We’ll see what Vick will do with the time he has before sentencing.

The trio of guilty pleas surprises me, however. It makes me wonder how strong a case they really have. It now seems like Vick is being strong-armed by the feds who are threatening to file RICO charges if he doesn’t agree to cop a plea (the deadline was set for this morning at 9 Eastern.) Of course the RICO charges would have almost no chance of sticking, but the mere chance of a conviction forces Vick and his defense team to weigh the possibility of spending as many as 20 years in federal prison, and an almost certain lifetime ban from the NFL. Yet another stereotypical case of the abuse of police powers.

So what I have been saying, if I may: is that we are all guilty of animal cruelty. We ALL use animals to further our own agenda, some of us just use them in a way that the powers that be have outlawed (the same difference between alcohol and marijuana, or the difference in sentencing between cocaine and crack.) Vick’s alleged actions in this case are abhorrent, but I see nothing to be gained from trumping up charges, demonizing the man, throwing him in prison for years, or banning him from the league (dogfighting bets are a far cry from gambling, these were allegedly his dogs, which makes it competition not gambling. Just like Vick competes in a league that is gambled on by millions in legal and illegal ways throughout the country. If he does well he gets more money, if he does poorly he loses it. No difference.)

I think the court and the NFL should get together and offer Vick a deal to spend 6-10 months in prison, agree to community service and probation for a longer period, pay a hefty restitution and fine, and suspend him from the league for two years (served concurrent with the jail time,) with a conduct review before mini-camps next season where the suspension could be truncated for good behavior.

That being said, if Vick beats the charges, and I think he will beat out the majority of them if not all if he doesn’t plea out, he has still been severely punished, taking big hits to the wallet and his reputation. Much more punishment than corporate execs at Tyson Foods, or the fat cats at the race track, and in Nome, Alaska will face.

If he was as heavily involved as the other defendants seem to indicate, at what point do you consider him guilty? Is he just another O.J. to you, guilty in reality, not guilty by criminal law?

Andrew, I am deeply sorry that you are a ‘9ers fan, but I won’t hold it against you, except to tell you that the Falcons will beat the ‘9ers on November 4th even if I have to fill in under center (though I think Joey Harrington or DJ Shockley would probably fair better.) As for your distaste of the mainstream news, I tend to agree, but when it involves issues of criminal justice I think it deserves attention and scrutiny, and ultimately the mainstream news has an immense impact on mainstream society and cannot be safely ignored. Personally, I wish the news would focus on issues of justice when it doesn’t involve a big name like Vick or Hilton, but we have to take what we can get.

Again, I am not trying to make excuses for Vick, don’t look for me to be leading a protest if he is jailed, there are many who are more worthy of such efforts… but I do think people need to take a step back, understand the complexity here, and not focus on the mostly one-sided appeals to pathos that the media has inundated this story with. What really inspired me to start this post was a conversation with a close friend who said he would want to hurt Vick if given the chance. This, coming from someone who is far from informed as to the details, really worried me, and I worry that he isn’t the only one to think this way. This cuts to the very foundation of our democracy, a well-informed society. As I said before, if our society is ready to pillory this man, based on these cursory allegations that are being expressed by a sensationalist media, then we are really devolving into the kind of mob rule that Aristotle, J.S. Mill, and Tocqueville warned us about. This is why I initiated this discourse.

