Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek Calls For Aid For Police Force

CLEVELAND, OH -- On Wednesday, Ward 8 Councilman Michael D. Polensek asked Mayor Frank G. Jackson in a letter to declare a state of emergency in the City of Cleveland with regard to the growing crime and violence plaguing the city.

Polensek’s letter was in response to an incident Tuesday at 4:50 p.m. at E. 156th Street and Waterloo Road at the Sunoco Gas Station. Eight men got into an open gun battle with automatic pistols and an assault rifle, resulting in two of the gunmen being shot and a seven-year-old girl being grazed by a stray bullet after her father’s car was shot up.

“When groups of young thugs feel they can stand on a busy corner and brazenly shoot at one another without regard for citizens or the police, something is terribly wrong,” Polensek wrote in his letter. “The Cleveland Police Department is understaffed and as a result basic patrols and deployment have suffered greatly. The citizens know that there are not enough police on the streets and the thugs know this as well.

“Today, I have asked the mayor to seek help from the State of Ohio through the governor’s and state attorney general’s offices and request that Ohio Highway Patrol officers be called to supplement the Cleveland Police Department until we can get additional officers on the street.

“What I witnessed on Waterloo last evening, was pure insanity,” Polensek wrote. “It was like watching a video game. Young men with high-powered automatic pistols and an assault rifle shooting at each other without any regard for the community or anyone living in it. It is clear to me that the streets are out of control and that it is time we seek assistance to bring about stability and peace, before more lives are lost.”

Polensek is the senior member of council, having served as a councilman since 1978. He’s the longest serving council member in the city’s history.

“As of this moment, we have seen 122 homicides in this city, not to speak of the sheer number of felonious assaults and robberies,” Polensek wrote. “A growing number of Cleveland residents and businesses feel threatened and unsafe. When this happens they talk with their feet and walk away from the communities they have lived in and supported, in many cases, for their whole life. When groups of violent young men believe they can stand in a parking lot of a well trafficked business and on the adjacent street with automatic weapons and fire indiscriminately at one another without consequence, something is terribly wrong in our city.”

Photo By Cleveland City Council