America in Trouble: You Can Now Be Imprisoned for Stupidity
Posted by shifto | Posted in America in Trouble, jail, law, politics, respect my hustle, Use of wiki encouraged | Posted on 20:24
This is an important week in American Football. One football player starts a two year prison term and another ends a two year hiatus from football due to a 2 year prison term. I think the two cases are vastly different in magnitude and fault. However, both of these cases have the same root. The football players involved in each case had the case of the stupid. I will focus more on Plaxico Burress rather than Michael Vick with this article, but feel free to fresh up on Vick's dog fighting incident's if you wish.
Lots of people are making a big deal about the heckling Mr. Burress received from inmates when he entered prison, but all the sources I read made it seem like he probably heard worse running onto the field at Texas Stadium. What was more heart wrenching is seeing his family leave the court house after dropping him off to serve his sentence. Burress's wife, a pregnant lady, hiding her face with sun glasses holding a young boy that will have to wait 2 more years to see his father. Also Burress's father accompanying his son's family who looked the saddest of them all, but is a strong enough man to stave off tears in public.
What did he do to earn himself this sentence? He carried an unlicensed pistol into a nightclub. Unfortunately for Mr. Burress, the weapon misfired and the weapon ended up shooting him in the leg. Fearing the worse, he asked his teammate, Antonio Pierce, to take him to the hospital to get checked out. Of course the news got wind of the incident, and in turn so did everyone else.
Specifically speaking on the weapon discharge, how could something so odd happen? The damn weapon slipped into his pant leg and when he tried to stop it from falling he accidentally pulled the trigger. He admits that he wasn't wearing a holster for the weapon so the only thing I can surmise from the details given is that he had the weapon tucked into his jeans like a moron. This could have only gotten dumber if the man was walking around flashing it at people like they do in the movies to show how tough they are.
I above all people understand that mistakes happen. I can definitely sympathize with Mr. Burress to a point. However, there were two really big mistakes made. 1) The gun was not licensed in New York. As far as I can tell it wasn't licensed in New Jersey either (where he resides). How hard would it have been to get the damn thing licensed in the States that he was parading around in? If it was too hard, then he should have left it at home. 2) Why did he not maintain safe control of his weapon? At the very least, he should have had a holster. I know that's not as cool as stuffing into your pants like a gangster, but it avoids looking like an asshole when you let it slide down your pant leg like in this case.
Regardless of that, I wouldn't exactly classify Burress as a criminal for this. Did he break the law? Yes. Is he a criminal? Well, it's a stretch, but definitely not for this incident, no. He had an unlicensed weapon, hurt no one but himself with it, and no one was more inconvenienced by the whole event than he himself. Ultimately, the only thing he's really guilty of in this case is being stupid. To paraphrase from Roger Cossack on SportsCenter, 2 years is an awful long time to spend in jail for being stupid. Hmm, that might have been the exact quotation, I don't remember.
I find it hard to believe that Michael Vick actually did any of the things that he was imprisoned for and accused of. Maybe he gave money to some friends and family and maybe he knew they were fighting dogs, but he probably didn't think out the consequences of the whole thing. Instead of saying, "Ray Ray needs cash," he should have been wondering what the consequences of giving him cash are. I find it hilarious that the same people he helped out financially and sheltered were the same people who dimed him out when it came time to plea bargain. Everyone was telling on Michael Vick and feds were probably more than happy to take down a big fish rather than a small fry.
The problem with these two athletes is that they have both been getting over since the day they picked up footballs. Here in the 757, we aren't known for very much and even the stuff we are known for we're not very appreciated for. I'm sure this might be the case with all gifted athletes, but here in Hampton Roads, I think the pressure to build up a famous guy is that much higher. Besides all the things listed above, we are probably most known for the athletes we produce. Bruce Smith, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Michael Cuddyer, and BJ Upton off the top of my head come from this region in addition to the aforementioned two. We have a rich tradition of producing top tier athletes and I'm sure no one wants "little mistakes" to ruin their careers.
I would argue that this just ends up ruining these guys in the future. We let all the little things slide so it just ends up enabling poor behavior in the future. Then what happens when something big happens? Like a felony charge. Then what? Can't let that one slide. These are grown men and they're responsible for their own actions and all, but how can they learn to take responsibility for their actions if they're never held accountable. Michael Vick had a pattern of poor behavior prior to getting busted for dog fighting. Plaxico Burress had domestic disputes, civil cases, and traffic tickets to his credit, no where near as bad a Vick's list, but that's what makes this whole situation so sad.
