The NAACP’s Michael Vick Double Standard
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 Monday 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 Monday 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?
Marc Sheppard is a technology consultant, software engineer, writer, and political and systems analyst. He is a regular contributor to American Thinker, The New Media Journal, Opinion Editorials and Men’s News Daily. | More from Marc Sheppard
Stumble It!
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:22 am
I am sooo sick of the double standards in AmeriKa today. Course, the White Man brought this on himself, eh?
I REFUSE to accept blame from the other gender and other races for 1. things I never had a hand in personally, or 2. things I may have benefitted from because of other’s actions. The things White Men are “guilty” of have been committed by humans of all types throughout all history. Matter of fact, in my mind, it is the White Male that has been the most benign of any “oppressor”.
The NAACP and NOW had better fly right. We’re open to equality, as long as we see some coming back our way. I’m White, I vote.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:44 am
The white man for all his perceived wrongs throughout history has created America..
America is the largest melting pot of people the world has ever witnessed!!!
Some would argue that it’s the most un-deniabbly greatest event the world has ever known!! And yes that evil white man did it!!
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:17 am
“And yes that evil white man did it!!”
And you wonder why the others hate us…? Not because of Pride, but rather, Envy…
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 am
NAACP is an acronym for National Advancement of Colored People.
The Duke students are not colored; however, the whore (stripper) was colored. The NAACP supported the whore. The NAACP did what they say they do.
Where is the NAAM (National Advancement of Men) or the NAAJ Natinal Advancement for Justice) when they are needed?
Like most American’s today, my ancestres and I have not owned or mistreated slaves (Canada and Germany), however, the American government is paying this debt.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
NOW and NAACP had their use; to change law so that it reflects equally on their respective groups. The days of advocating civil rights laws areover; they won. For these orgs to continue their bias is unfair to all White Men who supported and advocated their causes. I never owned a slave. I’m sick and tired of being treated like I was guilty of slavery. Is there a time limit for reparations? If not, I suggest all Africans start kissing Israeli ass for the thousands of years of bondage by the Egyptian-Africans.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 am
tonysprout wrote, “The days of advocating civil rights laws are over; they won.”
I read an article by Dr. Mike Adams that made the point that the equal rights movement for women is over, as they have the right to vote; own property; own businesses; divorce; abort developing children; organize; be served; be employed; liberty; and, a fair government trial.
Now I observe that feminists demand the right to have nothing evil to happen to them, among other things. For example, women feel they are entitled to leave a bar alone drunk at 3 AM, and have nothing evil happen to them ever.
Unfortunately there are evil people in the world. No matter how many laws the government has, and how many men you imprison, evil will still occur – bad things with still happen to good people.
I also observe that women also demand the right to equal results as men.
Women now have equal rights with benefits.
August 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
They have plenty of evidence, but that seems to point to the occupants of the house, not the owner Michael Vick. As typical of athletes, actors, rock stars, and even lottery winners. When he struck it big he spread the money around. Bought houses for family and friends, even had paychecks automatically written from his. So he is guilty just because he owns the house.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the NAACP and the other second-rate black leaders are indeed nauseous for their double-dealing as opposed to Larry Elder, Bill Cosby, Ward Connerly and Thomas Sowell.
Far more disgusting to me are American women, with the exception of those who had the courage to speak out against the villification of American men, who fabricated a whole “reality”: abortion, Title IX, the education scam and the rape scam yet cotinue to “play the victim”.
I wrote a Father’s Day letter to the local paper which included the sentence, “American women owe American men an apology”. That caused cardio-vascular distress in many women over 50 (what happens to women over 50? They always remindme of curdled milk”, and even had one mother of a child who attends the day-care center where I volunteer to ask the director whether I was going to be teaching “stuff like this” to the children.
The children are 6 months to 5 years of age. If those mothers worried about other aspects of their children’s lives like “bonding” as much as they do their precious rights, it would be a much better country.
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:02 pm
On the other hand, putting dogs in a ring and making them fight like, well, like dogs, in order to make money, is eerily similar to what family law judges and lawyers do to divorcing parents to make their money. If it’s “inhumane” to do this to dogs, why is it legal to do it to parents?