As I run this website, I would not claim to be a Michael Vick advocate.  However, I think that PETA’s holiday ecard of Michael Vick hits a little below the belt.  Michael Vick is a celebrity and celebrities for right or wrong or targets of parody, especially when they make stupid mistakes.  Michael Vick has made a number of those and as such has a number of parody videos ridiculing his mistakes.  It comes with the territory of fame.

All that said, I think that PETA is not serving their own cause well.  I’m not an advocate for PETA’s causes either.  As I see it, they brought Michael Vick in for sensitivity training or something a couple months back.  That took a lot of guts on Vick’s part to humble himself to do that.  PETA may despise Vick for his actions in killing and torturing dogs, but one of the few redeeming things he has done in this whole thing is to go to PETA and accept a couple lumps.

So as I see it, when they put together this video, it seems like an attack after the fact. 

What’s your opinion on this? 

1. Did PETA screw up or
2. Is Vick still fair game for the parodies?

If you want to view the clip go to the peta site, the ecard here.

For over a week I have been watching a story related to Michael Vick that has not developed at all.  Sometimes news reporters sit on their half developed stories and speculation awaiting a break in news and hoping to get a scoop.

Now first off, let me state first off that I am not a journalist.  I am a blogger and speculate, hypothesize and theorize based on the news that is available or the reports that come in from the internet.  Some of that news and reports over the last couple weeks have indicated something much darker and troubling in the Michael Vick case.

The Man in the Michael Vick Case that was Murdered

It starts with the murder of a North Carolina man that sold Vick’s kennel dogs and that also fought some of his own dogs against Michael Vick’s dogs.  This North Carolina man is also believed to be one of the men that provided evidence against Michael Vick before he was murdered.

This man was murdered about 8 days after federal authorities searched Vick’s Virginia home and started seizing evidence.  The man was a drug dealer, but police found him dead in his home with a large amount of money and drugs on his person, which indicates that the murderer did not need the money nor the drugs.

Federal investigators and prosecutors have not been cooperating with the North Carolina sheriff responsible for this investigation.  The Sheriff made a plea last fall to anyone that had evidence step forward.  He also made a plea to the feds to share some of their evidence gained from the Michael Vick investigation so that the sheriff could rule Michael Vick and his co-defendants in or out as suspects in the murder.  There has been no confirmation publicly that the sheriff has received any support from anyone (other than this blog) since then.

Why Didn’t Vick Comply with the Plea Agreement?

Vick received a 23 month sentence from the Federal Judge in this case and one of the reasons for the longer than recommended penalty included the fact that Michael Vick continued to thwart investigators even after he signed the plea agreement and admitted guilt.  He gave contradictory statements about his own actions and involvement.  He was caught using marijuana via a drug test.  Plus, he did not give evidence as required in the investigations into dog fighting rings.

Why didn’t Vick give up other dog fighting gambling rings and the people involved?

Was Vick sticking to a gang banger mentality of protecting his friends?  Was he trying to protect his future in the NFL by not outing other NFL players involved in dog fighting?  Either could be possible but maybe there is something much more sinister going on here.

Michael Vick was involved in an illegal dog fighting conspiracy.  He was involved with illegal gambling.  A man involved in that conspiracy was murdered.  If Michael Vick did not murder the man and if people working for Vick did not murder the man, then who murdered Bud Melton?  Who would murder a dog fighting gambler and drug dealer that had done business with Michael Vick?  Who would murder a person and walk away from tens of thousands of dollars in cash and drugs at the scene of the murder?

One of the most likely scenarios is that the person that murdered Bud Melton was not interested in money but in protecting themselves from exposure.  By murdering Melton who may have been one of the people to provide some information to Federal investigators, someone silenced a federal witness.  They also sent a clear message to other federal witnesses.  Talk and you may die.

Vick had a lot to lose.  He lost a great deal of money.  He lost his career temporarily.  He even lost his freedom.  Michael Vick however did not give up any other people in the investigation.  It appears that Michael Vick specifically chose to accept a longer jail sentence and the wrath of a federal sentencing judge that loves dogs, so that he would not have to suffer the consequences from someone that was more threatening to Vick.

If this is true, it would indicate that Michael Vick, a federal witness himself (per the plea agreement) may have been intimidated by the threat of his own murder.  It would indicate also that Michael Vick knew enough about the shadowy characters involved in the dog fighting rings to believe that those people are capable of murder and capable of murdering Michael Vick a superstar athlete, who is now under the protection of the Federal government in a federal prison.  It might even indicate that Michael Vick knows who killed Bud Melton!

Is Michael Vick Smart Enough to Save his own Life or is he a Moral Coward?

Now, here is a rhetorical question.  If Michael Vick did know any of those facts and he purposefully withheld information from Federal prosecutors relating to dog fighting rings and a North Carolina murder then he may be guilty of more crimes, I’m not a prosecutor and can’t say for sure.  However, if the federal government was incapable of keeping a witness in this case alive, maybe Vick fears for his safety.  Maybe he kept mum to stay alive or to keep his family alive.

We don’t know why he might have kept silent, nor why he did not comply with his plea agreement.  If he did keep silent to serve himself and protect his own hide, is that actually a display of intelligence that Michael Vick rarely gets credit for? 

(note, I do not like the guy anymore, but unlike many of his detractors before this scandal, I thought he was a smart guy and capable of a great deal.)

Similarly, if he is protecting other criminals, if he is protecting murderers, it hints a level of moral cowardice.  Vick may have been brave on an NFL football field, but many of us wake up every day and deal with much more dangerous situations than a NFL football field.  Hell, its much more dangerous to drive down an Atlanta interstate every morning than it is to play football a few dozen times a year in Atlanta.

I do not make this cowardice claim myself with out some experience in the matter.  I myself was a whistleblower for the federal government and risked my own life to provide evidence.  I know what it takes to search in your soul and do what is right.  I’m not saying that Michael Vick should risk his life.  That’s a decision that each person has to make for themselves.  But I do understand what it takes.  I had the stuff to risk doing what’s right.  So far it would appear that Vick does not.

Judge  Henry Hudson, sentenced Tony Taylor to 2 months in prison.  Taylor was the first and most cooperative witness in the investigation against Michael Vick and the other codefendants that received sentences ranging from 18 – 23 months in prison.

This sentence seems to reflect the reward for being cooperative with investigators.  It could be argued that Taylor had less to lose than Michael Vick and cooperating was an ‘easy’ option, but in my opinion, Michael Vick could have cooperated just as easily as Taylor.  In fact if Vick had been more forthcoming with Virginia prosecutors and investigations, this entire case would have never made it to Federal Court in the first place and all the defendants would probably be looking at 2 months of prison at most if any at all.

Tony Taylor of Hampton helped establish Vick’s “Bad Newz Kennels” operation and joined in killing dogs but later became the government’s chief informant in the case, prosecutor Michael Gill said at Taylor’s 10-minute sentencing hearing.

“He was the most significant source of information in this case,” Gill told U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson. “He did not hesitate in any way.” Last of 3 Michael Vick co-defendants sentenced

1. What do you Think is this Fair for Taylor?
2. Is it Fair for Michael Vick?
3. Is it Fair for the other Defendants that also provided evidence?
4. Is it fair for justice?
5. Would the legal system make any progress at all if people did not cooperate with authorities in investigations?  (Keep in mind that failure to cooperate can be Obstruction of Justice, a crime itself)