Above The Law

Scenario: I'm driving and you are the passenger. We get pulled over for busted tail light. The officer says he/she smell weed in the car. Dogs are called and we get arrested for having a blunt roach in the ash tray. Our bail is set for $10,000. We bail out go to court a month later and receive 10 years probation, drug classes, community service and $5,000 in fines and restitution.

Scenario: Lindsay Lohan is driving runs a red light smashes into another car. Has a blood alcohol level of 2.8. The officer drives her home, makes her a pot of coffee and tells her to lay low for a few days. She takes a trip to Jamaica buys 2 pounds of weed comes back home and burns down her apartment because she was so high she forgot to turn off the pot of chicken noodle soup she was cooking before she dozed off.

Why is it that celebrities and regular people live under a different set of laws?

The reality of the situation is that for most of the time, sentencing is light, from anything to anger management classes to drug rehab. The worst extreme I have ever seen, initially, was, of course,Martha Stewart from when she was arraigned on charges of insider trading. The most this woman received was five months in a minimum security prison and then five years of house arrest. Did her life become affected by this tragedy? It did not, and she is still making money with her brand at K-Mart, as well as hosting her shows and writing her books, which still bring her in a pretty penny. Example 2: Actor Rip Torn (*MIB,Down Periscope) was arrested last year for public intoxication, where he actually assaulted police officers and shouted at them all the way to the station house. What was his sentence? Paying a fine and then five years probation.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton have special privileges that regular people could only dream of acquiring.

 

How does Lindsay Lohan keep avoiding jail time?

Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, Rob Lowe, Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson. All of these celebrities have met with the criminal court system (*some of them even twice)and they have always managed to find some way of escaping prison time. Should this say something about our system of criminal justice? If celebrities are allowed to simply pay fines to extend their freedom, why is this not being extended to the common man? Is it simply because of the fact that they are well-compensated thespians that please the American public? Is it because they have high-paid lawyers that can win any argument against the best district attorneys?
In my opinion, I think that it may simply be that the court system does not want to make the time to deal with these grotesque mistakes that many celebrities so often make. It causes scandals and news coverage and publicity, which unfortunately is what makes today's society. Perhaps a pledge should be made from the judicial system to show the American public that they can be fair in their practices, and show us that they will always give a fair ruling.
But, the reals sadness to me is that I know that this will take a lot of doing, as celebrity is what makes Hollywood so rich.