Is convicted felon Michael Vick being given special treatment?…Now works with children

July 1, 3:35 PMNorfolk Crime ExaminerDave Gibson

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After leaving the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, KA, Michael Vick started a construction job paying $10 an hour, fulfilling the work requirement of his release. Apparently, that introduction to hard work was too much for the former NFL quarterback, as he began working at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula, this week.

Amazingly, the same man who was convicted of torturing and brutally killing dozens of dogs is spending the summer working with children!

Boys and Girls Club CEO Steven S. Kast told reporters: "Because we think there is an opportunity for our children to learn lessons from his experiences, we have chosen to support Michael in his efforts to make amends. To this end, he will be working with children in some of our Clubs on health and fitness activities in the coming weeks."

The Peninsula Boys & Girls Clubs serves has multiple locations and Vick is currently working at the Greater Hampton Roads Boys & Girls Club in Newport News. He is working in the club’s youth football program.

Despite the fact that Vick is a convicted felon, and displayed an incredibly brutal and callous nature, the club’s more than 5,000 children will now have contact with this man who is still under house arrest.

Kast said of Vick: "We were disappointed by some of his recent actions and decisions, but believe he has learned from these experiences and is now conscious of his obligations and responsibilities as a prominent sports figure that impacts and influences our kids."

Reporter’s note: When I was in my early 20’s, I worked as a volunteer coach for an inner city football team. In order to do this, I had to undergo a background investigation, the first thing I was asked by the club’s director was whether or not I had any felony or misdemeanor convictions. Any such conviction would have been an automatic disqualification.

People with felony convictions must ordinarily have a job as a condition of their early release, as well as their parole. Felons are very limited in the jobs they can do and most often consist of manual labor. Any job where daily exposure to children is part of the felon’s duties, would simply never happen for most convicts.

Of course, Vick is not most convicts.

Do you think that the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula would have even considered hiring Michael Vick, if he had been a truck driver instead of an NFL star?

Obviously, Vick is receiving preferential treatment because of his celebrity status. However, that is not the most outrageous aspect to this story.

Michael Vick is idolized by poor, young black boys (which is primarily with whom Vick will be working), who see a trip to the NFL or the NBA as their only way out of poverty. Unfortunately, all too many of those same kids see a prison sentence as a badge of honor. For them, Vick's lawless actions may only serve as further encouragement down a road which leads then to prison.

For Vick, this is undoubtedly nothing more than an attempt to convince NFL commissioner Paul Goodell that he has been rehabilitated and wants to ‘give back’ to his community. It’s funny, criminals never seem to feel the need to ‘give back’ until they are in trouble.

Vick, like most criminals is only sorry that he got caught. If he had truly changed, he would have accepted the construction job for what it was, hard, physical, dirty work. It would have demonstrated that he understood he was wrong and that was part of his punishment and rehabilitation. Instead, he thought himself too good for the job and had his lawyers find him a way out of it.

Vick knows that much of the public hates him for what he has done, as the mountain of evidence against him showed him to be a monster. The image of him tossing a football to smiling kids could help change folks’ opinion…Or at least that’s what Team Vick hopes.

The club’s CEO Steven S. Kast has made a serious mistake in hiring Vick and allowing him to work with children. It is impossible to say whether or not Kast received anything in return for this unprecedented hiring of a convicted felon, but one can certainly speculate.

Not only should Vick be fired, but Kast should be along with him.

Would you want your child spending the summer with someone who spent years torturing and drowning dogs?

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