Say Hello To Pacman, Mr. Vick

[Kiwon]

It's hard for small town officials to pull the trigger on local heros. In Vick's case, he probably makes in 2 weeks what the sheriff, deputies, and local prosecutor earn in a year. If the athlete has donated to the community than it gets even harder. Some of these guys will not be in their positions forever and they don't want to be known as the guy who took down the local star and cut off the donations to the community.

There is another side as well, dog and cock fighting is not that uncommon in rural America. I'll bet you anything that these officials ALREADY KNEW what was going on and had turned a blind eye to it. Worse still, they might have been paid off. $30-40,000 for one fight indicates the kind of money involved. You better believe that some county deputies can be bought for far less.

Besides all that, you can bet that local law enforcement knew exactly everywhere in their county dog fighting is taking place. Nobody can keep a secret and pick up a local for drug possession and he'll start talking. Just ask the locals. Some knew exactly where Michael Vick's house was and that he had 50-60 cages of Pit Bulls. Gee...rumors of dog fights, pit bulls, Michael Vick's relatives = what?

The foot dragging is probably because they realize that law enforcement is not clean in this either. Just imagine if friends of Vick, say a bigwig attorney in Atlanta for example, calls up and drops the hint that if Vick is indicted that he will implicate local officials. The result is chaos. These guys will turn on each other in order to save their rears.

The safest course is to claim insufficient evidence implicating Vick. I bet there is a lot of pressure on the Commonwealth Attorney to rule this way. Anything other than this will get very messy for them.

My guess is that everyone knows the truth here. It just depends how far back they want to peal this onion.

[motife]

Did you notice who else is mentioned in the article? Former GB RB LeShon Johnson.

http://www.pet-abuse.com/profiles/1912/

LeShon Johnson
Gender: Male
Approximate Age: 32
Date of Birth: Jan 15, 1971
Location: Sperry, OK (US)

History
May 25, 2004 - Wetumka, OK (US)
Convicted: 21 Charged - Dog-fighting - 141 pitbulls seized

Sentence: Pled guilty to the following felony charges on December 20, 2005: One count of possessing dogs for the purpose of fighting, one count of encouraging dogs to fight, and one count of facilitating a dog fight. As part of a plea agreement, Johnson's sentence was deferred, and he was placed on 5 years probation. He was ordered to pay a $2,000.00 fine, $1,216.00 for court costs, and restitution in the amount of $5,000.00.

Feb 12, 2003 - Skiatook, OK (US)
Alleged: NFL football player dog-fighting

Feb 2000 - Skiatook, OK (US) Dismissed (Conditional): Dog-fighting

Notes: deferred prosecution on the condition he get rid of his dogs and stay away from dogfights.

Notes:
Height: 6-0 Weight: 215 Born: 1/15/71

College: Northern Illinois/ NFL Experience: 6 yrs.

Leshon Eugene Johnson, 33, of Haskellhas been charged with Racketeering, conspiracy, keeping a dog for fighting, instigating a dogfight, facilitating a dogfight, cruelty to animals.

[packinpatland]

Now isn't that lovely. Was he in the same rookie class as Vick?

[Bretsky]

Now isn't that lovely. Was he in the same rookie class as Vick?

I think he was a bit before Vick.

Green Bay acutally drafted LeShon Johnson in the third round before he went to play a couple more years for the Cardinals.

He roomed with Travis Jersey and they were both known for having pit bulls and I think they actually were disciplined for having some wild animals at their residence that were not legal.

[RashanGary]

I watched the special on ESPN. It was horrible.

I can't believe people like watching this shit. I really hope he goes to jail for this.

[Bretsky]

I watched the special on ESPN. It was horrible.

I can't believe people like watching this shit. I really hope he goes to jail for this.

Me too

Horrible Human's beings do this to animals that are trained to hurt other beings.

[Rastak]

I watched the special on ESPN. It was horrible.

I can't believe people like watching this shit. I really hope he goes to jail for this.

Me too

Horrible Human's beings do this to animals that are trained to hurt other beings.

I just can't believe anyone would willingly engage in this shit. I'm honestly at a loss for words. What sort of uncaring animal would you have to be to engage in this? Animals are stupid, but people are suppose to be able to think. Vick has the brains of an animal himself if you ask me.

[RashanGary]

Me too

Horrible Human's beings do this to animals that are trained to hurt other beings.

I turned my head as much as possible but I still saw about half of it. It was as bad as anything I've seen. At least guns kill people quickly. This is the equivilant of seeing someone tortured through a slow death. It was just awfull.

[RashanGary]

I just can't believe anyone would willingly engage in this shit. I'm honestly at a loss for words.

That is exactly what I thought. Just horrible. I really hope he goes to jail. The NFL better not go easy on this either.