Certainly some of my earlier comments may have focused on one leg of the anti-Vick argument, the moral argument, but this wasn’t a straw man. The other leg of the argument, the legal argument, I agree with in principle, if I were the judge I would certainly apply the law as written, treating this case different only in proportion to its differences (on that note I will mention that a large interstate dogfighting operation was broken up earlier this year in Dayton, Ohio, all 7 accused in that case faced state charges, so this case is clearly already being handled differently.) However, I would suggest we take a closer look at the inherent problems of prohibition and look for more effective ways of governing this atrocity than the current legislation. As much as I cringe at the thought of dogfighting, qua entertainment, I also understand that I cringe at aspects of many other legal and even state-sponsored activities (not only the poultry and beef industry, but also horse racing, dog racing, animal control, the physical and psychological abuse of some police dogs and even some, though certainly far from most, rescue or assistance dogs, the war on drugs, the war in Iraq, chemical-intensive agriculture and horticulture…) I can’t imagine how atrocious the poultry or beef industries would become if they were forced underground into a black market situation. In the end, I wish we could wise up as a society and treat ALL animals, and people for that matter, with respect, but I’m not going to hold my breath either. Until then we’re stuck with our current paradigm, which places the rights of people above all other organisms in every situation (except I guess we are making exceptions for cute and cuddly ones, unless they’ve no longer serve our purpose.)

Every day hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs around our country are killed. They’ve come up with plenty of euphemisms (destroyed, euthanized, or my personal favorite “put to sleep,”) but the final outcome is the same, the human-directed termination of life. (I would also note: I find it interesting how many people are abhorred by the methods of execution that are alleged here, especially since they are all just primitive forms of the methods our various states use to execute criminals. I would argue that legalizing dogfighting would bring their methods more inline with those of our criminal justice system, as well as legal sports like horse and dog racing.) Some of these lives are ended out of mercy, such as the one that I personally witnessed when my Sadie’s excretory functions no longer functioned, but many of them are primarily the result of human ego. Most are destroyed simply because they have been abandoned and have become a strain on the resources of a shelter, or a perceived danger to a community. As I mentioned earlier, it is the policy in many animal shelters across the country to destroy ALL pit bulls on arrival, and this is a policy PETA, the king of the hypocrites in the case, supports. Further, PETA and other groups have worked to institute breed-specific bans, or heavy restrictions on pit bull breeding or ownership throughout many cities, counties and even entire countries (Norway and Australia ban them completely, while the UK, France, New Zealand and others put stringent restrictions on them.) Apparently PETA’s stance on ethically treating animals is to prevent their existence in the first place. C’mon PETA don’t hate the players, hate the game!

Andrew, your point about the breeding is an important distinction, but you haven’t fully fleshed it out. Douglas firs, the state tree of Oregon, generally grow to more than 100’ and create breathtaking images for anyone who travels through the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Despite, or perhaps as a result of this beauty, Doug firs have been domesticated and turned into one of the most popular Christmas trees in the U.S. Now I’m not a huge fan of deforestation, and I’d prefer that we better utilize good forest growing soils and their products, but I understand that commercially sold Christmas trees are grown specifically to be cut down, decorated, enjoyed, and thrown out, and thus I don’t see this as an excessive waste (unfortunate maybe, but I doubt I’m in the majority in that opinion.) Similarly, pit bulls, and their close relatives, have been selectively bred for centuries, and they do make excellent companions, recently garnering a reputation as “nanny dogs” for their fierce loyalty in protecting children in their families, and adopting other orphaned baby animals. However, from the start they have been bred to possess traits, including this extreme loyalty, that tend to make them more prone to violence and more suitable for defense and animal control (they were initially bred to control field pests, but also for guarding and as their name suggests helping to control domestic bulls.) Unfortunately, pits have been used in violent sports for hundreds of years, entertaining dignitaries such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, which certainly doesn’t excuse it but clearly shows their predisposition to the activity (again I believe if dogfighting wasn’t prohibited there would be more transparent oversight into the rearing of all pit bulls, which would work to stifle these aggressive tendencies in the general population.) On the other hand is Tucker, one of the world’s best dogs and my personal best friend, a yellow lab. Labradors were initially bred to retrieve cork floats and netting from the icy waters off the coast of Canada. Even since two debilitating knee ligament tears, which he suffered last summer due to excessive Frisbee playing, retrieving is by far his favorite activity and he gladly fights through the pain and discomfort without any regard for further injury. I will never forget Sadie in the last day of her life, loyally following me on a walk through the yard and valiantly attempting a shortened game of ball despite the obvious pain. I can still remember her last moments lying on the vet’s floor looking into my eyes for approval and comfort. She lived to serve me until I granted her leave (ironically the only time she ever sought my permission before leaving.) Have I been abusing my dogs? Or is it more likely that through years of breeding they have grown to love something that most humans would see as an imposition. I’m not saying these dogs had enjoyable lives, but if you were given the choice to live your next life like one of these fighting dogs, or to live it like a chicken who has its legs cut off because they can no longer support your hormone-gorged breasts, or a cow bound in a stall with an udder near bursting with hormone-gorged milk, I find it hard to believe you would choose either of the latter.

