Most men do crazy things to secure their man-hood and individuality. They go to strip clubs, watch Ultimate Fighting Competition, binge drink every Thursday night. Others, get in bar fights, drive Hummers or go fishing. Michael Francis Wiley does none of those, Wiley, goes for a drive.
To Wiley, a 40-year-old Florida man, driving is like a drug. He wants to drive, he needs to drive, he is compelled to get into his automobile and turn the key and go. It’s mandatory, he can’t stop driving. He is a habitual driver and despite a long list of traffic violations, which landed him a revoked license, he couldn’t stop.
“What makes him do it?” John Hooker, Wiley’s attorney said when asked why Wiley keeps getting behind the wheel. “I think it’s an urge he has that makes him feel as important and as good as anyone. It gives him a sense of self-esteem.”
Nothing quite like breaking the law to make you feel better about yourself. There are just two problems with his habit. First, Wiley is missing a driver’s license, has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license and he kicked a police officer after an accident in 1996 [I’ll get to that later].
The second reason might be the bigger surprise. Wiley has been driving while missing both arms and a leg – for 24 years. Amazingly, he taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13.
Humans cannot escape physics. Humans with most of their appendages removed have even more difficulty. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – except in Florida if you only have one leg. The home of butterfly ballots, old-people, and hurricanes just threw a curveball at America via the judicial system.
Wiley, the habitual driver, was thrown in jail for five years Friday on felony driving and drug charges. But he isn’t a sex offender, not a drunken driver, not a thief, not a murderer, nor was he convicted of assault with a deadly weapon or battery of any kind. Wiley was put in jail for half a decade for two reasons: drug charges and driving.
Not drunken driving or driving under the influence, just plain old driving. He was put in jail with rapists, drunks, thieves, murderers, and wife beaters, and he is in there for driving.
Is it just me or did I miss something? Speechless is defined in the dictionary as “not capable to be expressed in words.” And when Merriam-Webster re-prints their next dictionary I’m going to recommend a picture with Wiley standing, on one leg and no arms, in a jail cell.
Because really, what do you say to that?
I was always under the assumption that jail was to reform people who were a danger to society. Has America come to a point where a man with one leg and no arms ia a “danger” to society? Really?
He has a laundry list of traffic violations, drug charges, he led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998 and kicked a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. At least Wiley shows remorse, “I’d just like to say I know what I did was wrong,” Wiley said in court Friday. “I am truly sorry your honor. I am.”
Well, after a lot of thought, yes. America has come to a point where a one-legged, no armed man is a danger to society. Wiley should get a lot of credit for being the first man in American history to be a danger to society with only one leg.
Thankfully he came out after the trial and said, “I’m beat. The white flag is up,” he said “You can only bang your head against the wall so long before it hurts.”
That’s the vernacular of someone who has issues. How crazy do you have to be to kick someone if you only have one leg to stand on? And that person you kicked is a cop!
I don’t think five years is enough. This guy needs to be locked away for life. Someone in his mental condition should not be able to get anywhere or near anyone. Get this guy some counseling because I’m willing to go out on a limb and say he’s not done and if he has the chance he will drive again.
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