Michael Vick may be fast and elusive on the football field, but he could not escape a federal indictment on interstate dog fighting charges for the financial funding of the dog fighting enterprise by the name of Bad Newz Kennels. Many people are demanding that Michael Vick serve the maximum sentence allowable in prison for his involvement in illegal dog fighting and the termination of six to eight dogs that didnt perform well in fights. Vick deserves to be punished and punished severely. However, there have to be reasonable limits to that punishment. When is enough enough? When does the punishment outweigh the crime? The justice Michael Vick will incur from ...view middle of the document...
He has finally been told from an authority that he was wrong. He will now pay the price.Vick's case must be treated on its own merits. Some commentators argue that Vick must be dealt with severely to "send a message" about athlete's behavior. No: Vick must be dealt with fairly, to send a message about justice. At what point does the punishment outweigh the crime in regards to adequate justice? Michael Vick has lost his occupation and with it his money, and his lavish lifestyle complete with his own entourage. He has been suspended indefinitely from the National Football League and the Atlanta Falcons are ordering him to pay back a majority of his signing bonus reportedly worth millions. All of his endorsement deals, most notable of which is Nike, has dropped his line of shoe and have terminated their contract with him. He has lost everything that made him who he is as Michael Vick the football player. He now must start his life over with the stigma of the killer of mans best friend.Vick has been publicly humiliated, vilified, and demonized by the same media that once built him up as the next greatest superstar. Products in stores across the world that carry his name have been taken off the shelves and so many kids who looked up to him as their idol, someone who rose from the ashes from a lower class projects neighborhood and became something great, have turned against him. Vick is no longer the role model they saw him to be. He is now more of a disgrace.Instead of spending the tax payers money and incarcerating Vick further for an undetermined amount of time, which surely will be negligible do to this being a first offense of animal cruelty. A better way for Michael to learn his lesson and further better himself as a human being is to have him perform community service in the animal shelters in and around the Atlanta area and to seek professional help in counseling for his problem with his treatment of animals. This wasnt just a onetime offence. Dog fighting has been in Vicks culture from the time when he was growing up in the south. He has been around it his entire life and has become numb to the idea of animal cruelty. Furthermore, The National Football League should donate whatever fines levied against Vick to animal rescue programs and the Atlanta Falcons should use the returned signing bonus from Vick and donate the money to PETA or other animal rights activists around the US. At the very least, this will help to repair the pub...
