There are many people who feel quite strongly about this one way or the other. Personally, I don’t think he has. I’m irritated with the NFL for letting him back in (albeit conditionally), but they are a private organization and thus free to do what they want. The real failure happened years ago in the legal system. There is really no legal precedent for how to try and sentence these kinds of animal abuse and dog fighting situations and the laws are still trying to catch up. Mainly because the crime of dog fighting runs in packs with other crimes like child abuse, drug use and trafficking, illegal weapons possessions, theft etc. So typically when crimes are being tried, people are going to jail for a multitude of reasons on various charges which muddies the legal waters of how this all gets handled. And for career criminals 2 years in jail is nothing – easy time they’ll tell you. People who engage in this kind of animal abuse are sociopaths – same kind of sociopaths who abuse partners, spouses, children. The question remains as to whether or not these people can be rehabilitated and rejoin society as law-abiding citizens- and if they can the rehab certainly won’t happen in jail. Normally I think PETA’s all kinds of crazy and ignore them, but they are right about Vick needing a psychiatric evaluation.
I will say that my emotion over the situation had clouded my judgement on a couple of issues resulting in some heated conversations with close friends on this issue. A few of my good friends have made really good points for keeping an open mind on the whole felons have the right to rebuild their life once they’ve paid their debt to society issue. I get that and don’t disagree. But Vick is not a normal, regular person. He’s a pro-athlete. He gets special treatment. I have major issues with the pro-athlete situation in this country in general – which I believe unfairly influenced how this situation went down. My dislike for the NFL and NBA thugs (and my view that they are symbolic of much of what is wrong with the United States) is also an unpopular opinion with my friends. They are all overpaid and many of them live above the law. And on the life rebuilding thing perhaps they should have spent a little more time in college listening in classes instead of playing sports so they would have options. I don’t have the time or patience to enter into the pro-athlete/celeb/public figure aspect of the situation now. That’s a longer post for later. I will say one thing and that is Vick has bankrupted himself literally to the tune of millions paying lawyers, PR people and a whole village to keep the sentence as light as possible, direct most of the blame of the more heinous aspects of the situation to others, and play the PR game now that he’s out. Remorse? Who the hell knows because all that comes out of his mouth are obviously scripted sound bites from his PR handlers saying all the right things. And the head NFL guy – kudos to him – has even called him out on that saying words are useless at this point – actions speak louder. And the Tony Dungy involvement as his new mentor? Pope Tony of the NFL Does No Wrong. Vick’s managed to align himself with this saint to cut down on the hostility factor and shame on Dungy for allowing himself to be manipulated in this manner.
I think where I’m confused is I actually sense there are people out there who have some level of sympathy for him and what is described as a huge and almost insurmountable task he has of rebuilding himself. Whatever. I don’t feel sorry for him. He did abhorrent things and has to pay. Help me understand that. Go read the specifics of the case. Look at the photos then let me know how you feel. This was not just training dogs to fight which is despicable in and of itself. This was torturing and killing them for entertainment. Trust me – you don’t want those people living next door to you. You don’t want them in your neighborhood, or your city. Think about this in the context of a regular citizen, or a different crime. What if John Smith had done this? 2 years enough? What if it had been a child abuse case not dog fighting? I’m trying to keep my mind open when I have discussions with friends who don’t agree with me. You get jaded once you’ve seen abused animals and it’s difficult to reset your mind about issues like this. I’ll admit I have a bias.
In closing, instead of just spouting off words and inflaming people, I’ll continue to put my money where my mouth is by being involved in dog rescue.
Anything I would have to say would be preaching to the choir, but I think my feelings are best summed up by the title of the blog post I made when he first accused of dogfighting: “Michael Vick, Burn in Hell.”
Seriously. In this situation, I think an eye for an eye would perhaps give him an idea of what he put those poor animals through.
I put dog fighting on the same plain as serial murder. It’s premeditated, violent, and sociopathic. I just can’t believe he only served 2 years for this. Don’t serial murderers usually start with cruelty to animals as children?
In my book there’s a difference between crimes of passion and crimes that are premeditated.
OMG– I meant plane, not plain. Sales is making me stupid.