Convicted felon Michael Vick given award by BET/Subway

CptSternn · 07-06-2011, 12:39 AM

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-nor...-by-bet-subway

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On Sunday, convicted felon Michael Vick was given the Subway Sportsman of the Year Award by Black Entertainment Television (BET). Vick was on a list of five finalists for the award, which included Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose.

The move has angered animal lovers and has even inspired a Facebook page urging everyone to boycott Subway restaurants. Click here to see: http://www.facebook.com/pages/NO-WAY...336924?sk=wall

It should be noted that while Subway did sponsor the award, the selection process was apparently solely in the hands of BET.

Of course, Vick, who spent 18 months in federal prison, has been trying to mend his public image since his release.

In October 2009, Vick told the Los Angeles Times: “I just want people to really get to know me as an individual. What I want to do is change the perception of me. I am a human being. I've made some mistakes in the past, and I wish it had never happened. But it's not about how you fall, but about how you pick yourself up.”

What Vick calls “mistakes” were actually felonies which could have sent him to prison for much longer than the 18 months he spent incarcerated. The fact is, he spent years torturing and killing defenseless animals.

When police raided Vick’s house in Surry County in 2007, they found 65 dogs (nearly all pit bulls), a dog-fighting pit, blood-stained carpets, and various equipment commonly used in dog fighting.

One of the items found on Vick’s property was a ‘rape stand’ which is a device in which female dogs are strapped into and restrained, to allow a male dog to breed with her.

According to the federal indictment, when dogs at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels lost a fight, or failed to perform well in ‘test matches,’ they were routinely killed by methods including electrocution, hanging, drowning, and in at least one case by “slamming” the dog’s body onto the concrete floor. In one session in April 2007, at least eight dogs were killed through these methods.

Vick took part in these executions along with his partners Purnell Peace, and Quanis Phillips. The indictment detailed a March 2003 incident, in which a female pit bull who had just lost a match was killed. Vick and Peace decided to kill her by “wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting her.”

CptSternn · 07-06-2011, 12:42 AM

I actually emailed my disgust to subway corporate HQ and got this email back -

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Hello,

The BET Awards honor the achievements of African-Americans in entertainment, sports and other fields. As sponsors of the sportsman and sportswoman of the year award, we had no control over BET’s nominees and recipients, nor do we have a relationship with individual award recipients. We certainly do not condone the criminal activity that Mr Vick was involved in. Similarly to last year when Lebron James and Serena Williams won the awards, we found out who won at the same time as the viewers. We want to emphasize that much like any award show, BET does not allow sponsors to have any advance notice, control, or influence over the selection process.

The LEAST they could do is put out a press release saying they themselves are not happy with the selection. Their silence is nothing more than support.

Grausamkeit · 07-06-2011, 06:53 AM

How long does Vick have to pay for what he did? He wasn't killing people. As horrific as animal cruelty is, people can't be punished forever for it. It's not like he got away with rrape like Kobe did.

Mr.Doobie · 07-06-2011, 08:41 AM

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Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

How long does Vick have to pay for what he did? He wasn't killing people. As horrific as animal cruelty is, people can't be punished forever for it. It's not like he got away with rrape like Kobe did.

Are you serious? At the very least, we could try and pretend that Vick tortured a bunch of innocent animals. But no. The guy is really good at entertaining us, so he gets a free pass of willful amnesia. Fuck that, and fuck Michael Vick.

I'm not an expert on this whole case, but it feels like the case didn't even have that much time to cool down before he returned to adulation. I don't care how hard he blubbered about "I'm sorry I didn't know what I was doing I'm just wrong how could I do this".

Grausamkeit · 07-06-2011, 09:03 AM

What are you talking about? The world totally despised him as a dirtbag for years and he didn't beat a girlfriend like Chris Brown or rrape a young woman like Kobe Bryant. What he did was really bad, I'm not saying that it wasn't. But he's not a pedo or anything.

no one pretends that he didn't kill dogs or have dog fighting on his property, but people act like he is still the scum of the earth while they praise people like Micheal Jackson, Gary Glitter or Chris Brown. It seems like if someone commits violence against a person it's forgivable. Do something to an animal and the crime is unforgivable. That just doesn't fly in my book.

Society is totally warped.