[MJZiggy]

It's hard for small town officials to pull the trigger on local heros. In Vick's case, he probably makes in 2 weeks what the sheriff, deputies, and local prosecutor earn in a year. If the athlete has donated to the community than it gets even harder. Some of these guys will not be in their positions forever and they don't want to be known as the guy who took down the local star and cut off the donations to the community.

There is another side as well, dog and cock fighting is not that uncommon in rural America. I'll bet you anything that these officials ALREADY KNEW what was going on and had turned a blind eye to it. Worse still, they might have been paid off. $30-40,000 for one fight indicates the kind of money involved. You better believe that some county deputies can be bought for far less.

Besides all that, you can bet that local law enforcement knew exactly everywhere in their county dog fighting is taking place. Nobody can keep a secret and pick up a local for drug possession and he'll start talking. Just ask the locals. Some knew exactly where Michael Vick's house was and that he had 50-60 cages of Pit Bulls. Gee...rumors of dog fights, pit bulls, Michael Vick's relatives = what?

The foot dragging is probably because they realize that law enforcement is not clean in this either. Just imagine if friends of Vick, say a bigwig attorney in Atlanta for example, calls up and drops the hint that if Vick is indicted that he will implicate local officials. The result is chaos. These guys will turn on each other in order to save their rears.

The safest course is to claim insufficient evidence implicating Vick. I bet there is a lot of pressure on the Commonwealth Attorney to rule this way. Anything other than this will get very messy for them.

My guess is that everyone knows the truth here. It just depends how far back they want to peal this onion.

I can see the point in what you're saying and if I had to guess, I'd say you're right, the problem for them, like I said before, is that there will also be pressure coming from the other direction. The story has received national attention and no matter how much the locals want it to go away, do you think the news agencies hungry for a story, or PETA hungry for a high profile conviction to make a point will let it die so easily? I know that Goodell has his eye on the investigation as well, so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

[esoxx]

man, if thats his dogs and thats what he wants to do, thats his business.

Yes, committing a felony by fighting dogs is his business. Now that the light's been shined on his activities, he can deal with the fallout from his illegal side hobby.

[FritzDontBlitz]

it was chilling reading the informants assertion that "its just an animal", as if that explains it away. just imagine: some of those animals have mauled small children to death because they mistook the child for another dog.

1. i hope vick rolls over and helps the nfl/nba/mlb ban every player involved in this incredibly brutal "sport." not that i expect them to. i doubt the nfl will do a damn thing UNLESS someone is caught fighting killer dogs decked out in nfl merchandise, or chewing through rookie playing cards.

2. i hope that one day soon the usa bans the possession and sale of that breed, making it a felony to even be in possession of one. they are called "pit" bulls for very good reason.

3. i hope every athlete involved is put UNDER the jail.

[pbmax]

This is an entirely reasonable line of thinking. However, on the subject of bringin down a local hero, Vick is from Newport News and would seem to be a newcomer to the area where the home in question is located.

So I am not sure hometown hero extends to here (I am really not sure how big he is in Virginia, so it could extend to all communities) but I could easily see that not everyone's hands here are clean. Their cupability could go back long before Vick moved to town. Could even be why he selected the area.

There is another side as well, dog and cock fighting is not that uncommon in rural America. I'll bet you anything that these officials ALREADY KNEW what was going on and had turned a blind eye to it...

Besides all that, you can bet that local law enforcement knew exactly everywhere in their county dog fighting is taking place. Nobody can keep a secret and pick up a local for drug possession and he'll start talking. Just ask the locals. Some knew exactly where Michael Vick's house was and that he had 50-60 cages of Pit Bulls...

The foot dragging is probably because they realize that law enforcement is not clean in this either.

[GBRulz]

I hope this scumbag is banned from the NFL and is not allowed to own ANY animal for the rest of his life.

What bothers me is that this is going to focus on how bad pit bulls are and that they should be banned, blah blah blah. The pit bull is just a breed, the human is what makes them killers. A few of my friends have pit bulls and they are big babies. Now, I won't deny that they have aggressive genes, but so do German Shepards, Rottweilers, chows, Doberman's, etc...so, are we going to ban all those breeds, too? I'd like to see people being held accountable instead of an outright ban on certain breeds of dogs. From what I understand, Denver has a city-wide ban on Pit Bulls.

Vick is starting to make Pacman look like a saint...that's troubling.

BTW - isn't Fergie a breeder of pit bulls? I know he has a bunch of them and I'm pretty sure his Mom runs some breeding farm or something. I wouldn't doubt if he was at least investigated.

[MJZiggy]

Whether Ferguson should be investigated is an interesting question, though. Should every pit bull breeder in the country be investigated? It's quite possible that Ferguson breeds them for the same reason that NORMAL people own therm--simple love of the breed.