Michael Vick, the perpetually stupid Atlanta Falcons quarterback, was sentenced to 23 months in jail for financing an illegal dog fighting ring. The actual crime he was convicted of was “one count of interstate conspiracy to sponsor dog fighting”. I would like to say that I find the idea of dog fighting to be personally offensive. But, I’ve never been to a dog fight. Maybe I’d like it. Regardless I am not going to stand up and defend this guy but that’s a long time to be in jail for funding an organization that holds dog fights and for the untimely extermination of eight quadrupeds. From what I understand jail really, really sucks. I’m going to take some heat for this but, I’m going to go out on a limb here and call this absurd. These are, after all, dogs we are talking about.
I know we all like dogs. They’re cute and loyal and generally provide unconditional love to their owners. They catch Frisbees and protect our property. In some cultures, they’re considered delicious. I’ve owned two dogs and I loved them both. The operative word here being, owned. Those animals were property, my property. I would never advocate that a human being abuse a dog, or any other animal for that matter, but are we really saying that these pieces of property are to be held in such high esteem that we see fit to sentence a fellow human being to two years in prison over how they are treated? I did a little background research on this, and jail time for child abuse can run less. In other words, Vick may have been better off if he had left a toddler strapped into a car seat and locked in his car on a hot summer day. Something seems… off here.
I guess the lesson we can all take from this is that famous, black football players should stick to killing people.
mal•a•prop n. - the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar
Example: You need an altitude adjustment, you’re too self-defecating.”
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prop•o•si•tion (prp-zshn) n.
1. A Subject for discussion or analysis.
2. A statement that affirms or denies something.
Example: “I think you should go play a nice game of hide-and-go-fuck-yourself.”
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23 months is a long ass time for a lame ass crime.
The thing is, the 23 months was for a federal conspiracy crime. Vick will still face charges at the state level for animal cruelty.
Now, I realize that double jeopardy technically refers to one person being charged with the same crime twice (whether by two different states, or by both a state body and a federal body). But doesn't the severity of this federal sentence feel more like punishment for being a mean, black puppy killer and not for a guy with no previous criminal record doing a little unorthodox gambling? Even the prosecuters recommended only an 18 month sentence.
Since his conviction, Vick has voluntarily allocated $1 million to pay for the upkeep of 48 more dogs seized from his property. That would have been a good sentence. That and maybe 30 days.
I'm not saying Michael Vick is a nice guy, or even that we should just forgive him out of hand. The guy is a buttnutt hillbilly who hurts dogs. If you hurt dogs, you're not my friend. But Vick's 23 month sentence smacks of an abuse of judicial power - a crime far more serious than that which Vick is accused of.
Do either of you realize how brutal dog fighting is? It's not a lame ass crime. It's atrocious.
Michael Vick is responsible for the pain and suffering of countless dogs. Not just one. Not just two. And he certainly didn't just thoughtlessly leave them in the car on a hot summer day.
In my perfect world, a man like that doesn't belong in decent society, and would be disposed of by "hanging, drowning, shooting, electrocution or other means." That would truly be a punishment that fits the crime.
Megan, your outrage is not surprising. As I said, I suspected I would take some heat for this.
You didn't grow up on a farm or anything did you? I mean, I remember it being a routine occurance to drown wild cats on the farm because, ya know, there's a hundred of the little fuckers.
An old friend of mine had a job out of college walking about fields in Wisconsin and literally wringing the necks of geese due to over-population.
Finally, you clearly don't have squirrels living in your attic because you'd be surpised at the creative methods you may come up with to dispatch them en masse.
My point, and I think Pat's as well, is that we need to look at the punishments for these "crimes" relative to the punishment for other crimes.
In your world, the death penalty would be as routine as traffic tickets. Unless of course, the canine is somehow ranked higher in importance as a victim than your fellow human beings.
I mean, we're talking about dogs here... not a humnan fetus.
Did I go to far on that one? :-)
You never filled us in on how you finally dispatched your nut-eating freeloaders. Do tell...
MF, the battle rages on. But let's just say I've done some things that I wouldn't want to publicly go on record as having done to those adorable little varmits.
I admit when I heard the sentence I thought to myself, "Ha. Point for dogs." However, when you consider the cost to house the asshole in prison, and the fact that he will be considered a god by the other inmates, the punishment does seems in appropriate. I think it was a far greater punishment to have his reputation completely smeared and his millions in endorsements taken away.
And for the record... I grew up on a farm. We never drowned cats or wrung duck necks. However, even if we had, drowning cats because there are too many of them and you don't want them to starve to death or spread disease is different from throwing two dogs in a ring and betting on which one will kill the other for the amusement of the crowd. Its also different from stealing other people's dogs and maiming them with a broken leg or tying their mouths shut to use them as bait and training for your fighting dogs.
I saw a special on dogfighting on ESPN of all places. It made me physically sick to my stomach.
Perhaps the better punishment would be to throw Michael Vick into a pen with a fighting dog and then take bets on the fight.
I just had this vision of a judge saying: "I sentence you to be dipped in a large vat of bacon grease and thrown, naked, into a pen with a dozen of your own hungry dogs."
I would spend 50 bucks to pay per view that!
Good for people to know.
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