I remember hearing people remark when he was caught that HE should be killed like the dogs he was fighting. But when Bryant was accused of rrape it was: Bitch is doing it for money! He didn't **** her! When Chris Brown beat Rhianna it was: Bitch probably pissed him off! She shouldn't have been mouthing off when they was in the car!

Saya · 07-06-2011, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

What are you talking about? The world totally despised him as a dirtbag for years and he didn't beat a girlfriend like Chris Brown or rrape a young woman like Kobe Bryant. What he did was really bad, I'm not saying that it wasn't. But he's not a pedo or anything.

no one pretends that he didn't kill dogs or have dog fighting on his property, but people act like he is still the scum of the earth while they praise people like Micheal Jackson, Gary Glitter or Chris Brown. It seems like if someone commits violence against a person it's forgivable. Do something to an animal and the crime is unforgivable. That just doesn't fly in my book.

Society is totally warped.

Sort of. Most people I know outraged by Vick were equally outraged in those other cases and still hold it against them.

You just can't forget some things. And I don't think you can do all those things and then suddenly see the light after getting caught. I would say there's a good chance he'd hurt an animal again given the chance, like I don't think Chris Brown is suddenly awesome with women just because he got caught and said he's sorry. I don't know where the line is, but after a horrific crime you just can't be forgiven because you say you're sorry.

Mr.Doobie · 07-06-2011, 09:25 AM

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Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

What are you talking about? The world totally despised him as a dirtbag for...

As long as it took him to start being awesome at football again.

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The world totally despised him as a dirtbag for years and he didn't beat a girlfriend like Chris Brown or rrape a young woman like Kobe Bryant. What he did was really bad, I'm not saying that it wasn't. But he's not a pedo or anything.

Clearly because other people in the world do worse things, this makes what Vick did not bad. Right guys?

Quote:

no one pretends that he didn't kill dogs or have dog fighting on his property, but people act like he is still the scum of the earth while they praise people like Micheal Jackson, Gary Glitter or Chris Brown. It seems like if someone commits violence against a person it's forgivable. Do something to an animal and the crime is unforgivable. That just doesn't fly in my book.

Ho ho ho! Clearly you've never lived in Philadelphia.

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I remember hearing people remark when he was caught that HE should be killed like the dogs he was fighting. But when Bryant was accused of rrape it was: Bitch is doing it for money! He didn't **** her! When Chris Brown beat Rhianna it was: Bitch probably pissed him off! She shouldn't have been mouthing off when they was in the car!

And I remember when Vick was caught people used arguments like this...

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But he's not a pedo or anything.

To totally brush everything he did under the table.

People are way too fast to forgive any celebrity.

So let's stop screaming at each other and get down to the spiteful hate-sex, give those shippers something to write about, Grausum...

Quote:

You just can't forget some things. And I don't think you can do all those things and then suddenly see the light after getting caught. I would say there's a good chance he'd hurt an animal again given the chance, like I don't think Chris Brown is suddenly awesome with women just because he got caught and said he's sorry. I don't know where the line is, but after a horrific crime you just can't be forgiven because you say you're sorry.

This ^^^^^^

Grausamkeit · 07-06-2011, 09:55 AM

I'm not saying that what he did is somehow 'okay', now Doobz. Personally, I think he should never have been allowed to play football again. I just think that it's funny that in a line up with Kobe, Vick is the only one who gets the vitriol. That is what sparked my initial post on this thread.

If Sternn is going to protest Vick's nomination then he should protest Bryant's, as well. If he can overlook Kobe he should overlook
Vick's past.

Grausamkeit · 07-06-2011, 11:14 AM

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to seem like I was saying that anything Michael Vick did was okay in any way whatsoever. I wasn't trying to defend him. No living creature should be treated how those dogs were on his property. It was horrific and utterly inhumane.

CptSternn · 07-07-2011, 12:33 AM

If they had selected either of those other two I would still be posting this here.

Is that the best they could come up with for a selection? An animal torturer, a rapist, and a guy who beats women? Seriously? Is that the best they could find to represent the awards?

Torturing animals is sick. He did two years for gambling and never served a day for anything else. Thats not really the issue here. Companies that are willing to lend their name to events like this should have some standard and I think Subway should have released a statement about this condemning his actions.

Grausamkeit · 07-07-2011, 06:37 AM

I agree, Sternn.