Campaign to Sack Michael Vick » Major Developments

Nightclub Video Puts Michael Vick at Crime Scene 4 Minutes before 911 Call

DogLover332 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:04:28 +0000

Virginia police have not ruled anyone in nor out as suspects, but the nightclub owner that hosted Michael Vick’s 30th birthday party, provided video footage to the Police and the Associated Press that seems to put Michael Vick driving in a car almost at the scene of the crime 4 minutes before the 911 call was made to police.

Allen Fabijan, spokesman for Guadalajara Mexican restaurant and nightclub, said Wednesday that Vick left the club just minutes before the shooting.

Fabijan said that that time-stamped footage from a surveillance camera outside the entrance of the club shows a car with Vick inside leaving at 2:07 a.m. — about 4 minutes before the shooting a block away. He said that Vick was traveling in the direction of where the shooting took place.

Police said their first 911 call reporting the shooting came in at 2:11. AP

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Michael Hayes also reports that Michael Vick’s probation officer is investigating the situation with Michael Vick and Quanis Phillips as well. A separate report seems to possibly clear Michael’s brother Marcus who was settling up and paying the bill when the shooting took place. See the DailyPress for the most detailed account of the video logs.

Accidentally being present in the same nightclub or restaurant with fellow former felon Quanis Phillips might not violate Michael Vick’s parole, but drinking, talking, arguing, squabbling, fighting, or worse with Phillips could definitely be considered ‘associating’ and that might very well violate Vick’s parole.

All Vick’s supporters like to preach about how Michael Vick should be allowed to go forward in life and make a living, some even say that he should get a second chance and that second chances are some hitherto unknown, unwritten right that the founders of the United States accidentally left out of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

The reality of the situation is that Michael Vick is STILL paying his debt to society. He is on parole. Getting out of prison did not absolve his debt to society, it was just the first phase, a penalty phase, an assessment phase, a rehabilitation phase. When he left prison he did not stop repaying his debt society, he just moved into a new phase, that of parolee. A person that must still follow rules set out by the courts.

Michael Vick is responsible for following those rules, even if it means assessing the risk of possibly running into past friends and business partners that committed crimes with Vick’s money. It means that maybe, heaven forbid, Michael Vick might have to do the unthinkable. He might have to live a quiet life, stay in instead of throwing big parties in South Florida or Virginia Beach.

As part of his parole he has to learn how to manage his life where he doesn’t put himself into a situation where these things will happen.

Note I want to emphasize the fact that VICK NEEDS TO LEARN. Mike Fiorino at ProFootballTalk.nbcsports.com tracked down an interesting connection or two that indicates Michael Vick might have relied to heavily on his BET producer Ahmadu Gabra to manage his entourage which on the night of his birthday may have grown to include Phillips even.

At item 10 in the list of conditions of the supervision, the order states that Vick "shall not associate with any persons engaged in criminal activity and shall not associate with any person convicted of a felony, unless granted permission by the probation officer to do so."
Thus, unless his probation officer gave Vick blanket permission to associate with his former partners in Bad Newz Kennels, all of whom are convicted felons, any such association violates the terms of his probation.
And since Gabra apparently has been serving as an informal fixer/consigliere for Vick’s entourage, Vick possibly relied at some point after the six-month anniversary of his release on Gabra’s apparently mistaken views regarding the terms of the probation. src

Michael Vick has long exhibited the inability to do the smart thing, the practical thing, the humble thing, the thing that would be good for himself, his family, his team, and the people he works for. A year plus in prison might give him time to think about things, but it probably didn’t give him much time to practice being a better person. He was simply locked up and his life was not in his own control.

Now it is partially through the parole system. Unfortunately, he has shown any evidence that he gets it. He’s basically trying to go right back where he came from before prison, and obviously that didn’t work too well last time around.

