Ed Pulaski

"Sounds like a fahking excuse to me!"

- Ed to Sergeev after he tells him he's been burying his boss' father

Edward Jakob Pulaski (better known as "Ed" or "Eddy") is a major villain character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Info
Pulaski's role as an antagonist in the game stems entirely from his role as the right-hand-man of Frank Tenpenny, whom together (along with James Hernandez and formerly Ralph Pendelbury) make up the extremely corrupt unit of the LAPD known as C.R.A.S.H. Him and Hernandez sometimes argue who is Tenpenny's right-hand and who kisses his s more.

Biography
Grigori Ostrov once referred to Pulaski as Tenpenny's "Polish lapdog", indicating his nationality is indeed Polish-American. His surname is also a hint to this.

At some point prior in 1992, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department. He later joined the C.R.A.S.H. division under the leadership of a very corrupt policeman Frank Tenpenny, who turned Pulaski into a even more corrupt police officer than before and showed him the "truth" of how the law should be handled, viewing the job as 'percentages' and keeping the mafias in the city on an equal footing. Ed would soon become Tenpenny's partner in crime and eventually, right-hand. Over the years he had been working with Tenpenny, he developed a high level of deluded trust in their partnership (however, Tenpenny could simply be using Pulaski to cover his back when needed) and an irreverent outlook on those he saw as below the law. Him and Hernandez (after he joined the CRASH) also served as Tenpenny's crooked henchmen most of the time, doing numerous illegal activities and covering up the truths.

The two were also joined by Ralph Pendelbury, who did not share their views and began talking to Internal Affairs. James Hernandez was finally 'initiated' into their criminal cartel by killing Pendelbury while being goaded by Frank and Pulaski.

Ed Pulaski, alongside Tenpenny and Hernandez, are first seen arresting the protagonist Victor Sergeev in Ganton on his return to Los Angeles from New York City for his boss' father funeral. The three then drive Victor around the city's poorer neighbourhoods and hand him the gun that Hernandez used to kill Pendelbury ten minutes previously, thus giving them leverage over Vik. The three then throw him from their moving police car, leaving him in Jefferson, a part of the city/territory controlled by the Malestra Family, Sergeev's rivals. The three, after throwing Vik out of their car, return to the scene of Pendelbury's murder to further make it look like Victor killed him. Pulaski continues to work with Tenpenny and Hernandez, but also becomes aware of Grigori Ostrov and Dmitri Puchovyk's involvement in the death of Alexei Olovyanov's father as does Hernandez, committed by the Malestras who Ostrov and Dmitri had allied themselves with while remaining high-ranking members of the Olovyanov Family.

Pulaski goes to Ostrov's house in Idlewood and meets Sergeev there briefly but meets him again at Ostrov's house where Tenpenny reminds Sergeev that he knows "everything" about him and that he has his eye on him. Ostrov, however, brushes these lies off by saying that Tenpenny and Pulaski won't leave him alone due to his connections with the Olovyanov's and has Sergeev help him kill some local Terresse Family mobsters making a drug deal with Martinez Family. Sergeev also meets Tenpenny, Pulaski and Hernandez at Dmitri's house in Red Street where they tell them of a train loaded with weapons is coming into the city, which Dmitri and Sergeev then have to attack, taking the weapons. Unknown to Victor, Puchovyk secretly sells these weapons to the Malestras.

Tenpenny and Pulaski, after helping the two traitors, begin to put pressure on Sergeev to work for them and first use their leverage to have Sergeev kill a "LAPD-killing" gangster belonging to the Martinez's family in New York, which Sergeev does. Tenpenny and Pulaski then have Victor disrupt a meeting between the North Town Lumberjacks and Terresse's with Sergeev killing everyone in the building. Sergeev then begins to work with others but is later called by Cesar Vialpando, his don's sister's boyfriend, with Sergeev joining him in an alleyway in Vanted Bluffs. Vialpando and Vik then witness Tenpenny, Pulaski, Hernandez, Dmitri and Ostrov unveil the green Jupiter used in the killing of Alexei's father. Sergeev then remembers Alexei, who had gone to Mulholland Intersection for a shootout against the Malestras. Alexei is shot during the shooting and the LAPD arrest him after they ambush the area.

During Alexei's Imprisonment
Alexei is soon taken 'upstate' by the police but Sergeev, also present at the shooting, is taken by Tenpenny, Pulaski and Hernandez to Bear Pine in Whetstone. They have him kill and then photograph for proof an old police officer being protected by the FBI in a cabin on Mount Chiliad, as he is about to turn state evidence against CRASH.

