"A Price to Pay"

I’m going to make a comparison that might not ring true. It came to me as I was driving home from work at 7:30 on Friday morning, so forgive me if it doesn’t hold up.

As I was driving home, I was listening to the radio. Although I was listening to a music station, a discussion about Michael Vick’s reinstatement into the NFL and his subsequent signing with the Philadelphia Eagles was taking place. The announcers were clearly appalled that Vick was being allowed to play again; his disgusting actions have clearly not been forgotten.

Then there’s Chris Brown. Brown beat the sh** out of Rihanna a few months ago. We’ve all seen the pictures of her bruised and battered face. Not only did Brown beat her, but he choked her, tried to push her out of the car they were in and made various threats against her.

Here’s where the comparison comes in. Vick was charged with a felony, pled guilty and was sentenced to 23 months in jail. Brown was charged with a felony, pled guilty and will be sentenced to 6 months of community labour and 5 years probation.

Huh?

Brown pleads guilty to a violent felony committed against a PERSON and doesn’t have to serve any jail time. Vick commits crimes against ANIMALS and serves almost two years in jail.

I love animals, I do; I can’t stand seeing abused and abandoned animals. But what does it say about us when a man who beats a woman gets less punishment than a man who hurts animals? I agree that what Vick did was heinous; more than anything, it was probably the cold calculation of his actions that landed him in jail. Yet I can’t help but shake my head in disgust when I hear more people condemning Vick and forgetting what Brown did.

What bothers me most is the public’s treatment of Brown. He’s out and about, going to basketball games, enjoying his life and his money; people are still playing his music (though not as much and he’s lost various sponsors) and he doesn’t seem to be suffering. The pictures that bothered me most were those of him on a jet ski, smiling and laughing a mere three weeks after he pounded Rihanna’s face into oblivion. I won’t even talk about that phony apology video of his.

The impression I get is that people are a whole hell of a lot more outraged about Michael Vick’s actions than they are about Brown’s.

Sometimes I really hate people.