Michael Vick Pleads Guilty today

Today, Michael Vick announced he would plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 fine, although most legal scholars believe he will receive much less jail time.

While i find Vick's actions, if true, and we don't know if they are true, deplorable and barbaric, i find what the federal government is doing to him much, much worse. If Vick is guilty of dogfighting charges, then he's only guilty under Virginia state law, which outlaws dogfighting. There is no federal law outlawing dogfighting. The Feds have no jurisdiction in the matter. Why were there no state charges filed? The Feds constantly invoke the "Interstate Commerce Clause" of the Constitution in cases like this. The Interstate Commerce Clause was originally created so Congress could deal with issues involving commerce between the states, but now it is used by the federal government to increase federal authority over nearly every aspect of our lives.

It looks like Vick has plead guilty because the feds were promising more indicitments to follow under the RICO statute. Its another instance of the disappearance of a right to a fair trial. RICO is just a fancy way of charging people with a whole bundle of "imaginary" crimes. It was first used to go after the mob, but the statute has been perverted ever since then. The law is fashioned in such a way as to make it impossible for a jury to render a "not guilty" verdict. If Vick had gone to court to fight the charges, he most likely would have lost and could have faced up to 20 years in prison. This way, he only probably serves a year or so, then can possibly return to the NFL after a brief hiatus. Vick had no choice but to plead guilty.

I'm not for animal cruelty and if Vick was guilty of harming dogs, then he should have been punished by the state of Virginia. It was barbaric and sick what happened to those dogs, but is far more dangerous what the federal government imposes on us on a daily basis. This is the important issue in this case, not the dog fighting.

As a Virgina Tech fan, i've been disturbed by what the Vick family has done to the Tech name. It seems like Tech always has something hanging over it, and i think the success of the football program has put a microscope on all these things. I'm usually pretty sceptical of athletes and such anyway, but as we found out in the Duke lacrosse case, sometimes the story isn't as always as it seems. Hopefully, we will know the truth in a shorter time than it took to exonerate the Duke 3.