Sergeev continues to enjoy life in San Francisco before moving out into Bone County and settling there. He is contacted again by Tenpenny and Pulaski from a house in Pickle Pine. Tenpenny informs Victor that despite their best efforts and the efforts of Serg, the "gig and gag is nearly up and finished". Tenpenny then tells Serg that keeping his badge is not important and that they are the self-same, trying to get out of the hellhole, so when someone steps on him, he steps on Serg. He then tells Vik to go to a deserted ghost town to collect a dossier and kill the DEA and FBI agents, which Serg does. He later meets the three at another ghost town, where he hands the dossier to Pulaski while Hernandez holds him at gun point and a hippie on the side of the CRASH, The Truth, stands by. After taking the dossier, Tenpenny knocks The Truth out hard, unconscious with a shovel and accuses him of reporting to Internal Affairs. Tenpenny then leaves and tells Pulaski and Hernandez to deal with Truth and Sergeev while he leaves to "get drunk and watch anime, also hentai". After digging a hole for Truth and himself, Victor tries to convince Pulaski and his boi Hernandez that they are merely being used and that they will be the next ones killed, but they refuse to listen. Truth manages to regain consciousness and charges at Pulaski, only to be shot dead by Hernandez. Pulaski and Hernandez then cowardly try to escape in Pulaski's own car after missing Sergeev.

Death
"Vik, you got it all wrong, pal! Tenpenny was the one saving your s! Every time me and Hernandez wanted to get rid of you he'd find some excuse to keep you alive! Well, now it's up to me, and I ain't such a fahking soft touch!"

- Pulaski while being chased by Sergeev in the desert

During the car chase, Pulaski insisted that Tenpenny wanted to keep Serg alive and would always find an excuse every time Pulaski and Hernandez demanded that Serg should be killed. Hernandez also angers Serg deeply, riling him up with numerous disgusting and outrageous comments about Russia, Sergeev's sister and communism while Vik was being shoot at by Pulaski. Sergeev ended up wrecking Pulaski's car, killing Hernandez and mortally injuring Ed, before asking a dying Pulaski if he has any last requests. Pulaski asks if he can have sex with his sister (who was living in New York however), which infuriates Victor, who kills Pulaski by kicking him in the head.

Original timeline
In the original timeline, as James Hernandez was the traitor of the CRASH and he was the mole for the Internal Affairs instead of Truth, Pulaski was ordered by Tenpenny to take care of him and Vik Sergeev instead of the hippy. And while Hernandez attempted to lung at Pulaski after getting up from a knock-down by Tenpenny with a shovel, Ed shoot him down into a dug-up grave and fled the scene, he didn't even try shooting Serg at all. During the car chase, Ed drives his car plus shoots at Victor and like in the current one, he was killed.

Personality and traits
Pulaski, like his boss, is depicted as a very violent, sadistic, and impulsive man. He appears to be somewhat sycophantic and servile towards Frank Tenpenny, always agreeing with whatever he says, suggesting he could be something of a "yes-man". As part of C.R.A.S.H., Pulaski and Hernandez always try to be paired as equals to Tenpenny and repeatedly try to gain first name terms with him and each other, just to see whom Tenpenny would prefer.

It is possible he could be racist, or at least racially insensitive, as he makes a derogatory comment towards the Mexican cab driver who drove Viktor Sergeev from the airport in the introduction, although he does immediately apologise to officer Hernandez after the incident and promises to never happen again.

Pulaski and Hernandez had both shown a strong and personal hatred towards Sergeev, often trying to get rid of him, only for Tenpenny to find some excuses to keep him alive. In the mission in which they are killed, however, they finally have a clearance and a chance to eliminate Vik, but they failed to do so. He appears to have few qualms and validness in abusing people verbally or physically and seems to be fond of practising his brutality on others.

Whether he gained these off from Tenpenny or already had this brutality in him is unknown.

Trivia

 * One of Ken Rosenberg's quotes when Tommy Vercetti was busted in late 1980's, mentions a "Sergeant Pulaski", though it is unknown who exactly this refers to. If Ken was indeed referring to Edward, it is possible Pulaski used to work in New York before moving back to his home state of California.
 * He looks similar in appearance to a former WWE Superstar, Brock Lesnar.