Why wasn't there more outrage about Michael Vick?

[Anonymous]

I remember a lot of outrage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ben R was never convicted of anything was he? Maybe it was determined that there was no criminal wrong doing on his part?

I honestly have not followed that story - At All. But of course rape is never, ever acceptable and it is always a crime. Although an accusation is not the same thing as a conviction. People forget that.

Okay, Ben was never convicted of anything but Vick was and Vick was punished. Ben, who apparently has behaved badly and, if some are right, broken the law but never been caught - he's okay?

Jeez, I don't want to leave any of you people alone with my daughter. You'd take better care of my dog than my daughter!

Just from what I have read on this thread, it sounds as though he was accused of rape. The police were told about it. I assume an investigation took place and no charges were brought.

I used to party a great deal when I was a young lady and I can tell you that by the time I was 20...if I had followed a guy to 4 different bars, agreed to go to his private club area, then agreed to meet him in a private room. It would not have been a "surprise" to see his penis. And if it had been a surprise I would have turned tail and gone right back out the door I had come in. Instead, she went into an even more private room (the bathroom) and he followed...where the alleged rape happened.

She then left that bar with her friends and immediately reported what happened to a police officer. Charges were never brought and there was apparently some sort of civil settlement - she got money. I'm guessing the suit was more to do with a 20 year old drinking alcohol in BR's private club area (she was underage for drinking). But that is a guess. If you could pay $$$ to get serious criminal charges dropped against you I would imagine that Vick would have paid $$$ himself rather than go to jail. But that is not the way it works.

[Anonymous]

^If my summary/understanding of what happened is not accurate, I apologize. It is simply what I have been able to put together from this thread. I have not followed the BR situation but I remember what happened with Vick like it was yesterday.

Yes, there absolutely was outrage over that. It was horrible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ben R was never convicted of anything was he? Maybe it was determined that there was no criminal wrong doing on his part?

I honestly have not followed that story - At All. But of course rape is never, ever acceptable and it is always a crime. Although an accusation is not the same thing as a conviction. People forget that.

Okay, Ben was never convicted of anything but Vick was and Vick was punished. Ben, who apparently has behaved badly and, if some are right, broken the law but never been caught - he's okay?

Jeez, I don't want to leave any of you people alone with my daughter. You'd take better care of my dog than my daughter!

Just from what I have read on this thread, it sounds as though he was accused of rape. The police were told about it. I assume an investigation took place and no charges were brought.

I used to party a great deal when I was a young lady and I can tell you that by the time I was 20...if I had followed a guy to 4 different bars, agreed to go to his private club area, then agreed to meet him in a private room. It would not have been a "surprise" to see his penis. And if it had been a surprise I would have turned tail and gone right back out the door I had come in. Instead, she went into an even more private room (the bathroom) and he followed...where the alleged rape happened.

She then left that bar with her friends and immediately reported what happened to a police officer. Charges were never brought and there was apparently some sort of civil settlement - she got money. I'm guessing the suit was more to do with a 20 year old drinking alcohol in BR's private club area (she was underage for drinking). But that is a guess. If you could pay $$$ to get serious criminal charges dropped against you I would imagine that Vick would have paid $$$ himself rather than go to jail. But that is not the way it works.

SHUT THE FUCK UP. So date rape doesn't exist in your world. #partoftheproblem

[Anonymous]

I'm a die-hard Eagles fan and I'm ok with Vick. I believe he deserved a 2nd chance and made the best out of it.

I feel worse about Rapisburger because he was never cinvocted by supposedly paying these women off.
I'd rather offer a second chance to someone who pus his dues and learned his lesson than support someone who was never held accountable.

I remember a few weeks ago, there was a petition to get the Steelers to not sign Vick. Some of my Facebook friends signed the petition and cried about the poor dogs and how terrible he is.
You bet now you don't here a word about it and they're all cheering for him and posting play stats and such.
Steelers fans are ridiculous. I laugh at such hypocrisy!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real question is why was there more outrage about Vick than Roethlisburger? A combination of racism and misogyny. People are harder on the black guy, and not as hard on the rapist because "women make things up against rich/famous people."

Vick has paid his dues. What he did made me sick, but he's done his time in prison. It's over.

It's not about race. Big Ben has won superbowls. Vick has not. Ray Lewis killed someone and we all love him.

It was, in a way, though. "We" expect football players or other huge angry men who hit people for a living to hit women and hurt people. It's so common that "we" have come to accept it. It plays right into every stereotype we have about big bad boys and black men.

But hurt a DOGGIE? Man's best friend? *MINDS BLOW*

And I don't know where the heck the OP was. People nearly went insane when he was reinstated. I was in Philly then and the protests were huge. Personally I'm like the op I quoted. He did his time, he complied, let a man move on.

Turn your fury where it belongs. Frankly dog<woman, every time. I can't even believe that I had to type that out.

Maybe because dogs don't lie about being fought.

Great point. Women are all lying bitches. I forgot.

[Anonymous]

The women agreed to be bought off ....... so what is the issue?

If they felt strongly enough they could have refused the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The women agreed to be bought off ....... so what is the issue?

If they felt strongly enough they could have refused the money.

Why did he have to buy off women if he only raped one woman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The women agreed to be bought off ....... so what is the issue?

If they felt strongly enough they could have refused the money.

Why did he have to buy off women if he only raped one woman?

