Parenting and The End of The World

Mr. Christopher from the Corner Stork Blog. Well, the courts have made up their mind and Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison. The judge told Michael that he needed to apologize to the millions of young kids that looked up to him and Vick simply replied “yes, sir.” It’s still not known as to whether Vick’s decision to turn himself in to start serving his sentence before his sentence was even handed down played any part in the light sentencing.

Vick could have faced up to 5 years in prison and most animal activists are crying foul already that this punishment does not fit the crime by any stretch of the imagination. Others will be very interested to see if Vick even serves anywhere near that for good behavior. And that leaves the biggest question of all as to whether or not Vick will be coming back onto the gridiron or if the NFL will have him back with open arms. There’s no doubt that he is a talented quarterback, but will any team in the NFL want to take the chance of the negative publicity that is sure to follow him. Or will his time served allow people to turn the other cheek? What are your thoughts?

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Well Mr. Christopher from Corner Stork Baby Gifts once again bringing you the details of the Michael Vick story as it unfolds. The tough part about this case is definitely two fold. I, as a member of the Corner Stork team are all about kids and children. It’s a horrible travesty that millions of children who have looked up to Michael Vick and those that even stood by him to have watch him fall from grace so hard. The second part is that I personally stood by him as innocent until proven guilty and I believed in that justice system. The court of public opinion ruled this case. With that preamble, let’s get to the case at hand.

Michael Vick today has pleaded guilty to the federal dogfighting charges and animal cruelty.  In a public statement that followed shortly after, he stated that “First I want to apologize for all the things that I’ve done and that I have allowed to happen,” .”I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions,” he said. “Dogfighting is a terrible thing.”He concluded by saying, “I offer my deepest apologies to everyone. And I will redeem myself. I have to.”

You can read the Summary of Facts and actual Plea Agreement here, but I’ll make it easy for you as to what he has pleaded guilty to:

1. Michael Vick, aka “Ookie” pleads guilty to traveling state to state to participate in illegal activities involving gambling.
2. Promoting the illegal activity
3. Knowingly sponsoring an animal in a animal fighting venture
4. Transporting animals for the purpose of dogfighting
5. Buying property and using the property for the sole purpose of dogfighting including specifically training pit bulls to fight and only for fighting purposes.
6. Establishing a “kennel” to use as a front for the dogfighting
7. Purchasing dogs specifically to put them into dogfights.
8. Providing the funding for the dogfighting activities (food, housing, travel expenses, vet treatment for dogs they wanted to keep and disposal fees for dogs they “disposed of”)
9. Participation in dogfighting in several states.
10. Providing a place for the gambling activities (Bad Newz Kennels) that involved gambling from the hundreds to thousands of dollars on a single fight. Vick supposedly did NOT make any money on these events. Proceeds were split between Tony Taylor, Quanis Phillips, and Purnell Peace.
11. Vick claims that a number of dogs were killed during the “testing phase”, but the killings were done by Phillips, Peace and Taylor.
12. Sponsored interstate dogfighting bouts with 2 of their champion dogs “Jane”, “Big Boy”, “Magic”, “Tiny”, “Too Short”, and various other “loser” animals in various southeastern states including SC, NC, and VA and attendants came from across the country including as far as NJ.
13. That he killed 6-8 dogs that failed testing along with Peace and Phillips.  The dogs were killed by either hanging or drowning.
14. That he was in possession of 54 pit bull dogs at the time of this discovery and most of which had scars from fighting. he also had the premises that were designed to host the fighting including an instrument that was designed to pry open the dogs mouths during fighting to loose them from the other dogs, treadmills and slat mills to train the dogs.

And essentially, that’s it.  As if that’s not enough. There’s a lot that’s disturbing about this and especially since he animately denied any of it to press, his managers and his team mates.  What’s worse is the audio portion of his apology where he makes sure that he indicates that he did not involve anyone else in these actions and that he takes full responsibility for his actions.  Funny, but the Summary and Appeal say something totally different.  He blames everyone and takes a little responsibility. Then he states that during this time, he has found Jesus and has turned his life over to God.  Good for him if that’s true, but after seeing the laundry list of charges that he’s pleaded guilty to, he’s definitely going need divine intervention.  You can hear the audio of Michael and the public apology here or you can watch the CNN video here.

Sentencing is on December 12th.  What exactly do you think the punishment should be? What are your thoughts?