Senator Byrd, one of the great Congressional speakers of all-time, was right in his assessment of this bloodsport: “Dog fighting is a brutal, sadistic event motivated by barbarism of the worst sort and cruelty of the worst, worst, worst sadistic kind. One is left wondering, who are the real animals…the creatures inside the ring, or the creatures outside the ring.” If I can answer Mr. Byrd’s question: we are ALL animals, and until we put aside our egos and understand that morality is something that must be practiced, and cannot be legislated, we will continue to find ourselves appaled by the depths of human brutality.

I know I’ve gone on way too long here, and that would’ve made a good ending, but it always irks me when someone responds to me and doesn’t directly address a direct question, so I won’t make that offense and I will work to answer yours. Unfortunately, I wasn’t clear enough in my argumentation, and it appears you misread me. I wasn’t saying that Vick or his co-defendants’ rough background should excuse them from the law. What I was attempting was to provide context, and suggest that their background didn’t inculcate within them the same respect for dogs that you, or I have gained through personal relationships with animals. To a poor kid living in Vick’s neighborhood the few dogs that were around weren’t “man’s best friend,” they were cheap alarm systems. I have a great deal of pity for any person who has been robbed of even the basic, most synthetic community with nature, that is raising or at least knowing a pet, or tending or at least seeing a garden. Add to this the poor track record of the American prison system for rehabilitating criminals, and its propensity to lead convicts to worse transgressions, and I really see little justification to throw a first-time offender, like Michael Vick, in prison, nor first-time violent offenders like his co-defendants. Nor did I mean to suggest Vick shouldn’t go to jail solely because he is famous, or rich, but only because I see no good that can come of it. Whereas, especially in Vick (though I expect he could inspire his co-defendants,) I see an intelligent grown man that is capable of penitence, and could become a leader in the urban community, and in fighting animal abuse throughout the country. As for football, if he maintains the image he has now been painted with, and does nothing to rehabilitate it, I’m pretty sure we won’t see him suiting up anytime in the near future, but if he recognizes the errors of his ways, and sincerely makes amends, I see no reason why Falcons fans and the city of Atlanta shouldn’t embrace #7. To err is human, and so is Vick, which may come as a shock to his fans…

Thanks to JDizzle for sharing his thoughts too. Some free advice: I wouldn’t fantasy draft Vick anywhere before round 50, and stick to Hebrew Nationals they answer to a higher power.

I comprehend and appreciate the rough background he came from and the extraordinary talent he posses. I can even give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t directly managing the ring on a day to day basis. Lets face it though, at the end of the week/month or season - this clown would go back to his property and watch “man’s best friend” tear themselves to pieces. Often times both the winner and loser would need to be “capped”.

If I were a Falcon’s fan at the audience in the Georgia Dome and had been flipped off, I doubt I would want to watch another game. I am however, a 49er fan and if that franchise wants to continue on this pathetic and self-destructive track, well that’s one less team to beat, in the meantime the whole NFL suffers from this bad press.

But Greyson, I do notice in your first argument you play the class card about how rough it was for him growing up. In your response you say, now that he is a member of the elite (especially as an African American elite), he should no longer be subject to the criminal law. So if the law doesn’t apply to the rich or poor is this another area where the middle class in the country “takes one for the team”?

Lastly, I want to say that I don’t actually watch the news where most of this nonsense is playing out. I voluntarily put these blinders on myself, because on a personal level I don’t care what Michael Vick or Paris Hilton are doing. As much as possible I do not buy into the celebrity worship fanaticism. To me, Vick is just another piece of trash; I wish the rule of law applied, but I wont hold my breath.

