Free Plaxico!
Since we’ve been weighing in on the various and sundry sentences for wayward NFL stars, I just figured I’d go on record here saying that Plaxico Burress a) is an idiot and b) has gotten hosed.
I don’t really have a problem with people carrying guns, but it is awfully reckless to carry one IN YOUR PANTS, WITH THE SAFETY OFF. That is worthy of some punishment, IMHO. But two years in prison seems utterly unreasonable to me. New York’s gun laws strike me as rather draconian, and in fact, quite possibly afoul of the Constitution, in light of the SCOTUS’ ruling in Heller. I don’t know the history of New York’s gun laws, but I wonder it is connected to the Rockefeller drug laws (which seem equally draconian).
Looking at the offenses and penalties of Vick, Stallworth and Burress, I simply can’t see any relationship between the severity of the offense (as measured by either actual damage or potential risk posed to others) and the severity of their respective sentences. I would like to think that the criminal justice system is guided by some reasonably consistent set of principles, but I just can’t divine any from the treatment of Burress either relative to his offense, or relative to the crimes and sentences of his colleagues.
Free Plaxico!
August 20th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
We’ve had this argument/discussion before, but the “logic” for Vick’s sentence being two years greater than Stallworth’s seems to be (a) intentional vs. accidental, (b) the number of lives taken, specifically (c) via sadistic means, (d) one immediately took responsibility and Vick didn’t, and indeed lied to the faces of the civil authorities, owner Arthur Blank, and perhaps worst of all, Sherriff Goodell, and (e) as a society we care more about somebody’s pet Fido that we never met more than about human beings that we’ve never met. Fine.
But the only victim in Plax’s case is… well, himself - and nobody (including himself) got killed, or even severely wounded (relatively speaking… i.e. the guy who’s know paralyzed for being in the way of Pacman Jones posse in Vegas got “severely wounded”, while Plax will show no long-term effects of his being shot… by himself). Now Plax, and Antonio Pierce (who was not punished for his involvement), tried to cover it up - so he didn’t come clean from the beginning. O-kay.
But… um… while Donte Stallworth did accept responsibility at every step of the process… I think it’s worth nothing that the process started when he *killed another human being*, and his was an innocent victim as well. Actually the process started when he drank and decided to drive, rather than invest a minute portion of the millions of dollars he’s made in the NFL to secure a driver for the evening. If it even occurred to him beforehand, I suppose he considered it wasteful… and decided his disposable income was better spent on either (a) more bling, or (b) one more drink for the road.
I’m personally not a fan of guns, and I personally don’t think it should be necessary to be carrying a loaded weapon to go to a club. Silly me… if I need to carry a loaded weapon to go to a particular club… um… I’ll go to a different club. And if I have to carry a loaded weapon to go clubbing in general, well… um… I’ll find a different hobby. But that’s just me, which I guess probably makes me an old fart - and not a hip young athlete. Fine.
In a vacuum, I have no problem with a 2-yr jail sentence for discharging a weapon in public. I know we don’t need more people in our already overcrowded jails, but I submit we do need fewer people discharging a weapon in public… or more to the point, fewer people bringing weapons into public in the first place. But second-amendment rights and the cold, dead hands of Charlton Heston aside…. my issue is the relativity of the sentences, as Tank points out.
Give Plax two years… fine. Give Vick two years… fine. But can we at least agree that Stallworth deserves more than two years… never mind more than three weeks? I get that he was responsible, and remorseful, and he paid off the family… but a human being is still dead by his actions - even if you want to use the euphemism of “negligence” to explain away the fact that an adult should recognize that drinking and driving is actually a conscious decision… especially by someone with enough money to more than afford a far safer alternative.
Pisses me off.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:24 am
Stallworth’s sentence is clearly out of whack with the severity of the offense, but actually his offense seems quite similar to Plaxico’s in that both engaged in reckless behavior that posed a lethal risk to innocent people. In a sense the only difference - and its a significant one - is that Stallworth had the bad luck for a pedestrian to dart in front of his car, while Plaxico had the comparitive good luck that only his own leg got in the way of his accidental discharge. Heh heh heh. I said “discharge.” Heh heh heh.
Well, I suppose the other big difference is that Plaxico has an unalienable right to bear arms, while Stallworth has no right to drive (intoxicated or otherwise). Both differences, IMHO, suggest that a) Stallworth got off easy and b) Plaxico got hosed.
Like you, I don’t seem to hang out anywhere that I feel compelled to carry a gun for protection. I guess we’re just pussies.