Cleveland Councilman Rips Into High School Qb

[UNTflyer]

[meangreendork]

Awesome. Purely awesome.

[gksmith]

WOW!

Proves no one is above the law because they are a high school/college/pro "superstar."

[JayDub]

The saddest part of this is...Arsenio's mother is now consulting with lawyers on whether this letter constitutes a threat.

F-in' opportunist pieces of trash...always looking for a quick buck.

Edited July 21, 2007 by JayDub

[GreenBat]

Family fumes over councilman's 'hate letter'

[greenminer]

The saddest part of this is...Arsenio's mother is now consulting with lawyers on whether this letter constitutes a threat.

F-in' opportunist pieces of trash...always looking for a quick buck.

Not to mention she's enlisted the help of a black activist. She's spinning this every possible way.

[gksmith]

Truth hurts.

The kid is a punk. She didn't like having someone of authority calling him a punk.

Sorry lady...YOUR KID IS A PUNK.

I do not see any threats in the letter. I hope a reasonable group of people in the jury find the same.

[meangreendork]

From a minority point of view...

Any lawsuit leveled against that councilman is utter trash. Now, I think he could've handled it with more class (more for his own PR, not to respect that punk kid), but he's telling the truth. That kid IS a punk and needs to be thrown in jail, and his mother IS doing a piss-poor job of parenting. There's no threat in that letter, just a prediction of that kid's bleak future. His mother is a bad joke of a parent and not only does he need to see jail time, she probably does as well.

If I were an African-American, I'd be embarrassed by this. This sort of irresponsible parenting and stupid behavior on both the kid's and parent's part is the kind of thing that makes the rest of the American public think so badly on African-Americans.

I also read that news link, and there are some people blaming the situation on (you guessed it) white America. Now, I understand that being poor and from a deteriorating urban environment means that you're given fewer opportunities than the rest of us, but myself, being the stepchild of a black man from that kind of background, I can say that those limits can be broken. There's a part of me that thinks urban African-Americans should take responsibility for their situation, stop blaming thuggery on their environment, and stop trying to feel so entitled...that entitled mentality is the same thing that ruins behavior of the rich kids, too. Dangit.

Being poor is only an excuse for some of that kind of behavior. My dad came out of the same thing and he's helped get 2 kids through college, married a woman who's about to attain a master's in education, he's gotten a laundry list of his own degrees, put away a 20 year career in the US Army and any number of accomplishments. That's proof that an African-American from a poor family can do more than just sell drugs.

Edited July 22, 2007 by meangreendork