What is it exactly that you don’t agree with me on? I made a lot of claims amongst my 1360 words…

To clarify, my personal opinion is that Michael Vick was probably approached, right after signing his first multi-million dollar contract with the Falcons, by old friends and a cousin who wanted him to help them out in starting a pit bull breeding operation that would provide them with a livelihood (if you read the indictment it appears that almost all gambling proceeds were split between the three others, not including Vick.) Whether it was the plan at the start, or if Vick knew of the plan from the start I don’t have a clue, but a slippery slope would soon lead to the full-fledged interstate operation that appears to have been functioning. Like I said, I don’t excuse this behavior, but I think people need to have a better understanding of the context before they make him into a monster, and burn him at the stake. Mike Vick, and his now co-defendants, clearly came from a childhood that I cannot even begin to understand. I’m sure that this whole case has had a strong affect on the character of Mike Vick, just as the initial reaction to Clinton Portis’ comments in support of Mike Vick quickly made an impact on him (if you missed that, Portis’ first comments in an impromptu mall interview were something along the line of ‘it’s his property he can do with it what he wants’ while his later recantation after a public outcry was more like ‘I had no idea that people loved their dogs so much,’) and I hope that Vick is able to rehabilitate his image and use his position of prominence for the many good things he has supported in the past (after school programs in urban areas, Va. Tech University and the victims of the recent tragedy there, etc) as well as to educate other poor young athletes on the transition to superstardom and its inherent pressures.

All in all, despite my personal disgust of the alleged actions I have a hard time thinking of Vick as a menace to society, and I cannot think of much to be gained by throwing the man in jail (of course there are very few cases where I see jail as a useful tool.) I think it would be much more fitting to have him pay some hefty fines, placed on probation, and sentenced to a near lifetime of community service with animal shelters and rehab programs where he can use his position of prominence to bring attention to animal abuse and neglect throughout the country.

As the most prominent black player in the NFL, at the most scrutinized (and traditionally white) position, playing for a team in the deep South, Vick has undoubtedly been subject to amazing pressures and oversight. If flipping a couple middle fingers to a stadium of boos is the worst you can come up with in six years as a pro (plus three at a prominent athletic university, Virginia Tech,) and in a game that he ran for 166 yards and threw at least five passes that were dropped including a 4th quarter bomb that would’ve given the Falcons a chance for a 2-point conversion to tie no less, I would have a hard time putting him in the bottom 10% of moral characters in the NFL, and an even harder time in calling him “trash” without any personal experience to back that up. That being said, I can guarantee you that I won’t entertain the idea of buying any Vick merchandise until he has made huge steps to make amends for his behavior, and I’m pretty certain that I’m not alone here.

The most important aspect of my “essay,” however, was to bring to light the excessive hypocrisy that surrounds this case, and the problems that arise when people are tried and convicted solely in the court of a barely informed public opinon. I certainly understand that I, and I would be willing to bet all of you readers, take part in industry and commercial activity that people from other cultures and backgrounds find unsustainable, self-serving, or downright abhorrent (take a trip to the nearest poultry “farm” if you want a good firsthand look at one of them.) When the public rushes to an uninformed judgment, ignoring the intricate nuances, it creates the sort of mob rule that threatens to cheapen American democracy. Let us not focus so much on the sawdust in Michael Vick’s eyes while we still have planks in our own. (And you never thought I would bust out a bible quote, so there! I win!)

Perhaps I would be willing to empathize with Vick if I already didn’t think that he was trash. Remember when he flipped off the entire Georgia Dome? He may be a great athlete, but then again my enthusiasm for baseball never returned after Barry Bonds invaded my Giants.

The bottom line for me is that if he is found guilty I hope he serves jail time, however, as a member of the upper class, he will most likely avoid it. In the long run I think this would benefit the falcons because then they might actually develop their team.

Where the hell is Evan when you need him?