Posted on 07/23/2007 6:42:58 AM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32
At this point I'm sure that I don't have to do to much to bring you up to speed on Michael Vick and his latest troubles. A federal grand jury has indicted Vick on charges related to dog fighting. That may be just the beginning. The State of Virginia has yet to be heard from, and as I understand it mere ownership of property on which dog fights are held is a felony under Virginia law. Just one felony conviction and Vick is through with professional football in this country.
Let's put this "innocent until proven guilty" nonsense to rest right here at the beginning. When you kill someone you are a killer. If you do so in violation of the law; if it is not in self defense, for instance, you are a murderer. A person who kills a girlfriend because she merely wants out of the relationship is a murderer as soon as his victim's heart stops beating .. you don't have to wait for a jury to come in with a verdict.
So, where does this "innocent until proven guilty" stuff come in? The presumption of innocence is, in my view, a limitation that is primarily place on government. Generally speaking, only government can use force – deadly force – to deprive you of your property, your liberty or your life. If the government is going to do so as punishment for the commission of a crime, then the government must afford you your constitutional rights and prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It is the government, then, that must consider you to be innocent until otherwise proven. After the act, the rapist is only innocent in the eyes of government. The victim views him quite differently.
O.J. Simpson is a murderer. There is not one rational-thinking American familiar with knowledge of the facts of his case who honestly believes otherwise. A renegade jury failed to convict him however, so the government cannot punish him for his butchery. If O.J. objects to my characterization of him as a murderer he has civil remedies he can pursue. I, however, am powerless to punish him for the slaughter of his wife and Ron Goldman.
Now .. back to Vick. Personally, I have no doubt that he knew of and was a willing and eager participant in this blood "sport" of dog fighting. I'm an animal lover. I particularly love dogs. I would have no problem whatsoever seeing him serve some time in jail for his crime. I believe that people can be judged by how they treat animals. If what they allege about Michael Vick is true then he is completely lacking any sense of morality and human decency. Jail might be too good for him. Better to baste him in steak sauce and throw him into a cage full of the very dogs he so loved to brutalize.
What should the Falcons do with Vick? Totally their choice. They have a contract with this thug that would allow them to fire him on the spot. I'm not Arthur Blank and I have no idea what it would feel like to invest tens of millions of dollars in someone only to have them turn out to be such a miserable person and a complete embarrassment to the entire organization off-field. How do you explain to Vick's teammates that their season is about to be negatively affected because of these indictments? What do you say when they cry "He hasn't been convicted yet!" Perhaps if Blank and the Falcons had not invested so much time, effort and money into protecting Michael Vick from his own persona over the years things might not have come to this. But Vick was a jock .. a hero .. a prized gladiator. He generated massive amounts of revenue, not only for the team, but for the league ... and was thus entitled to treatment that would insulate him from his own repugnant actions.
If someone in a position of authority had smacked him down a few years ago, the team might not be going through this today.
As I said, the Falcons can do with Vick as they please. If he's convicted of a felony we should expect the NFL to follow the rules they've set and send him packing. We'll see. But I, as a fan, have my own choices to make, and my choice will be to have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Falcons as long as this thug is wearing their uniform. As long as Michael Vick is part of the organization, the organization, for me, ceases to exist. My wife is from Jacksonville, so I'm now officially a Jaguars fan.
Now ... let's address the race angle. I've been reading some of the blogs out there, and I did have a chance to listen to some sports talk radio over the weekend. What I've read and heard is entirely predictable. Everyone is out to get Michael Vick because he's black. The whole investigation is racially based.
This isn't about race. It's about culture. Black urban culture, to be more precise. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that organized dogfighting has increased by well over 300% since 1992. In many cases the dogfighting takes place in conjunction with drug dealing. The director of the Capital Area Humane Society in Ohio told the Cincinnati Inquirer ""Dogfighting is a family event, often held in a large warehouse. Children watch and there can be concession stands at one end, gambling somewhere else, and over in this corner they'll be selling cocaine and crack."
I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that dogfighting has been glorified in rap music. DMX and Snoop Dog have promoted the practice in their "music" videos.
Eileen Lou-Harrist wrote "In recent years, pit bull terriers have become a macho accessory in urban culture, where kids are attracted to the animals' reputation as inherently mean dogs. Add the hard-edged glamour of the dogfight—the gambling, drugs and weapons; the illegality; the 'fight 'til you die' credo—and dogfighting flourishes in places where cultivating a tough reputation is often paramount to survival." Now is Lou-Harrist describing any sort of a racial characteristic with those words? Hardly. She's describing a culture; urban street culture. Gangsta culture. So for all of you out there who will try to make this whole Michael Vick affair into a racial issue, put a sock in it. We're talking culture here, not race; a violent, immoral and cruel culture that promotes violence and disrespect for common decency and the law; a culture now vividly represented by Michael Vick.
I'm told that if you visit animal rescue shelters in many urban areas you'll find that over 60% of the dogs there are pit bulls or some variation. Slam a few of these people in jail for some extended sentences and let's see how quickly that changes.
The Atlanta Falcons need to start looking for a new quarterback pronto.
Carolyn
Wait until it is your ox being gored Mr. Boortz.
Boortz is a little out of his element when he pontificates on those topics.
Agree 100%. Especially the part about slathering Vick with steak sauce and throwing him to the dogs!
Oh, good God! Have some stones, Neal! At the end of the aritcle he goes on about “it’s not about about race. It’s about urban street and gangsta culture.” Said culture, in case one was unaware is 99.99999% black. Said culture is black through and through, and this whole situation is another prime example of a sick, degraded black culture. Of course, it’s the white man’s fault for inventing AIDS to spread in the inner city, and for having the CIA likewise distribute crack. My bad.
Neal Boortz is a Libertarian, not a conservative.
Why do you say that?
“The Atlanta Falcons need to start looking for a new quarterback pronto.”
As a quarterback he won’t be hard to replace. As a running back he was probably the best in the NFL.
That statement is absoulutely wrong. "Most" law and order conservatives want justice, by the Constitution. There may be a few loonies, but most are strict Constitutionalists. Having said that, giving special treatment and considerations to athletes has to stop. They need to be tried, convicted and imprisoned just like any other citizen.
the IRS is going to have fun with michael vick.
Well, the Falcons got what they deserved. They knew what Vick was like before he was drafted.
True, but one would certainly hope that it is a culture not embraced by most of our black neighbors. The trappings are common, let's hope that the underlying attitude is not.
Vick was good when the Falcons let him be Vick. But they tried to turn him into Peyton Manning.
They would be better off just letting him do what he does and if he gets hurt, it’s the same as a suspension. But the big question is this : Is Vick the only NFL player involved in dog fighting? I’m guess that we are only seeing the tip of this iceberg.
Any hint of tolerance for this kind of behavior, indicts the entire league. This goes beyond the cruelty and barbaric behavior of one player.
Covering up for talented criminals starts in high school sports, is considered the norm in college and is elevated to an art form in Professional Sports.
With the revelations that are coming out about B’ball referees, it is hard to call Professional Sports anything but a mob run sham. All this can be attributed to the millions of dollars spent in sports betting and national broadcasts. Its time for a cleanup of professional sports or put them on the same par with professional wrestling (I don’t see a lot of betting on the outcome of those events).
Wait until it is your ox being gored Mr. Boortz.
Boortz is EXACTLY right on this one.
The government and the courts MUST consider a suspect charged with a crime innocent until proven guilty, but there's not a DAMN THING that says we, as individuals, must do so.
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