September 23, 2010
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Why does Michael Vick even have the SAME JOB AGAIN??
Hubby & I saw something on TV yesterday talking about Michael Vick and his playing football again. Both of us were outraged. What message is being sent to the impressionable?
Some people mention that he’s spent 2 years in jail and went bankrupt so what more could we want? Some may feel that the message being sent is that if you do the time then you are given a second chance.
Well for one thing, we want him to be treated like all the other “regular” criminals in the system. Even though it’s now been proven that he’s not.
His case (like other sports figures) and the fact that the NFL has welcomed him back with “open arms”, even though he now has a felony conviction on his record, helps to strengthen the message already being sent by the professional sports franchises – it’s okay to be a criminal, we’ll forgive you. You make us and sponsors lots of money, so what you did really wasn’t that bad. We know it was all a misunderstanding.
How much time money was spent & wasted on his court case that should be repaid to us the taxpayers for getting him convicted? If anything, it makes a mockery of our justice system. If you fit into the special category (fame or fortune), you will be readily forgiven in our society and given the chance to get right back up to the fast track to regain your social status again.
How many criminals that he spent time with will be allowed to walk out of prison and go back to their same job (if they had one to begin with)? How many potential employers will turn a blind eye to the box checked “Yes” on the application that asks if you have been convicted of a felony? How many of them will be given a contract and guaranteed money when they get out to get back on their feet? How many of them will be given access to corporate sponsors and adulation by the general public once they get out?
Michael Vick “went” bankrupt…kind of. More like he had to liquidate assets, pay a lot of money AND he could also protect himself by FILING bankruptcy, which could then protect some of his assets for him upon release. How many of the criminals he did time with had that same access to professionals that could help him with that pre-planning?
I bet there’s a criminal that did time with him and now has found out that he was going back to the same shit… how pissed off do you think he ‘ll be when he puts 2 and 2 together and realizes he isn’t going to get that same chance? I bet he’d be planning on how to go and kill him when he got out.
Maybe what Vick can do is become the ex-con sponsor. When he makes his money back, he pays their salaries at the level they had when they went in to get them all back on their feet again. Better yet, advocate for a new system of Pell grants for criminals sponsored by famous people everywhere.
Just like when kids are looking to get into college and need grants & scholarships. There are those special ones for “If you are Irish and your parents live in Bogata” you can get this grant, or “If you want to be an underwater basket weaver” you are eligible for this grant. These would work the same way. You as a criminal have to apply for them, but if you fit the criteria, you could get one of the following for example:
If you went to jail for illegal dog fighting/gambling, Michael Vick will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for computer hacking, Bill Gates will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for securities fraud, Donald Trump will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for drug dealing, Merck or Pfizer will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for drunk driving, Budweiser or Coors will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for serial killings, Mac or Snap-on Tools will have a grant that sponsors you.
If you went to jail for vehicular manslaughter, Ford or Chevy will have a grant that sponsors you.
There isn’t a crime that can’t be sponsored under this new system, and if you are a smart criminal, you get put away for a combination of offenses so you can apply for multiple grants and get that much more money.
They should also provide financial planning & bankruptcy filing services upon in-processing to all inmates so that they will have an easier time of it when they get out of prison after doing their time.
So, if you were a criminal, we should all help you get back on your feet in the same way that Michael Vick and others like him have been helped back on theirs.
Then we as a society can say with a clear conscience that crime really does pay.
If we as a society didn’t have such a limited social memory, then the two of us wouldn’t be so upset. In a few years, no one will really remember or care about what he and other athletes did, and the severity will be reduced to some passing trivia question while watching a game, “Hey, didn’t Vick go to jail for something?” “Yeah, I think it had to do with dogs, but I don’t remember.” “Huh. Well, he’s having a great season this year, I even got my kid a signed jersey of his for Christmas.”
If we as a society really DID forgive criminals after they did their time, then those above suggestions wouldn’t seem so ridiculous now would they? But deep down, we really don’t. We like to forget…conveniently.