The reality is Michael Vick is likely doomed to repeat his mistakes and probably escalate things. He doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes. He never came clean when he pled guilty, never gave up names of accomplices or past events. That means someone probably knows where the skeletons are buried still, and as Michael Vick goes into his second year contract with the Eagles scheduled to pay him $5.8 million it wouldn’t be surprising if those criminals that know about the skeletons showed up to shake him down for some (possibly more) hush money.

The NFL also is investigating the incident, and Commissioner Roger Goodell could suspend Vick if he determines Vick violated his probation or the league’s personal conduct policy. src

If Michael Vick had made a clean break and shared all the information he had on his criminal partners things might be different. Those criminals might not have anything on him now that could be used to blackmail him or at least embarrass him. Instead he kept quiet. We often speculated here that some of those criminals may have threatened Vick or his partners. We are talking about gangsters, drug dealers and worse that Vick used to hang with, threats of physical violence from criminals wouldn’t be too crazy a speculation.

Maybe Vick should have sought witness protection for himself and his family instead of hoping to keep things under control and regain the spot light all over again. But as mentioned above, Vick rarely did anything that was good for others.

If you think we are tough on Vick, just take a quick glance at what the Philly Press have to say.

Michael Vick Codefendant Shot at Vick’s Birthday Party- Did Vick Violate Parole?

DogLover332 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Press and police are rapidly learning more details about a shooting at Michael Vick’s ‘All White’ themed birthday party in Virginia Beach. The celebrity affair was intended to lavishly celebrate Michael Vick’s 30th birthday, but trouble is no stranger to Michael Vick.

What Happened at Michael Vick’s 30th Birthday Party?

Update

Sporting News is now reporting that Darnell Phillips either threatened or succeeded in throwing birthday cake in Michael Vick’s face.

Around 2:10 am a fight that began inside the restaurant moved outside and ended when one of the fighters shot the other in the leg. The shooter disappeared and the victim attempted to elude police and head for the hospital. It was only later learned that the man that was shot may have been none other than Michael Vick’s dog fighting codefendant Quanis Phillips.

Police have not identified the shooting victim, but a spokesman for Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital confirmed that Quanis Phillips – one of the co-defendants in Vick’s 2007 federal dogfighting trial – was admitted early this morning and was listed in good condition. The spokesman would not discuss the nature of Phillips’ injuries, and he said Phillips has declined to speak with media. source . . . .

Phillips, who was a high school football teammate of Vick’s, was also sentenced to 21 months after pleading guilty.

Tip to Michael Vick’s PR agent! Next time you attempt to throw a bash for Michael Vick and his felon friends, make sure there are metal detectors and security present to shake everyone down. Don’t you think there is enough blood on Michael Vick’s reputation already? (sarcastically disgusted)

Breaking Parole – Vick Not Supposed to Associate with former Dog Fighting Partners

According to Daily Press reporter David Squires, Phillips showed up to the party even though Vick is not supposed to be associating with any of his dogfighting co-defendants.
Squires writes that there was a confrontation between Phillips and Vick inside the party, that the confrontation then moved outside, and that’s when Phillips was shot.
Vick’s lawyer, Larry Woodward, says Vick was not involved and was not present when the shooting occurred. source . . .

History of Crime between Vick and Phillips

In 2004, Vick was present when Phillips allegedly stole a Rolex watch from an airport X-ray belt. source .. .

Most Disliked Man in Sports (Not the Most Hated)

Separately, Michael Vick also achieved the dubious honor of being the most disliked or disapproved man in sports. Forbes incorrectly used the headline of ‘most hated’ but that was likely just a ploy to sensationalize a headline as the survey in question did not ask respondents if they hated Michael Vick or any of the other professional sports players or coaches. This is the second year in a row that Vick has won this dubious distinction, guess that BET thing really paid off for him.

Will Michael Vick Go Back to Jail Like Younger Brother Marcus for Violating Parole his 1st Day on the Job?

