For as big of a knucklehead criminal move as it was, it is beyond comprehension that we want to throw the proverbial book at Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, while infamous housewife murderer Mary Winkler has been released from prison after only 67 days; after she willfully admitted to having stood over her sleeping pastor husband's bed and blowing his brains out with a shotgun.
But the commentators have been having a field day talking about how Michael Vick should never see the light of day again whilst the husband butcher will be chilling at home after only 67 days in jail. There is just something patently wrong with this scenario.
Now, let’s imagine Mr. Vick and Mrs. Winkler switching roles for a moment.
Let’s say hypothetically that Mr. Vick, an African-American male, had admitted to shooting his sleeping wife in cold blood and then claimed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and claimed that his wife’s verbal abuse were mitigating factors in the case.
Let’s then say that Mr. Vick was released after serving a measly 67-day sentence and let’s say that our attention turned to a housewife ‘queenpin’ of a large dog-fighting scheme which violated federal law.
Let’s say that Mrs. Winkler, a Caucasian woman, was found to have violated several federal laws in her exquisite dog-fighting federation. She made tons of money, executed the losing puppies after a lackluster match and just for kicks, even juiced up some of her prize canines with steroids and other weird stuff. Notwithstanding the criminality (and lack of humanity) in the aforementioned scenario, let’s say that people talked about putting her away in jail for the next 6 to 10 years.
Are we really a society that puts people away for a decade for mistreating animals but are sufficiently convinced that a person has paid their dues to society with a nauseating 67-day sentence for killing their spouse in cold blood as they slept in their wedding bed.
Would Michael Vick have gotten released after 67 days if he were the spouse killer? Is American justice the same for an African-American male as it is for a church-going Caucasian woman?
Would people be talking about throwing the federal sentencing book at Mary Winkler if it were her dog-fighting scheme? Unlike Mr. Vick, were she not on the cover of video games and the bottom of Nike shoes, would anyone give a hoot about what this woman did to those poor animals?
Granted, these are all hypothetical situations, but I hope to live in an America where all the Michael Vicks and Mary Winklers of the world are treated equally under the law, regardless of their skin color or what number jersey they wear on any given Sunday.