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July 30, 2007

The NAACP's Michael Vick Double Standard

By Marc Sheppard

In stark contrast to its position on last year's Duke non-rape case, the NAACP has urged the public not to judge Michael Vick before he has his day in court.

In a news conference early this morning, Atlanta NAACP President R.L. White charged that the Atlanta Falcons star quarterback's suspension and sponsor desertion amounted to premature punishment, adding that,
"If Mr. Vick is guilty, he should pay for his crime, but to treat him as he is being treated now is also a crime. Be restrained in your premature judgment until the legal process is completed."
And, while one can't deny the merits of avoiding yet another trial by media, neither can one deny the duplicitous nature of White's "premature judgment" words.

After all, wasn't it "premature judgment" that motivated the NAACP to launch their campaign to assure the trial and rape convictions of three Duke Lacrosse players in March of last year?

And while we're at it, just how did the organization's web page proclaiming no fewer than 82 Crimes and Torts committed by Duke Lacrosse Team Players on 3/13 and 3/14 as Reported in the press, mainly from the Three Players' Defense Attorneys help complete the legal process?

Yet, those charges - which smelled fishy right from the start and were ultimately revealed to be stinking lies -- were rooted entirely on the allegations of one person and the disbarable malfeasance of another.

The far more credible indictment against Vick, on the other hand, accuses him of being involved in virtually every aspect of a hideously inhumane dogfighting operation for more than six years. 

As described by Lester Munson at ESPN.com:
"The charges are serious, and the evidence against Vick presented at trial will be nasty. The government's case includes evidence that Vick and his cohorts ‘tested' pit bulls for ferocity. If the dogs failed the test, the indictment charges, they were executed by hanging or drowning. In one case, with Vick present, the indictment says a dog was slammed to the ground until it was dead. In another incident, a dog was soaked with a hose and then electrocuted."
Add the fact that the federal indictment disclosed four ready to testify witnesses plus co-defendant Tony Taylor's Monday morning plea agreement, and it's difficult to understand why the NAACP would afford Vick greater doubt benefit than it did the victims of Crystal Gail Magnum's vile false-witness.

Nonetheless, Georgia NAACP President Edward Dubose never complained, as he did this morning about Vick, that any of the Duke 3 was "being prosecuted in the court of public opinion before he has had a chance to defend himself."

Of course, the fact that Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans are white and both Magnum and Vick are black could never influence the actions of an organization promoting itself as a champion of social justice, could it?
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