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Re: OK... I'll bite
Posted By: Jason "MegaThrust Man" Burnell In Response To: Greg Lowe and the USAPL (Jim Ray)
Date: Sunday, 25 March 2007, at 5:19 p.m.
"It seems illogical to me for Ed Coan and Brian Siders to be banned from the USAPL, but not Greg Lowe.
Neither is banned from USAPL. Ed Coan has a lifetime ban from the IPF. Siders also was banned by the IPF, not USAPL.
"If the USAPL response is, the IPF makes us disassociate from Ed and Brian, then why doesn't the IPF have a rule about people in prison?"
Ed was suspended for failing drug tests. Siders was suspended for lifting against a banned lifter. While I don't necessarily think that suspending Siders was right and that rule should be changed this has nothing to do with Beetle Lowe.
With regard to Lowe, many feel he should not be allowed to lift in USAPL. Others feel that our legal system has meted out a punishment for him and that if he is serving his punishment, that is all that is required.
I personally have mixed feelings. I've been a death penalty supporter because some people just need killing. Dahmer? Needed killing. Those guys that drove around with the rifle sticking out the back of the car? They need killing. That goofball from Oklahoma City? No, not Rickey Crain. That other one, McVeigh. He needed killing.
My only problem with it now is that hundreds of convicted cons have been released in the last several years because DNA evidence proved that they were wrongly convicted. But I digress....(as I often do)
Back to Beetle Lowe. My only concern with him is that a couple of people who know him have intimated that while he did do it, there may have been circmstances in which some of us would have done the same thing. There are instances in which many of us would kill, a threat our families for instance. In some cases, you'd risk going to prison to save your wife or kids, or your dog. Can't see myself going to jail over a cat or a hampster but I might just shoot a fool who attacked my puppy.
This topic have been discussed for years. It comes up every once in a while. Most of the guys who have worked at prisons supprt the prisoners lifting because a) for them it is a privelige and they can only go to the gym if they behave and b) because it burns off a ton of energy and a tired inmate is much better to deal with than one with lots of energy and time on his hands.
Some, myself included, have argued that for many of those guys lifting is one of the only times they've been forced to set goals, make a commitment and stick with something to see progress. The discipline involved might carry over into other areas. MIGHT - again I refer to the some people just need killing corrolary.
USAPL's goal is to promote drug free powerlifting. Prison meets have been a part of the sport since the 70s and maybe longer. If guys pay their debt and want to lift, I don't think we should stop them.
On the other hand, I "almost" went to a prison meet. I got to the part where they said, "if something goes down, we're not going to do anything to get you out."
Oh really? I think they'll be lifting by themselves. I'm not bunking with Ray-Ray.
" Even the IPF promotes a family atmosphere by having youth division lifting."
Actually, you're wrong there too. USA Powerlifting started a youth division and was forced to stop that by the IPF.
"My followup question is, what about ex-cons coming to meets?"
IF they are ex-cons, presumably they've paid their debt to society, if not the people they directly wronged.
" What about known violent or sex offenders?"
They should have been exectued already so that isn't really a powerlifting issue, per se.
"What is the responsibility of the meet dir.?"
Finding a venue, getting the weights to the venue, drug tests, trophies, getting refs and spotters, scoretable help, weigh ins, checking membership cards and making sure lifters have current cards, feeding the meet staff, getting meet t-shirts, getting the score cards and flights together ahead of time, designating a "powder area", making sure there is adequate warmup space and equipment, getting the scale calibrated, trying not to lose his ass...etc, and the list goes on.
I doubt any meet director has the time to screen the audience for ex-cons.
" If there's a rule against felons competing, what about non-violent felons? "
There isn't a rule against felons or non-violent felons as far as I know.
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