Makes no difference whether he raped one or several. If it was more important to them to get the money than to pursue a criminal case, they have nothing to complain about. Not justifying rape or sexual assault but there really is something wrong with women taking the money and then acting aggrieved.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who is 'assuming' that the rape allegations were properly investigated and then not prosecuted, should go and read the victim's statements in the Georgia sexual assault case. Then make up your mind. Here's a quote: "In one of two handwritten police statements, the woman recalled that she told Roethlisberger, "No, this is not OK, and he then had sex with me."' This was after his off-duty-police bodyguards had separated her from her friends and led her into a back room.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/ben-roethlisbergers-bad-play

It's pretty awful. Personally I grew up with the Steelers and haven't been able to enjoy them for years, because they didn't cut this bastard when this happened. So I totally get the OP's feeling that she/he can't enjoy the Steelers when Vick is the QB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is 'assuming' that the rape allegations were properly investigated and then not prosecuted, should go and read the victim's statements in the Georgia sexual assault case. Then make up your mind. Here's a quote: "In one of two handwritten police statements, the woman recalled that she told Roethlisberger, "No, this is not OK, and he then had sex with me."' This was after his off-duty-police bodyguards had separated her from her friends and led her into a back room.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/ben-roethlisbergers-bad-play

It's pretty awful. Personally I grew up with the Steelers and haven't been able to enjoy them for years, because they didn't cut this bastard when this happened. So I totally get the OP's feeling that she/he can't enjoy the Steelers when Vick is the QB.

O.k. I read the accounts and that sounds awful. Scary that there were bodyguards preventing the women from getting to their friend. That, alone, wasn't right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former Hokie and a dog lover myself I was appalled, shocked, saddened and angered by the callous abuse that Michael Vick participated in. He deserved to go to jail for it and he did.

That said, the man did his time and he maintained his ability to play. So he is back playing. I am not a fan of his to say the least. I would never watch a game simply because he was playing in it. But I am not going to blow off an entire team because he his on it. He's an a-hole but he is also a talented football player. I'd much rather him spend his time playing football than developing some other unsavory "hobby".

He did not participate in ANYTHING....he was barely ever at that damn house in the first place. He got in trouble for LYING not DOG FIGHTING. he got scared and tried to cover his butt. Vick has never participated in any dog fighting. lets get the actual facts correct

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ben R was never convicted of anything was he? Maybe it was determined that there was no criminal wrong doing on his part?

I honestly have not followed that story - At All. But of course rape is never, ever acceptable and it is always a crime. Although an accusation is not the same thing as a conviction. People forget that.

Okay, Ben was never convicted of anything but Vick was and Vick was punished. Ben, who apparently has behaved badly and, if some are right, broken the law but never been caught - he's okay?

Jeez, I don't want to leave any of you people alone with my daughter. You'd take better care of my dog than my daughter!

If he wasnt convicted then why are you so sure he did it? Vick was and strangled the puppies didnt he? Pet lovers are more likely to take better care of kids since kids are innocent and dependent like animals and that is the whole reason why people dont like what vick did. If he can do that to a defenseless dependent animal he can do it to a child as well or someone disabled. He has no emotion or feeling. How can someone like that have any?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former Hokie and a dog lover myself I was appalled, shocked, saddened and angered by the callous abuse that Michael Vick participated in. He deserved to go to jail for it and he did.

That said, the man did his time and he maintained his ability to play. So he is back playing. I am not a fan of his to say the least. I would never watch a game simply because he was playing in it. But I am not going to blow off an entire team because he his on it. He's an a-hole but he is also a talented football player. I'd much rather him spend his time playing football than developing some other unsavory "hobby".

He did not participate in ANYTHING....he was barely ever at that damn house in the first place. He got in trouble for LYING not DOG FIGHTING. he got scared and tried to cover his butt. Vick has never participated in any dog fighting. lets get the actual facts correct

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/reminder-michael-vicks-dogs-were-shot-electrocuted-hanged-and-beaten-to-death-6702521
remind Myers, and Jets fans with only a distant memory of the case, of the crimes for which Michael Vick served 21 months in prison.

In addition to plunking down $34,000 to buy the Smithfield, Virginia, property where dozens of dogs were chained to car axles buried in the ground while they fought, sometimes to the death, in front of betting spectators, Vick and his co-defendants admitted to killing at least six (but perhaps as many as eight) dogs who did not display sufficiently aggressive traits during the "testing" process.

Several of those dogs were shot; at least two were were hosed down, then electrocuted. Three dogs were hanged, according to a report by the USDA inspector general, "by placing a nylon cord over a 2 x 4 that was nailed to two trees;" three more dogs were drowned "by putting the dogs' heads in a 5 gallon bucket of water."

Vick, with his partner, Quanis Phillips, killed yet another dog "by slamming it to the ground several times before it died, breaking the dog's back or neck." When another of his dogs was disqualified after jumping out of the ring during a fight, Vick had his associate, Purnell Peace, shoot that dog in the head with a .22 caliber pistol.

When federal officers raided Vick's property in 2007, they rescued 53 pit bulls. They also found nine pit bull carcasses, took samples of two skeletal remains, collected spent shell casings, syringes, and "pieces of plywood flooring and dry wall covered with dark stains believed to be canine blood." (Tests later confirmed, yes, the stains were dog blood.)

Other evidence seized from the property included a "rape stand" -- a device to which a female dog was strapped, her head fully restrained, so she could be raped by other dogs without ripping their throats out. (You can read the federal indictment and the follow-up from the USDA on the next page.)

..."Forgettable baggage"? Vick, who now works with the Humane Society (a partnership proposed by a Vick handler before he was even done serving his prison sentence) would probably like Jets fans to think of his dogfighting conviction in those terms.

But it's probably less forgettable for the dogs who were rescued from from Vick's Bad Newz Kennels, the folks who did the rescuing, and the families who adopted the dogs that could be adopted after all that happened to them.

Fyi

[Anonymous]

I will never forgive nor forget what Vick did to those poor innocent animals.

And I never understood why the NFL gave him a second chance either.

Too bad all those vulnerable dogs who died at his hand won't get a second chance at life like Vick did.