The Mike Tyson Sentence. Do you think it's too light?

Mar 26 21:14 UTC 1992

   So Iron Mike got 10 years with 4 of those, suspended. He will no
doubt serve 3 years with any luck. The question, is did he get off
too light?

response 2 of 171:

Mar 26 22:09 UTC 1992

   An interesting question.  I suppose it'll make an impression on
him, but still I wonder about the whole thing.  Not having read the
transcripts I can only hope that it is just.
   Part of me really does wonder though, if prison is the "right"
thing to do to someone like that.

response 4 of 171:

Mar 27 00:15 UTC 1992

   Is it unusual to receive a sentence and then get 40% off?  That
seems odd to me.  Why not just say six years?  Is there a mechanism
whereby those four years could be added back if the doesn't behave
himself?

response 6 of 171:

Mar 27 03:14 UTC 1992

(this is now item 20 in worldnews. i have no comment on why it appears
twice in agora...)

response 8 of 171:

Mar 27 05:23 UTC 1992

Oops, my mistake.

response 10 of 171:

Mar 27 06:57 UTC 1992

Tyson is most certainly not going to admit any culpability while his
appeal is pending.  (Should he get a new trial, they would use any
admission against him.  Instant conviction.)

response 12 of 171:

Mar 27 14:11 UTC 1992

What really turns my stomach is that this neanderthal said, and I have no
doubt believs, that he didn't 'hurt' anyone, simply because as he put it,
nobody got any "black eyes or broken ribs".  What a jerk.  IMHO, he should
gotten a lot more time, and serve every minute of it.  The guy is a time
bomb.

response 14 of 171:

Mar 28 22:43 UTC 1992

i think that one's a pretty safe bet, honestly. anybody who took on tyson
barefisted would be foolish, probably even if the assailant were armed with
a knife. tyson is trained,  a very smart fighter, extremely fast, and 
bruisingly strong. even as a lethargic, standing, unmotivated target who
lost to douglas, it took douglas, who's well over 6' and about 240 lbs,
and a very good fighter, ten rounds to put tyson down. nobody in prison is
going to hurt tyson without having a very serious advantage, and such an
advantage is not likely to materialize because of iron mike's visibility.
on the other hand, somebody of tyson's speed and strength, barefisted,
could literally kill with his hands. don't forget (although tyson's not
in his league) what joe louis did to max schmeling while wearing gloves:
broke vertebrae, ruptured a kidney--in short, hospitalized him for months
in only a couple of minutes. that was with gloves. louis also hit primo
carnera so hard (again, with gloves) that carnera didn't realize he'd been
knocked down and out. carnera was a bruiser who weighed, i think, about
270 lbs. good skills and great strength make tyson very, very dangerous.
maybe one inmate will get the opportunity and and be dumb enough to try
tyson--but i feel sorry for him. i doubt it will happen more than once.

response 16 of 171:

Mar 29 06:45 UTC 1992

what you say of louis's grace is true, but it doesn't go far enough...louis
was reduced to doing so because the government, after accepting all his purses
as war effort donations, hounded him for years for back taxes on money that
his manager had swindled from him.


the _other_ difference, of course, is that if a matchup were possible, louis
would have trammeled tyson completely. nobody, including foreman, ever hit as
hard as louis--i saw one clip where he knocked his opponent out with a body
puch, and more than one other where he took his opponent off
the c canvas with the force of his blow. but louis was also a superb
_boxer_, and people tend to forget that because of his awesome knockout
ability. trivia fact: every person who went the distance with louis was 
offered a rematch, and louis knocked every one of them out in each rematch.
another trivia fact: louis used to carry opponents a few rounds so the 
audience got its money's worth.

sorry out the sloppy typing. the line noise is nothing sort of insane this
evening.

response 18 of 171:

Mar 29 14:29 UTC 1992

Because they tried to make it illegal, but it just went underground and more
people got seriously injured than now (sorta like with alcohol).  Since
it was a losing battle (even most cops liked it and would look the other way)
they made it legal again and regulated it.

response 20 of 171:

Mar 29 16:25 UTC 1992

14
Re: 14;
 
   Prisoners will NEVER fight with their bare hands as long as they have the
access to rudimentive weaponry such as shives/knives, pipes, & socks filled 
with misc. heavy items.  Beyond this, fights usually aren't one-on-one
anyway (cultural thang).
 
 Tyson's been in the pokey before, so he knows 'what time it is.'  If he's
smart, he'll either pick someone to beat up right away to set an example, 
and/or he will offer future money for protection.
 
   The losers who pay $500 to watch the bruthas hit eachother in the squared
circle would probably pay a lot more to watch footage of Tyson's first rumble
in the can (kinda like one of WWF's cage matches), & the proceeds could go 
to a worthy cause, as long as Don King isn't allowed to be involved.

response 22 of 171:

Mar 29 21:38 UTC 1992

   Its legal Mary, 'cause making it illegal, just like anything else, only
makes it more dangerous for those doing it.  At least now there are *some*
protections for the participants.  Making it a back-alley sport would
take all that away.  I personally regard boxing as fairly disgusting, and
don't watch it, but there do seem to be a lot of people that enjoy  it.

response 24 of 171:

Mar 29 22:07 UTC 1992

   Hmmm.  I think there are rather more people who would like to hurt
him, if only for the reason that they get recorded, as opposed to the
number who would lionize him.