Burress probably never thought that he would get in much trouble when he decided to walk into that club with a weapon. Probably because he's never actually been in any trouble. Unfortunately for him, NYC wasn't about to have ANOTHER Puff Daddy incident on its watch and they were making sure that all of America knew that they weren't messing around. Plaxico Burress was just the example man.
So this makes me wonder. If you can go to prison for two years just for being stupid, then how many people in America will there be that haven't been to prison by the end of the year?
Lots of people are making a big deal about the heckling Mr. Burress received from inmates when he entered prison, but all the sources I read made it seem like he probably heard worse running onto the field at Texas Stadium. What was more heart wrenching is seeing his family leave the court house after dropping him off to serve his sentence. Burress's wife, a pregnant lady, hiding her face with sun glasses holding a young boy that will have to wait 2 more years to see his father. Also Burress's father accompanying his son's family who looked the saddest of them all, but is a strong enough man to stave off tears in public.
What did he do to earn himself this sentence? He carried an unlicensed pistol into a nightclub. Unfortunately for Mr. Burress, the weapon misfired and the weapon ended up shooting him in the leg. Fearing the worse, he asked his teammate, Antonio Pierce, to take him to the hospital to get checked out. Of course the news got wind of the incident, and in turn so did everyone else.
Specifically speaking on the weapon discharge, how could something so odd happen? The damn weapon slipped into his pant leg and when he tried to stop it from falling he accidentally pulled the trigger. He admits that he wasn't wearing a holster for the weapon so the only thing I can surmise from the details given is that he had the weapon tucked into his jeans like a moron. This could have only gotten dumber if the man was walking around flashing it at people like they do in the movies to show how tough they are.
I above all people understand that mistakes happen. I can definitely sympathize with Mr. Burress to a point. However, there were two really big mistakes made. 1) The gun was not licensed in New York. As far as I can tell it wasn't licensed in New Jersey either (where he resides). How hard would it have been to get the damn thing licensed in the States that he was parading around in? If it was too hard, then he should have left it at home. 2) Why did he not maintain safe control of his weapon? At the very least, he should have had a holster. I know that's not as cool as stuffing into your pants like a gangster, but it avoids looking like an asshole when you let it slide down your pant leg like in this case.
Regardless of that, I wouldn't exactly classify Burress as a criminal for this. Did he break the law? Yes. Is he a criminal? Well, it's a stretch, but definitely not for this incident, no. He had an unlicensed weapon, hurt no one but himself with it, and no one was more inconvenienced by the whole event than he himself. Ultimately, the only thing he's really guilty of in this case is being stupid. To paraphrase from Roger Cossack on SportsCenter, 2 years is an awful long time to spend in jail for being stupid. Hmm, that might have been the exact quotation, I don't remember.
I find it hard to believe that Michael Vick actually did any of the things that he was imprisoned for and accused of. Maybe he gave money to some friends and family and maybe he knew they were fighting dogs, but he probably didn't think out the consequences of the whole thing. Instead of saying, "Ray Ray needs cash," he should have been wondering what the consequences of giving him cash are. I find it hilarious that the same people he helped out financially and sheltered were the same people who dimed him out when it came time to plea bargain. Everyone was telling on Michael Vick and feds were probably more than happy to take down a big fish rather than a small fry.
The problem with these two athletes is that they have both been getting over since the day they picked up footballs. Here in the 757, we aren't known for very much and even the stuff we are known for we're not very appreciated for. I'm sure this might be the case with all gifted athletes, but here in Hampton Roads, I think the pressure to build up a famous guy is that much higher. Besides all the things listed above, we are probably most known for the athletes we produce. Bruce Smith, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Michael Cuddyer, and BJ Upton off the top of my head come from this region in addition to the aforementioned two. We have a rich tradition of producing top tier athletes and I'm sure no one wants "little mistakes" to ruin their careers.
I would argue that this just ends up ruining these guys in the future. We let all the little things slide so it just ends up enabling poor behavior in the future. Then what happens when something big happens? Like a felony charge. Then what? Can't let that one slide. These are grown men and they're responsible for their own actions and all, but how can they learn to take responsibility for their actions if they're never held accountable. Michael Vick had a pattern of poor behavior prior to getting busted for dog fighting. Plaxico Burress had domestic disputes, civil cases, and traffic tickets to his credit, no where near as bad a Vick's list, but that's what makes this whole situation so sad.
Burress probably never thought that he would get in much trouble when he decided to walk into that club with a weapon. Probably because he's never actually been in any trouble. Unfortunately for him, NYC wasn't about to have ANOTHER Puff Daddy incident on its watch and they were making sure that all of America knew that they weren't messing around. Plaxico Burress was just the example man.
So this makes me wonder. If you can go to prison for two years just for being stupid, then how many people in America will there be that haven't been to prison by the end of the year?
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