DogLover332 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:30:47 +0000

Earlier today we published an article titled Tony Dungy is Michael Vick’s Dupe of the Season, we basically started out the article saying that ‘it didn’t matter if Michael Vick didn’t follow Tony Dungy’s advice’ about not drinking.

Apparently we were half right and half wrong. As one of our astute readers was able to point out to us in an email today.

Its true that it doesn’t really matter if Michael Vick ignores half of what Tony Dungy says, but (and this is a big one) Michael Vick IS REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE CONDITIONS OF HIS PAROLE & (another big one) Michael Vick IS REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE CONDITIONS OF HIS CONDITIONAL NFL REINSTATEMENT.

By going to a bar and drinking Vodka with friends after his First day back on the job in the NFL, Michael Vick likely violated both his parole and his NFL reinstatement.

But don’t take our word for it, check out the terms of Michael Vick’s reinstatement as quoted from Roger Goodell’s letter to Michael Vick.

“Among the conditions of this reinstatement, you are required to abide by the terms of the supervised release that were imposed on you by the court, which include not committing any further crime, limits on who you may associate with, prohibitions regarding drug and alcohol use, possession of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, and forbidding you to own, possess or be involved with the sale of any dog.” Source NFL.com

So the New York Post caught Michael Vick drinking Grey Goose Vodka on his first day back on the job. If that allegation of the Post holds up, then Michael Vick may have just sabotaged his latest and often repeated ‘second’ chance.

We’d like to call on both the NFL and Parole officials to investigate whether or not Michael Vick violated his parole. Truthfully, it would be painful to watch this man go back to jail, especially just 5 days after his younger brother was sentenced to 20 days for violating his own parole, but we were one of the first groups to say that Michael Vick should not be in the NFL and it could very well be that his latest actions prove this yet again.

Open Questions

As things stand, I am personally unclear as to whether Michael Vick is on parole in Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania or possibly at some federal level since he was released from Federal prison.

If someone could shed some light on this, I think it might help. It would then be a likely next step for us to review parole conditions for whichever jurisdiction Michael Vick must report, to determine if Roger Goodells letter talking about parole requirements is accurate.

Update

It would appear that Michael Vick is under the jurisdiction of Virginia. Furthermore, the conditions of his parole suggest that consuming alcohol may have violated his probation. From the overall scope of Michael Vick’s judgment the root of the issue seems to hinge on Michael Vick’s substance abuse issues. You may recall that while he was still negotiating with the courts in 2007 he tested positive for marijuana and had to undergo a special substance abuse program in prison, which helped to fast track him for an earlier release.

There are two clauses in his judgment that relate to alcohol:

the first states that ‘the defendant shall refrain from excessive use of alcohol’

The second item in the Special Conditions of Supervision seem to be where Michael Vick may have already run into trouble, it states “The defendant shall participate in a a program approved by the Probation Office for substance abuse, which program may include residential treatment and testing to determine whether the defendant has reverted to the use of drugs or alcohol”

Based on the New York Post article it would appear that Michael Vick DID use alcohol after that first day of work with the Eagles.
It now remains to be seen whether

Michael Vick’s probation officer will take action and what that action might be
Will Roger Goodell hold Michael Vick to the NFL letter which specifically prohibited alcohol.

At a minimum it looks like Michael Vick may have broken his most recent commitment to Roger Goodell and the NFL, it remains to be seen if he broke any laws.

Its true that several major news organizations have also questioned whether Michael Vick just flamed out before our eyes and no one noticed, but obviously a little grass roots action may be required to actually get something done.

The Eagles seem to think that Michael Vick’s alcohol consumption in a bar was not a parole violation but they are not in charge of the Michael Vick’s parole nor the NFL. The real authorities have yet to weigh in.

Michael Vick Dog Jersey on NFL.com – Another Reason to Sack Goodell

DogLover332 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:07:26 +0000

Everyone can agree that Michael Vick is sick, but its becoming increasingly clear that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is either as sick, maybe even more. Michael Vick admitted his guilt to killing dogs with his bare hands, torturing them, running illegal gambling rings bringing more people into a criminal lifestyle and setting and overall terrible example for kids.

