Saturday, August 22, 2009

Plax

Am I missing something here? Plaxico Burress has been sentenced to two years of prison for carrying an unregistered firearm. Two years out of his life because he shot himself in the foot. Mind you, nobody ever said he was threatening anybody, or intended to do anybody any harm. It's just that real criminals carry unregistered firearms, and Mayor Bloomberg and whatever that dipshit D.A.'s name is had a burr in their saddle about cracking down on this stuff.

So they took it out on a guy who shot himself in the foot. You can't really call it a victimless crime, because Plax victimized himself. But you can say that he didn't hurt anybody else.

This is your basic perversion of justice, in the interest of either politics, or precedent-setting, or I'm not sure what. But it has nothing to do with the spirit of the law.

I frankly don't blame Plaxico Burress for carrying a gun. Personally, I think it's a bit foolish, but he has seen multiple professional athletes, including a guy who played his own position on his own team, get shot at and in several instances killed by lowlifes who basically wanted their stuff. Given that backdrop, he had every reason to be fearful if not paranoid about being shot. I'm not in his situation, so I can't say exactly what I'd do. But I'd sure as hell be aware of the threat. Plax chose to protect himself with a gun.

No question Plax should have registered it. But he did register a gun in another state in the relatively recent past, so it's not like he has contempt for the law. He screwed up. He actually does a fair amount of screwing up. But he also seems like a decent guy to the people around him.

I can see punishing him for his mistake, especially since there is a real need to have handguns registered. But nowhere in this did I see a hint of common sense when considering Plax's character or his motivations. It was all about the mayor and the D.A. getting their pound of flesh.

So Plax shoots himself in the foot and hurts nobody else. Politicos throw their weight around and trash lives for no good reason. That's the real crime.

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