KGB94SACKEM said:Deer hunting, Fishing? Whats the difference?
A swift kill for food verses getting your rocks off on watching two terrified animals rip at each other for long periods of time for an amusing bet then hanging or drowning the losing animal ? I don't see a difference, do you ?
Are we forgetting about racketeering, gambling, and other federal charges beyond the dogfighting? If he was trafficking drugs as the illegal activity, wouldn't it be similar?
For the record, I think he's a reprehensible scumbag for this dogfighting crap.
Nathaniel, dogfighting is also illegal, it was one of the charges...funding an illegal dogfighting operation. So that weighed on the sentence.
I personally (not that it will make a diffrence) will NEVER watch a game that has Vick playing in it.
Not that I think it would ever happen, but I'd even go as far as no longer watching the packers if by some chance they picked him up.
Hammer said:Are we forgetting about racketeering, gambling, and other federal charges beyond the dogfighting? If he was trafficking drugs as the illegal activity, wouldn't it be similar?
For the record, I think he's a reprehensible scumbag for this dogfighting crap.
He's in jail for the money aspect of the whole thing. People are acting like the 23 months is for act of murdering dogs. It's not. It's for conspiracy of funding, not murder or animal cruelty. The fact that he helped kill the dogs should have no weight on his sentencing, because that's not what he was charged with. Funding a dog fighting ring is illegal, regardless of the fate of the dogs. Yes, his funding lead to the dog's death, but that has nothing to do with what he was charged with.
I'm not defending the guy. I think dog fighting is terrible. I'm just clarifying exactly what it is he is in jail for.
It really is all just because people have never liked the kid for some reason or another.
pack_in_black said:Hammer said:Are we forgetting about racketeering, gambling, and other federal charges beyond the dogfighting? If he was trafficking drugs as the illegal activity, wouldn't it be similar?
For the record, I think he's a reprehensible scumbag for this dogfighting crap.
He's in jail for the money aspect of the whole thing. People are acting like the 23 months is for act of murdering dogs. It's not. It's for conspiracy of funding, not murder or animal cruelty. The fact that he helped kill the dogs should have no weight on his sentencing, because that's not what he was charged with. Funding a dog fighting ring is illegal, regardless of the fate of the dogs. Yes, his funding lead to the dog's death, but that has nothing to do with what he was charged with.
I'm not defending the guy. I think dog fighting is terrible. I'm just clarifying exactly what it is he is in jail for.
You make a great point, but I just felt the whole time that with all of the media attention it got, the dehumanization of Mike by the media and Fido-firsters was sickening. It just feels like he became an instant scapegoat, political platform-builder, and man to be made an example of.
I absolutely LOATHE dogfighting, and think it should be stopped. And I agree with packnic that pitbulls are good for one thing: killing.
But Michael Vick got completely screwed by our corrupt judicial system and useless politicians.
I know we aint s'posed to get political on this site, but the whole thing is just a farce IMHO.
Hammer said:Nathaniel, dogfighting is also illegal, it was one of the charges...funding an illegal dogfighting operation. So that weighed on the sentence.
That's what I'm saying. It's illegal regardless of the actual fate of the dogs. He's not in jail for the actual murders of the dogs. Maybe thats what the state charges will be.
Here’s a list of things to consider before applauding how harsh Vick's punishments have been. I know my last post about this hasn’t been too well received, but I don’t care. How much Vick has had to lose here is wrong, not because he’s Mike Vick, but because he's a person, and people have seemed to forget that.
Also, this is not a defense of Vick or dog fighting, but my stating that the punishments here are too much, not just for Vick but for anybody. This is also not supposed to bash the Justice Department, they did their job is prosecuting Vick, which they should have done because he was operating a criminal enterprise across state lines. I never said he should have gotten off without a scratch, but he should have been given a lighter penalty.
1) Forget Mike Vick for a second. Had an ordinary average Joe been convicted of dog fighting they would lose as much as he did. But that person would now be a convicted felon, which they would have to report to every prospective employer. Being a convicted felon also disqualifies a person from any form of government job. There’s a term for this its called FELON DISENFRANCHISEMENT. Some feel its leads to something called RECIDIVISM, which is where a person re-engages in criminal activity after their release from incarceration. I don’t feel dog fighting, actually animal cruelty is so serious that it warrants such repercussions.
2) Vick has no prior felony convictions. Forget the water bottle thing and Ron Mexico because they never ended up in court. This is kind of steep for a first time offender. He plead guilty and turned himself in. Yes he could have actually gotten up to 60 months, but 23 is still very high.
3) When all is said and done Vick will have missed 4 seasons. His comeback is very unlikely. Though its unlikely he'll end up back in a Newport News housing project, his quality of life will be significantly diminished. This is too much for a person to have to endure because of dog fighting.
For those who really think Vick's sentence was too harsh; you may want to consider why his lawyers wanted to deal with this out of court. Jury opinion (as could be the general opinion of this or any other forum) would change very quickly after getting the visual graphic details as to what had actually been done.
It is one thing to debate a topic that no one has ever witnessed, another thing all together to see the graphic details before debating. Vick's lucky he changed his plea to guilty and avoided that Jury because every graphic detail was going to come out and I guarantee you that hearing the details day after day on the news would guarantee that no body ever would consider touching him again in the NFL and what little is left of his fan base would have to wake up.
So thank the system for allowing him to keep all the gory details to himself because"Ignorance is bliss"
For those who really think Vick's sentence was too harsh; you may want to consider why his lawyers wanted to deal with this out of court. Jury opinion (as could be the general opinion of this or any other forum) would change very quickly after getting the visual graphic details as to what had actually been done.
It is one thing to debate a topic that no one has ever witnessed, another thing all together to see the graphic details before debating. Vick's lucky he changed his plea to guilty and avoided that Jury because every graphic detail was going to come out and I guarantee you that hearing the details day after day on the news would guarantee that no body ever would consider touching him again in the NFL and what little is left of his fan base would have to wake up.
So thank the system for allowing him to keep all the gory details to himself because"Ignorance is bliss"