Roger Goodell is possibly worse. He’s like the kingpin drug pusher of the NFL enabling violent felons from Christian Peter – sexual assault, Lawrence Phillips – violent domestic abuse, Leonard Little – killed a woman with a car, Jamal Lewis- drugs, Ray Lewis, obstruction of justice in a murder case, Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, Pac-Man Jones, Donte Stallworth, manslaughter, Plaxico Burress almost shot a bar tender, did shoot himself, lied about it.

The NFL needs a rule that prevents people convicted of violent crimes from playing in the league. That’s it, end of story, one strike and you are out permanently. But instead Roger Goodell promotes criminal behavior by not providing any substantive penalty. Kill some dogs, kill a person, ‘OK well you are going to miss a few games, but we’ll let you come back and make millions of dollars after you sit on the bench for a while.’

That’s the problem with Roger Goodell, he thinks that benching a player and then providing them a financial reward after benching them for committing a violent crime is going to do anything to prevent other players from engaging in violent behavior. That’s not a deterrent. Its almost a reward!

But of course, that is not enough for Roger Goodell, he not only wants to provide financial rewards for criminal behavior, he wants to make a buck off of it, while laughing at the victims. Below you can see what the NFL is offering on their website today (August 21, 2009) after Michael Vick was convicted of dog fighting, after Roger Goodell allowed him back into the NFL, after The Eagles hired Michael Vick for $6.8 million. The NFL.com is selling Jerseys on their website with Michael Vick’s name on it FOR DOGS!

What’s next Roger Goodell? Are you going to sell NFL bumper stickers saying, “NFL Players don’t brake for people in intersections” or sell thongs to rape victims with an NFL logo above the words saying “You were just asking for it” or will the NFL sell brass knuckles online with the engraving, “Women Don’t Back Talk NFL Players!”

Seriously, Roger Goodell, you are sick and twisted and part of the problem. If you can’t take charge of the NFL and turn it into a decent place again, your time is long over due to leave.

ASPCA Reasons for Not Partnering with Michael Vick

DogLover332 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:19:02 +0000

Ed Sayres, the President and CEO of the ASPCA described in detail why he and the ASPCA specifically chose NOT to partner nor work with Michael Vick, despite requests from Vick and his entourage. We would highly encourage reading this article in full, but wanted to share some of the key excerpts. Our effort, site and campaign are also NOT partnered with the ASPCA, we have not contacted them and vice versa, but we DO respect their decision not to help promote the criminal in this particular case.

Several months ago, Mr. Vick’s PR representatives approached the ASPCA to help educate America about the heinous act of dog fighting following his release from prison. We were the first animal welfare organization given the opportunity to work with Mr. Vick but immediately turned him down due to the unique knowledge we had of his indescribable and barbaric acts of animal cruelty where he and his associates savagely electrocuted and beat dogs to death after they lost their brutal fights.

The ASPCA’s general consultation and our specific role in processing the forensic evidence in this case were key elements that resulted in Mr. Vick and the three other defendants all pleading guilty to felony crimes.

the ASPCA wants to make clear why this organization chose not to partner with him in his supposed rehabilitation efforts. We are simply not convinced that Mr. Vick has demonstrated compassion toward animals as living beings or the necessary remorse for his criminal actions against them.

CBS did a grave disservice to the animal welfare community by failing to show the ugly truth of Mr. Vick’s actions and the horrors of dog fighting and animal cruelty in this country. The continued attention paid to Mr. Vick is only reinforcing that criminal behavior does not destroy fame and fortune.

Although Mr. Vick has served his time and is now entitled to employment, the ASPCA was strongly against him being able to immediately re-join the NFL, to play alongside highly paid elite athletes who are looked upon as our heroes and role models.

