek defending his action on Thursday (July 26). The councilman was literally catapulted to worldwide fame and notoriety as other talk show hosts and television interviewers from around the globe climbed all over themselves to feature the fiery letter writer from Cleveland. Judging by the response (he’s received thousands of supportive emails from all over the world) it seems that the problem of dope boys is not confined to just the United States.

Back in Cleveland, on Friday (July 27) Polensek was featured on Feagler & Friends (is it just me, or does it seem that virtually all of Dick Feagler’s friends are White? but that’s a column for another day). After bringing viewers up to date on how much attention his letter is garnering, Polensek was almost asked point-blank by Feagler if he was going to parlay the support into a bid to run for mayor ... but the issue was sidestepped for the nonce. While I don’t think that Polensek had mayoral aspirations in mind when he penned the letter (he routinely sends them out, and it was actually the teenager’s mother who brought the letter to the media’s attention) when the chorus begins singing the sirens’ song of “Run, Mike, Run” I don’t think that he will be able to resist.

Additionally, considering the fact City Council is guaranteed to be reduced during the upcoming charter review (the only question is how many seats will have to be cut to mollify the forces that are holding the sword of Damocles over the head of the council president, but that too is a story for another column on another day ... but remember you read it here first) Polensek is certainly young and experienced enough to consider making such a mayoral bid. And, with the huge outpouring of support he is receiving from the Black community such a move seems all the more plausible.

Listening to Polensek enumerate all of the things he could do to solve the problem of out-of-control Black youth (if, indeed, he were mayor) I wasn’t troubled at all by what he was suggesting ... but I was — and am — deeply troubled by what he didn’t suggest we do to solve the problem. Virtually every solution he put forth had to do with punitive measures: Fix the broken Juvenile Court system, bring back police mini-stations, and crack down on curfews ... all good and reasonable measures for the short-term. But what I didn’t hear was any suggestions to actually prevent these Black boys from becoming gang members in the first place; measures designed to keep them in school and engaged in the education process. And the reason I didn’t hear any of those types of suggestions is because they require a bit more rational reasoning and commitment of resources to young Black males .... something that most Americans are not interested in doing. If you doubt me, just look at how hard it is to get adequate funding for inner-city schools.

Polensek has stumbled upon a Democratic northern version of the Republican’s “Southern Strategy” where racial fears and old animosities were exploited during the dawn of the civil rights movement. Reagan gained office — in large part — on a States’ Rights platform, and who can forget the Willie Horton ad that virtually gave Bush the Elder the White House? Karl Rove has since perfected the technique of getting people to vote against their own self-interests by frightening the hell out of them with appeals to emotional issues: Abortion, gay marriage, and prayer in schools ... that he knows full-well no president can’t deliver on. It’s a technique used by demagogues the world over: Find out what the masses are afraid of, and then promise to make them feel safe and secure. It’s political snake oil that has proven to work over and over again in terms of getting someone elected, but the problems always go unsolved. But never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter or their appetite for quick, easy, feel-good answers — just look at who currently occupies the White House.

Winston, who was indicted by a grand jury on July 25 for activities related to his pharmaceutical enterprise, is the perfect foil for Polensek’s demagoguery; who, other than this kid’s mother, can be for this former juvenile — and now an adult — delinquent? At age 18 this young Black man is the sum total of all America’s fears and disgust ... and his alleged behavior makes him the fitting target for our collective opprobrium.

Prison, unfortunately, is the safest place for Winston and his road dogs. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice Affairs states that Black males between the ages of 18 to 26 (especially those that have dropped out and adopted thug culture) are twice as likely to die a violent death in the streets as in prison. So, while I have no problem with us protecting ourselves by locking these often violent young men (Black, White or Hispanic) up, but the facts are: a — we can’t build enough jails to lock away our social failures, and b — 97 percent of all prisoners eventually come back home.

Polensek would have you believe that getting tough on these punks — locking them up and throwing away the key — alone will solve the problem; it won’t. California tried that and is now facing financial meltdown due to skyrocketing prison costs. No state has been able to “build” its way out of its crime problem by simply adding more prisons — which, by the way, burn up tax dollars faster than drunken sailors on shore leave and offer just as little in return. The truth is, we can still pay for a year of college at Harvard for what it costs to house a prisoner for a year.

Secondly, let’s say that young Mr. Winston does go to prison (which is highly likely), decides to turn his life around, and learns a skill so that he can legally support himself upon his release. Say he takes up plumbing, a skill being taught by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. He then gets out and is told that he can’t get a license to be a plumber because — now get this part – he has a prison record! So what is he left to do? Go back and sell more drugs. Are we a dumb-assed people or what?

Now I don’t want thugs in my Hough neighborhood either, but Arsenio Winston is a teenager that got off of the wrong foot in life; why do we feel a need to punish him forever, and ever for that juvenile mistake? Could it be because he is Black? If you think not, here’s irrefutable proof: A June 17, 2005 article in the New York Times, entitled “Race a Factor in Job Offers for Ex-Convicts” came to this conclusion: Not only did white men with prison records receive far more offers for entry-level jobs in New York City than black men with identical records, they even received more job offers than black men who have never in their entire lives been arrested. The double-blind study, which was done by a pair of Princeton University professors, has been replicated in Milwaukee with the same results, and I suspect that it could be replicated here in Cleveland if we were not so afraid of uncomfortable truths.

Whether we want to admit it or not, racism plays a huge part in the making of the Arsenio Winstons of Cleveland and the world. The unemployment rate for this demographic is over 80 percent, so is it any wonder these young Black men gravitate towards gangs and drug selling? It’s very tough being dead broke in a society that worships iPods and Nike sneakers.

If sending out letters that figuratively bitch-slaps young Black drug dealers had any chance of solving the problem I’d be right in there with Polensek furiously writing nasty letters to these thugs ... and their lazy-assed mommas too; but, in fact, all these letters do is allow us to vent our anger, express our disgust and give voice to our fears. They are identical to the form of juvenile “immediate gratification” that gets these young people into the thug culture in the first place.

We know there are real, concrete things that can be done to prevent young Black men from going astray in the first place, and for close to two decades former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley has been trying to get us to listen to his mentoring program that is working in other parts of the world. It’s not all that difficult or complicated: We have to start at the beginning, when they are born, and not ignore them until they are big enough do damage to society by picking up a knife, a gun or a bag of dope. But here is the measure of how lazy and uncaring we are: Not a dozen people who read these words will try to find out what Sen. Bradley has been proposing. Nasty, hate-filled letters are a lot more fun, and a lot easier than real solutions (which take time, money, thought and commitment), aren’t they?

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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