Poll: Dog Torture vs. Rapist

[Laxman9292]

So clearly the hot button issue is Michael Vick's possible cover appearance on NFL '11. And obviously, the question of should he be has been done to death so I'm here to ask a different question: How can people be so opposed to Michael Vick's possible cover when, and apologies here I do not intend to sound heartless, they were just dogs? I have 2 dogs and love them very much and the thought of harming them is completely abhorrent to me.

But here is the kicker, how is there so much opposition here? Where were you all when Kobe Bryant raped a girl and then appeared on three games covers (NBA '07, '09, and 2K10).

Is the abuse of innocent dogs really that much worse then the abuse of an innocent woman? Or am I missing something?

And no "other" option in the poll, no pussyfooting around with "yes, but with reservations" or some other bs.

EDIT: I figured I would put this here before it gets out of hand.

Bryant's case got dropped because she didn't want to go and testify. But he was quoted as saying "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual," Bryant's statement continued, "I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/02/MNG6E8IB861.DTL

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

What, apparently I'm not allowed to hate both those fuckers? :|

 

[zehydra]

None of those things should have any bearing AT ALL on his status as a sports player. Terrible people make it to the covers of these games, but it's not the content of their character that matters, it's their sports ability.

 

[Marter]

Wait, was Kobe ever convicted of rape? I could've sworn he wasn't. If he wasn't, these cases are not comparable.

And Vick I think Vick should be up for the cover, as I said in that other thread that was removed from the site.

 

[ace_of_something]

First of all Kobe wasn't convicted... he settled out of court... which is... well we all know why people do that.

All the rapists and chimos that I know tend to rate themselves as better than 'murderers' Most of the people in prison/jail tend to not even consider animal abuse a 'crime' and think of it as a way for the 'man' to keep certain cultures down.

It's very weird. Every criminal thinks there is some other criminal worse than them.

Also most forms of sexual assault yield longer prison terms than most forms of animal abuse.

edit: a lot of people quoted me asking how I know rapists (by the way statistically you probably know some as well) I'm a police officer. I previously worked in a large jail for 3ish years as well. Sorry, I'm a police officer. You'd be surprised how much you learn about a group of 60 murderers/rapists/robbers when you have to sit there and watch them play cards and argue about the president for 5 days a week 8-16 hours a day for 3 months (that's how long you had to sit in one part of the facility before you were reassigned)

 

[Jumplion]

That was precisely what I thought when I watched the newest episode of "The Big Picture". I couldn't help but think "What about the other players that have committed crimes?" though I couldn't recall a case like that.

 

[DEAD34345]

None of those things should have any bearing AT ALL on his status as a sports player. Terrible people make it to the covers of these games, but it's not the content of their character that matters, it's their sports ability.

Yes, this is true, but it *shouldn't* be true. That's why people are mad in the first place. This poll is essentially saying "Should only sports ability be taken into account, or should other aspects of people have a part too?". Personally i think it *shouldn't* be just sports ability that is taken into account.

 

[Feralcentaur]

I honestly hate Football as I find idolizing someone just for their Athletic ability to be stupid, so I don't really care but I guess the question here is how much should a Dog's life be valued compared to a Human? The Human would probably be more mentally scarred by it what happened to her and she has to live with it longer than the dogs will but more than just one Dog was tortured, and probably for a longer amount of time probably than she was raped for.

 

[Eldarion]

What, apparently I'm not allowed to hate both those fuckers? :|

Exactly.

Also OP, who are you to suddenly decide that we didn't care about Kobe Bryant being on those game covers? Just cause it didn't get discussed HERE specifically means very little. Kobe Bryant's crimes have nothing to do with Vic's.

Oh wait, did Kobe get convicted of rape? I seem to remember he got acquitted or something.

 

[Bon_Clay]

Wait, was Kobe ever convicted of rape? I could've sworn he wasn't. If he wasn't, these cases are not comparable.

And Vick I think Vick should be up for the cover, as I said in that other thread that was removed from the site.

Exactly he was accused but wasn't convicted. Innocent until proven guilty, so you can't say that he's a rapist. Anything past that is just your personal opinion on the guy and speculation.

