"Collective Efforts"
As part of his plea agreement, Michael Vick admitted that six to eight dogs “were killed” by methods including hanging and drowning. He admitted that “these dogs died as the collective effort of” the two co-defendants and himself. An interesting circumlocation. The dogs are alive, collective efforts occur, including drowning and hanging and the dogs are dead.
Ah, lawyers.
12 comments:
It's hard to say negative things about a black athlete without incurring the risk of being called a racist (reference the NAACP's call for understanding and Vick's potential for rehabilitation).
However, I feel it's the NAACP's and other black figures (e.g. Tiger Woods') responsibility to interact with athletes like Vick and tell them bluntly about the lay of the land.
If they don't listen, it's their problem and they should get whacked for serious misdeeds like this unbelievable dog killing.
I got no double standard. If you're rich, you can afford the best advisors. If you don't get'em or don't listen to them, good luck! You're gonna need it.
It appears to me that the main point of the plea agreement is to get the gambling charges dropped so that Vick has a possibility of resuming his NFL career once he serves his time.
Given the NFL's letter to him today, the ploy appears not to have worked.
Now he gets to defend a suit by the Falcons wanting double digit millions in signing bonus back from him.
I think they should all be put in a pen with a dozen hungry pitbulls.
I heard there is a company selling Michael Vick chew toys. :o)
I have had such a range of mixed emotions about this whole Mike Vick thing throughout the time it was unfolding. I am sad for Vick and his family -- not because he got caught, but because of how woefully equipped he apparently is to function in society. I am also angry at him because of his attempt to duck personal responsibility, not to mention the cruelty to animals angle. And I am astounded that a human being can be so callous to the suffering and torture of another living thing, be it a dog, a human being, what have you.
I hope he learns something from this. I hope the world is somehow made a better place as a result of this situation.
Well, someone, somewhere, needs to explain something, sometime to at least some of these athletes and celebrities too -all who apparently believe they are above the law to start with and many then who also believe playing the race card should allow them to go scot free as well.
I may be naive, but in this case I don't believe that he thought he was "above the law." I think he honestly didn't understand the law. Perhaps I am giving him too much benefit of the doubt, though.
Vick's problem, from my uninformed, distant viewpoint, is a combination of three problems.
First, he isn't real smart. When he came on as the Falcons quarterback, the number of offensive plays were cut down. He couldn't deal with the then fairly complicated offense. When he deals with the world, he has a disadvantage.
Second, he grew up without any moderating adult influence. His father made the local paper this week, talking about him. More importantly for my point, the father told the reporter that he had tried to shake (my word, not the father's) Vick down for a million bucks awhile back. Vick said no. The father reduced the demand to $700K, which was rejected. The father is in the process of writing a tell all book to score on his son's problems. What does that tell you about the way he was raised?
Finally, our society allows our Vicks to do as they will with little or no downside.
Had he been whapped (SP?) upside the head when he was a kid, paid attention to, not idiolized as a teenager and college student (not player, student) and then not coddled as a multi-millionaire star, he might have not developed his sickening interests.
That said, he is fully responsible for what he did. He cruelly killed dogs, drowning them, hanging them. Here's a thought, if you are going to off your dog, why not a bullet to the head? Quicker and less suffering to the dog. The "methods," such a benign word, used in the factual admissions, employed by Vick and his friends are the worst part of it.
Animals "get put down" in my world. I'm not sure what I think about it. I do know what I think about doing it in a way that unecessarily hurts the animal. That's what he and his friends did. Dog don't work out. Let's have some sport and watch it suffer.
Wait a second. The killing of the dogs was horrific but what about making the dogs fight in the first place. These guys should be locked up and the key thrown away.
Sonja's Mom
The interesting thing is how widespread this dogfighting thing might be... Vick is merely the most famous athlete to be brought down, but not the first... and his defenders? There may more indictments in other places.
One certainly safe prediction: NFL stadia will be encouraged by the league not to play "Who Let the Dogs Out?" any more.
And the weasel words in the plea agreement? Please: There's a lot of money at stake here... and the chance, however small, that Vick may, someday, have a chance to earn his living as a QB again.
In Oakland, presumably.
S's M., Thanks for stopping by. You're right, the end result follows from the first step.
Curmudgeon, what I didn't put in the post was my puzzlement about the Prosecuter agreeomg tp waffling on language, given what I understand to have been, from the waffling language and the statements from the other defendants to be a pretty much airtight case.
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