"It's not right! MOOOOMMMM!!"

[derby378]

Hey, Paris? Y'know what's not right? Driving with a suspended license simply because your personal assistant told you, "Suuuuure, go ahead and drive to your heart's content! The law doesn't apply to rich, beautiful, white girls like you - we only use it on poor, ugly, Mexican girls from the East Side."

This really burns me up. At least she's headed back to jail, but this whole affair only further weakens my confidence that the City of Los Angeles is capable of governing itself according to American law.

[snagglepuss]

1. Well said.

Hopefully this will instill some reality in those who feel they are above the law. Obviously Paris thought laws are jokes to be disregarded. If someone with her education can't be reached rationally which would be preferable, primitive means such as incarceration needs to be employed.

[Breeze54]

9. She has an 'education'?? Huh?

I don't think she's ever attended college.

[NJCher]

14. earned her GED

from wikipedia:

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. She attended her freshman year of high school in Rancho Mirage, California at the Marywood-Palm Valley School and her sophomore and junior years of high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropped out,<3> and eventually earned a GED.<4>



Cher

[Breeze54]

'nuff said!

:P

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. poor baby! having to deal with society on society's terms.

how udderly (Oh wait, I saw them, and they ain't that great) horrible.

[coco77]

3. What gets me is the fact that...

some of these talking heads on tv seem to think that a sheriff can overturn a judge's ruling. He said no serving time at home with a ankle bracelet. She ignored her probation and was caught and continued to do it and Geraldo,Jeffrey Fieger and ann coulter can't seem to get the handle on those facts.

[Lex]

4. This is the part where she learns the meaning of "Tough sh!t."

Most people learn it much earlier in life.

[Demobrat]

5. Don't do the crime

if you can't do the time.

[Cleita]

6. I just had a wicked thought.

When I was living in Chile in the American compound of a copper mine when I was seventeen years old, two of the American teenaged boys found a cache of dynamite in a cave that was used as a storage place for the explosives. Now I have to admit the American kids were pretty entitled and the Chilean police didn't interfere very much in their law breaking like underaged drinking, race driving and other things that they did preferring to leave it up to the parents to discipline them. However, my two peers decided to blow up the dynamite.

One of the kids knew how to set up the charge so they could do it from a distance. They did it and blew the top of the hill off, which could be seen for miles. (Not to worry. In the middle of the Atacama desert, there were no people or wildlife to destroy.)This time the police weren't so lenient and made them go before a magistrate who sentenced them both to leave the country immediately or spend six months in the Chilean Army. One family sent their son back to the states, who got caught up in the draft and Vietnam anyway, but the other's parents made him fulfill the sentence in the Chilean army. Maybe that's what the judge should do, offer spoiled rich kids either jail or the army. What do you all think?

[derby378]

7. Don't some American courts still do that, anyway?

They used to - I honestly don't know if that's still practiced, though.

[Cleita]

18. I think they used to do it too, here. It was either

military service or jail, your choice. It seems to me that this is what she needs, some discipline, and being around ordinary people her age who don't have it as good as she does. It's too bad this is a time of war or I would say go for it.

[progdonkey]

11. actually makes sense for that case...

I can see the judge saying, "So, you like blowing things up, eh? You know, I think you'll have a 'blast' in the Army, so to speak. How's that sound?"

But I think it's a bad thing whenever the law tries to "make an example" of celebrities or rich kids by throwing the book at them, because that just gives them an honestly sympathetic argument.
With Paris they just need to treat her like everyone else; no better, no worse. If the response from the Law was basically, "We're going to put you through hell, you rich little bitch!" she'd garner a lot of sympathy, but if she's treated like any other person who's committed the same crime, any bitching and moaning from her about how awful it was would fall on deaf ears. It's more pathetic (and more damaging to their public reputation) when they're treated equally and yet they still scream, "It's not fair!!!!"

[Cleita]

16. I essentially agree with you. She's not a felon just a stupid

rich kid that broke the law and was unrepentant about it like it was a joke.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. Her saying this makes me think that it was Mommy that helped her get out...check

to see if the Sheriff has a new Swiss bank account?

[Bucky]

10. And the fact that the judge reasserted the rule of law here doesn't validate LA justice?

It's not like she actually avoided jail here. She's doing the full gig. Where's the injustice?
.

[derby378]

13. I'm looking at the big picture...

O.J. Simpson, the recent beatings of immigration protesters, the whole Rodney King episode, etc.

[Bucky]

21. I understand where youre coming from

The Simpson and King tragedies were 13 and 15 years ago, respectively. Police beating up peaceful protestors is hardly unique to LA. The city has problems, but really, this is a case where justice got served up piping hot. Yummy even.

[derby378]

22. I'll second that

It does help to convey the impression that celebrities aren't bulletproof after all.

[man4allcats]

12. The fact that she thinks "It's not right!" is exactly

the reason she needs to be there. She's a spoiled little rich brat who thinks the law doesn't apply to her. Actually, it's not surprising she feels that way when one considers not only her upbringing but also the fact that the current incarnation of the executive branch of the American political system is of the same mind and the legislative branch that is supposed to exercise oversight is in fact nothing more than a complicit enabler. After 6 weeks in the cooler, maybe she'll realize that the law does apply to her. It just doesn't apply to Bush.

[BikeWriter]

15. Had * done jail time for driving drunk he might be a man now.

[karlrschneider]

17. Or even a woman maybe!

:D

[BikeWriter]

20. Maybe so, but let's not get too hopeful.

[AndreaCG]

19. You mean driving with a suspended license TWICE

Bartcop, whom I usually agree with, has a metaphoric hardon for Paris, defending her. He pointed out that Michelle Rodriguez only did 4 hours of her 60 day sentence, which I looked up and is true. However, the Smoking Gun didn''t have her sentencing papers, so I doubt her judge put no electronic monitoring like the Paris judge did. And IIRC the Paris judge specifically put that the sentence was not to be commuted from the 23 days (down from 45).

Supposedly the jail where Rodriguez was was overcrowded. Maybe but 4 hours in jail out of 60 days is ridiculous!

She too had a probation violation for drunk driving.

Paris' sentence is appropriate according to the judge's parameters. Michelle's was unconscionable.