As to Vick, well I just don't really care. I don't care about the NFL or video games based on it. Either way its a football game not Nintendogs, so his personal life isn't really relevant.

 

[EllEzDee]

Kobe supposedly raped a woman. That's terrible, yea, but he wasn't charged with raping her, and Vick has been irrefutably charged with animal abuse.

Even if it was entirely true that Kobe raped the woman, Vick has abused far more lives than Kobe.

 

[Risingblade]

I'd trust the dog kicker more than the rapist I guess

 

[Dango]

Things that he did in his past that are completely irrelevant to his athletic career should not affect whether or not he should be on the cover of a video game.

 

[conflictofinterests]

None of those things should have any bearing AT ALL on his status as a sports player. Terrible people make it to the covers of these games, but it's not the content of their character that matters, it's their sports ability.

That's a slippery slope. If you're going to have someone be publicly glorified, what are they allowed to get away with before it's a problem to publicly glorify them? (And in all seriousness, all sports players exist to do is earn and display public glorification). It also speaks to an amount of hypocrisy. Anyone who isn't an enormously popular (insert occupation here) star who commits atrocities like that can expect to be ostracized from the society they were in so much so that they may have to move and/or change their name, because that is the social punishment for that sort of thing. People like Vick and Bryant, and various other names that shall not be mentioned get half-hearted outrage for a couple years TOPS and then get to continue their lives as if they never did any such thing. There is a severe iniquity there. Rapists are branded as such for the rest of their lives, and everything from the jobs they can apply for to the houses they are allowed to live in is affected. Not sure what's going on for people who torture animals in that way, but they certainly won't get pleasant greetings from their neighbors once that gets out.

Back to my first point, I think maybe some kid somewhere is going to figure out that if you become publicly glorified enough, you can get away with a lot of shit you couldn't normally... And that I find somewhat problematic.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Intersting comparison, comparing one player that was accused of raping but wasn't convicted, while Vick was convicted of animal cruelty.

He's being judged on his playing ability and not whether he's a fucking boyscout or not, and SPOILER ALERT, he's not. I don't care for either person, I think they are good athletes, but I can't stand them as a person, especially Kobe, the smug bastard.

It's a football game cover for christsake, there are plenty of other things to get pissed off about, and this isn't one of them, to me anyways.

 

[Laxman9292]

What, apparently I'm not allowed to hate both those fuckers? :|

Exactly.

Also OP, who are you to suddenly decide that we didn't care about Kobe Bryant being on those game covers? Just cause it didn't get discussed HERE specifically means very little. Kobe Bryant's crimes have nothing to do with Vic's.

Oh wait, did Kobe get convicted of rape? I seem to remember he got acquitted or something.

Nah it got dropped because she didn't want to go and testify. But he was quoted as saying "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual," Bryant's statement continued, "I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/02/MNG6E8IB861.DTL

 

[Laxman9292]

All the rapists and chimos that I know tend to rate themselves as better than 'murderers' Most of the people in prison/jail tend to not even consider animal abuse a 'crime' and think of it as a way for the 'man' to keep certain cultures down.

It's very weird. Every criminal thinks there is some other criminal worse than them.

Also most forms of sexual assault yield longer prison terms than most forms of animal abuse.

That's what I'm saying. If we can get past Kobe and have him be on three covers why not for Michael Vick? I'm pretty sure that anyone, other than PETA, would consider rape more serious than animal cruelty. Clearly the law does.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

As someone who actually enjoys sports such as football (the english one, not the stupidly named American version) I have to concede that the vast majority of profressional sports players are ingorant, obnoxious, pampered, dissolute scum. There are a few rare examples of players who seem to display a modicum of loyalty, intelligence and morality but for the most part they're pricks. And the general public is fully aware that they are pricks whose only quantifiable measure of their entire insipid fucking being is how well they can kick a fucking ball. So why are we now feigning some sense of morality and deluding ourselves into thinking these imbecilic athletes hold any influence over anyone over the age 10 that would corrupt the moral fibre of the public? Long story short, what that man did was dispicable but whether or not he does or doesn't make it onto the cover isn't going to change a fucking thing about the public perception of professional atheletes, EA or sporting competitions as a whole.