The ASPCA believes in second chances — in redemption — but that second chance has to be earned through contrition, conversion to the cause of animal welfare and finally, through hard work. Mr. Vick has only now begun his journey toward a second chance.

Will Mr. Vick have learned something — and taken the opportunity he has been granted to impart to his legion of fans the importance of compassion toward animals? Certainly, only time will offer us an answer — but we will be watching.

Violence Begets Violence – Justice for Dog Set on Fire

Will Tastykakes be Ground Zero for Michael Vick Boycott?

DogLover332 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:51:56 +0000

As a small business owner you struggle and toil to build up your business. Growing trust and customer relationships and trying to reach a critical mass of both success and from a marketing perspective, perceived success are vital to your future. So it is understandable that when you take a big financial gamble and invest a large sum of money to sponsor an NFL team like the Philadelphia Eagles. If you are a company like TastyKakes, you are really hoping to capitalize on the goodwill of the team, its great players like Donovan McNabb and maybe even the prestige that is associated with the NFL.

What you do NOT expect is to be blind sided by having your marketing dollars go towards funding part of Michael Vick, infamous bare handed dog killer, and his new 2 year $6.8 million deal while he’s fresh out of prison and still on parole!

Unless you are in the business of selling knock off Jerseys, no small business owner in their right mind would want to be within a million miles of Michael Vick.

Tastykakes are no fly by not operation that is looking to make a quick buck on a marketing campaign either. They have been around for almost 100 years in the Philadelphia history and have a lot of past success with other American past times such as sponsoring the Phillies and the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL.

Even Janet Evanovich has helped ad to their fame and mystique by featuring their products in almost every Stephanie Plum novel written. Stephanie Plum is a female bounty hunter with a hamster named Rex and an inherited dog named Bob.

So what do you do when your local team that you recently started sponsoring hires the NFLs most infamous and unliked player straight out of prison?

Tastykake has invested a lot of time and marketing and planning in their Eagles campaign. Everything from graphic design work to gift tins for their products. They sponsor a number of charitable organizations, and in general seem like a good company (healthiness of their products aside). Now despite their modest history, they have grown into a sizable business grossing over $250 million per year, which explains their financial ability to back the Eagles in addition to other local sports teams.

But that money hasn’t necessarily prepared them for other modern challenges in marketing, such as establishing social media profiles, updating their website or keeping things running smoothly with a tight communications plan. Typically, they shouldn’t need to, they sell snack foods!

But now those $250 million in Tastykake snack food sales are helping to line the pockets of a guy with a 6 year history of running illegal gambling operations who tortured dogs and fought them to the death.

So if you are the Tasty Baking Company making Tastykakes and the Eagles blind side you with this bad press snafu, what do you do? Do you back the Eagles and hope that the king of dog fighters working in a city with a troubled history of dog fighting, might not rub off on your brand? Do you hope against hope that your product does not become the emblem of a boycott like disco records burned at ball fields in the late 70’s & early 80’s?

Do you take action and get in front of the negative public reaction, remove your sponsorship from the Eagles and possibly win some good PR for being the first company to drop the Eagles and Michael Vick like the bad will magnet that he is?

The AP broke a story indicating that all the Philadelphia sponsors are currently sticking with Michael Vick and the Eagles. Most of those very large billion dollar a year generating companies can afford to hedge their bets a little bit, but Tastykake is based in the heart of Philadelphia, they even sponsored the Eagles’ blog.

But that sponsorship disappeared yesterday (not all sponsorships, just the mention on the blog). Some Michael Vick protesters have sent us accounts of their discussions with Tastykake employees, who were extremely troubled by the Eagles hiring of Michael Vick. They indeed felt blind sided, but their reaction seems to initially be coming out right at the same time that the larger press would have us believe that the world doesn’t care about Michael Vick, that fans don’t care what Michael Vick has done, and that sponsors are still willing to pay Michael Vick and his team money.

