Plaxico Burress

Recently, former New York Giants Wide Receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty and agreed to serve two years in jail. This, is for possession of a gun without a license in New York City. He was wounded in the leg when it went off accidently. No one else was hurt.

Two years? Two years for a man with no criminal record? Two years for a man with no history of violence? Two years for an incident as foolish as it was resulted in no injury?

Lost in this matter is the fact that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tainted any potential jury pool by publicly declaring Burress's guilt and demanding the book be thrown at him.

In a system that provides the accused of a jury by his peers, Mayor Bloomberg deprived the accused of reasonable due process. Given Mayor Bloomberg's public statements, could Mr. Burress have been assured of an impartial jury of his peers? In my view, the answer is clearly no.

Mayor Bloomberg got his high profile pound of flesh in his endless quest to reinvent the Bill of Rights to conform to his nanny like desires. Copping a guilty plea shows that the system works, but demonstrates that justice may be intimidated by political charlatans bent on a society that conforms to his conventions.