Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Comment on Society

Moving away from RPS and Dominoes.....I have a comment on society.

I'm not a big football fan. Until my best friend moved in with me, I never really even watched it. Here's my comment though. Michael Vick from the Falcons is not allowed to come to training camp until the NFL does its own investigation into his dog fighting indictment. I don't disagree with this decision by the NFL. Where my problem lies is in the fact that you can kill somebody or beat your wife and play in the Superbowl.

What does this say about our society? Again, I agree with the NFL's decision, but if we are going to ban Vick for animal abuse, then we should also be banning those players who are indicted for manslaughter, homicide and spouse abuse.

6 comments:

Ryan said...

Sonja....

I keep coming over here and I want to leave a comment, but I don't think anyone wants to hear my solution - the solution where every thing is equal. Like the football guy that was mean to the dog. He should have the same thing done to him infront of his hometown crowd prior to the kickoff..... or the pro ball players that kill their wives... same thing - get killed right before the game starts infront of the fans.

I would watch much more sports if justice was administered this way

Sometimes it's better when I don't talk.

SonjaB said...

In some ways I agree with you. I do believe that if you get the death penalty you should be killed the same way you killed your victim.

Maybe is better if I don't talk either.

Dave said...

As the two of you aren't talking, I will.

At least in the NFL, you are going to see more "equal" treatment suspensions of accused players by the Commissioner. Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones and a guy whose name I can't remember all have long suspensions and they have not yet been tried for the crimes they are accused of. Vick's "non-suspension" suspension is a riff on the same thing.

Sadly, I don't see any of this as going away soon. There's a culture of entitled bulletproofness, if that's a word, among pro athletes, that starts when they are in high school, speeds up in college and flowers as a pro.

Anonymous said...

Friend at Work believes Justice works differently for those with CASHOLA than those with none.

Ryan: I am all about equality: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth... that's how they did it in my grandfather's country. Maybe if us sane folks keep saying it, it will come true.

Dave: I agree ~ the pros, whether football, baseball (barry bonds anyone?!?), or any other AF/NF sport, seem to get a public admonishment but it rarely fazes them. They just go back to their lives after the media finds something else to talk about.

PS: there was an article on Fox Sports that talked about the 11 most tainted sports achievements.

Ryan said...

Faw has a good point....

The money and status play a large role in these things.

I know this partly because dog fighting is a huge thing where I live. I despise it, but.... the people that promote these things have been in and out of jail - and not so much as made the front page of our local newspaper.

Go figure.

Dave said...

FAW and Ryan,

For purposes of discussion, I'll give you a story about the opposite of celebrities being just slapped on the wrist.

A few years back, Ray Lewis, with the Baltimore Ravens, was in town for the NBA All-Star weekend, I think.

He and his posse were out and about. A guy was killed within his vicinity. Ray and his boys probably saw something; but, there was absolutely no evidence that he had anything to do with the crime.

As Sonja knows, I have friends that are cops and lawyers here. The cops were apoplectic when the Fulton County Prosecutor charged Lewis with some version of murder very early on. They had told him that they weren't ready, take your time. He ignored them.

Lewis pled guilty to lying to an investigator about some minor, totally uninvolved matter. As I recall he did about a month of halfway house kind of thing.

Had the Prosecutor been responsible, he would have waited until the detectives had made a case. He rushed ahead because of the celebrity of Ray Lewis and it came back to bite him. FAW, it didn't hurt that he had the money to hire one of the best criminal defense lawyers in town; but, my point is that he shouldn't have had to spend the money until and unless there was evidence to charge him with something.