The party is tonight at the MI-VI nightclub (pronounced "m-i-six") at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach. The guest list includes names like T.I. and 50 Cent and Dwyane Wade. But most people will be there to see one man: Michael Vick.
Plenty of people support Vick. Once the highest-paid player in the NFL, he spent 18 months in federal prison for his role as financier of a dog fighting ring. They think he paid his debt to society and they want society to move on and let the man go about the rest of his life.
There will also be dozens -- if not hundreds -- of people at Gulfstream tonight who hate that Vick is even in South Florida right now. They will be out protesting in droves, wearing shirts and carrying signs that tell the world how disgusted they are with this man.
even though he's bankrolling now, he's despicable, a horrible human
being." protest organizer Sharon Athanasiou told me yesterday. "We
haven't forgotten about his atrocities."
She explain the vitriol of the Vick haters like this: "We feel he essentially got away with murder," she said. "He threw his own pets into the dog fighting ring and laughed. He drowned and electrocuted dogs himself. This is not a man you want hosting a Memorial Day party event in your community."