In an ideal world, Plaxico “Cheddar Bob” Burress will soon go from jail bird to Philadelphia Eagle.
You might remember Burress, the former New York Giants receiver who made the game-winning catch against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and the same Burress who accidentally shot himself in the thigh in 2008 at a Manhattan nightclub. He was released from a medium-security prison Monday.
Burress is no longer incarcerated, but finds himself an ex-convict with few employability prospects. It’s not that NFL teams don’t want him. The Philadelphia Eagles (the same organization that signed dogfighter Michael Vick, much to the chagrin of practically every dog-loving, red-blooded American) are apparently flirting with the prospect of signing Burress — that is, once the lockout lifts, if it lifts.
The tragedy of Plaxico Burress is that, in an ideal world, he wouldn’t have gone to prison.
Almost half the prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office believed Burress didn’t deserve to serve prison time, the Daily News reported. It’s of little consequence now, but Burress’ most dubious mistake wasn’t accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a Manhattan club two years ago. No doubt, that was stupid.
His biggest mistake is that he carried a concealed, loaded gun — which happened to be unlicensed — in a state that has an iron-fist, mandatory three-and-a-half year sentence for violation of state gun laws and a mayor who, from the very beginning, was seeking political brownie points in chastising Burress and suggesting he should be hammered because he is a “role model for our kids.”
“Our children are getting killed with guns in the streets,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters in the aftermath of Burress’ shooting. “Our police officers are getting killed with guns in the hands of criminals, and because of that, we got the State Legislature to pass a law that, if you carry a loaded handgun, you get automatically three-and-a-half years in the slammer. I don’t think that anybody should be exempt from that, and I think it would be an outrage if we didn’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, particularly people who live in the public domain, make their living because of their visibility.”
Sadly, Bloomberg failed to realize that visibility doesn’t translate to integrity. Burress is not, and should not, be a role model. In such a progressive society, it’s shock-inducing that we still have such regressive attitudes and belief systems about the famous and influential. Athletic virtuosity and financial success aren’t predictors of morality, nor should they be.
Had Bloomberg an ounce of integrity, he’d have muzzled himself better than to expose his ignorance. Considering his situation, Bloomberg should have recused himself from publicly commenting on Burress’ case. At the time, he was seeking a third term as mayor, which required a City Council vote to amend the city’s term limits. This was in October 2008. “Cheddar Bob” shot himself in November.
Circumstantially, it seems plausible to say that Burress was caught up in political crossfire, easy sound-bite fodder, ending up as collateral damage in Bloomberg’s bid for reelection. More than that, Burress was a victim of the system that champions “justice for all,” but it’s implied that it is justice as those in power see fit — selective justice. This was justice, all right — justification presented to the poor, the powerless, the underprivileged that the system is not only colorblind, but blind to celebrity. The New York District Attorney held a collective big-fish fry, proof that good lawyers don’t buy freedom.
I hate to bring this up, because the cases aren’t exactly comparable, but I will, at the risk of being ridiculed. Donté Stallworth pled guilty to DUI manslaughter in 2010, and he received a 30-day jail sentence. Burress shot himself in the leg and was prosecuted on the presumption that something worse could have happened. What if that stray bullet hit someone else? It wasn’t enough that Burress could have, conceivably, killed himself had he struck his femoral artery.
Nope, the “justice system” has a quota to fill. Crime, just like oil, is a big business. Such is the case that the correctional is too preoccupied with “risk management” to appropriately dispense fair punishment. And because of that, Burress is a convicted felon. He’s an on-the-field stat-stuffer who is now a part of the nation’s growing crime statistics.
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“You go from being the absolute hero to finding yourself in jail for a mistake in judgment,” Peter M. Frankel, Burress’ attorney, told the Associated Press. “It’s really a tragic story.”
Frankel went on to tell the Associated Press that Burress will never really “believe that the punishment fit the crime.”
In an ideal world, there would be no crime and no need for punishment. Instead, Burress is a jail bird, his only crime that he gave the Bloomberg and the “justice system” an ideal target.