I don’t know where this is going yet, but I do know this. We’ve been working on this effort for over 2 years here at Sackvick.net. We are growing in scope and organization. While Michael Vick was in prison many parts of our efforts were dormant, but the community has been rudely re-awakened by his rapid reinstatement back into the NFL with almost no review of his actions. Michael Vick has literally done almost nothing to fix the problems he created with his 6 year dog fighting operation. Yet the NFL and now the Eagles are very quick to give him a pass and try to make a buck.

We have no quarrel with their financial goals, but as fans of the NFL we surely do not need to support an organization that so crudely slaps us in the face by hiring Michael Vick and that extends also to companies that would sponsor the Philadelphia Eagles so that they can pay Michael Vick $1.6 million this year and $5.2 million next year. That’s just ludicrous.

As a small business owner myself, I hope that the Tasty Baking Company ultimately makes the right choice. They are a company built on a 100 years of goodwill, it doesn’t make business sense for them to spend money on the Eagles only to shovel their goodwill into a whole to cover up the crimes that Michael Vick has committed. Michael Vick is a goodwill money pit. A lot of sponsors got burned to the tune of $130 – $250 million gambling on Michael Vick, and all he had to do was stay out of trouble. He knew better, he had won the golden ticket, the lottery and much more, but even knowing that he couldn’t stop himself from killing and torturing dogs for fun.

Throwing good money after a bad apple that makes decisions that poorly is crazy.

Eagles Ask For Boycott – Get Boycott Over Michael Vick

DogLover332 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:50:27 +0000

According to ESPN, the Philadelphia Eagles today made one of the worst public relations mistakes in the history of sports, signing convicted felon, dog killer, ex-quarter back Micael Vick, whom they will pay $1.6 million the first year with an option for a second year at $5.2 million for a total of $6.8 million straight out of prison, which is a lot higher than most ex-felons not counting Martha Stewart.

Vick was signed after McNabb backup Kevin Kolb sprained his MCL.

source

Michael Vick can practice right away but will not be able to play until the week of October 18th at the earliest if the NFL commissioner fully reinstates Michael Vick.

What does Vick’s Signing with the Philadelphia Eagles Mean for You?

Many of us were ready to boycott the NFL when he was partially reinstated, many more promised to boycott the NFL if a team signed him.

Well at this point those days are now past and we can all be united in boycotting the NFL, boycotting Michael Vick and Boycotting the Philadelphia Eagles too. For those of you that do not want to boycott the entire NFL or all teams, you might consider boycotting any game that Michael Vick or the Philadelphia Eagles play in.

What Can You Do?

Sign the Petitions identified on our Petitions Tab Above
Voice your concerns to the Philadelphia Eagles
Voice your concerns to Michael Vick on twitter (Real Michael Vick not the Fake Michael Vick)
Contact the NFL
Contact the Philadelphia Eagles http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/fanzone/contactus.asp
Contact your favorite NFL team, ask them to refuse to let Michael Vick play in their stadium
Contact sponsors of the Philadelphia Eagles

Aquafina
NovaCare Rehabilitation
VWR
J&J Snack Foods
Lincoln Financial Group
MasterCard
Sovereign Bank
7Eleven
Comcast
AAA
idearc
Heineken
Motoroal
Tastykake
Re/Max
Teva
papa johns
Aflac
Pepcid
BlueCross
Rite Aid
Jeep
Best Buy
Dunkin Donuts
SCA
TacoBell/KFC
Snapple
Chrysler
Geico
Splenda
TicketExchange
Pepsi
As we identify more sponsors of the Philadelphia Eagles and Michael Vick we will keep you posted

You can also add a ribbon to your Twitter profile indicating your preference for a ban of Michael Vick from the NFL
- http://twibbon.com/join/Ban-Michael-Vick-amp-Eagles

Coach Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles doesn’t think there will be any controversy with Michael Vick playing for the Eagles.