Some time ago here, I advocated the view here that people who drive under the influence of alcohol should be tossed behind bars with a lot more frequency than they are. I still believe that, though I must admit the whole Paris Hilton matter has given me a bit of pause. The other day, the Head Sheriff (or whatever his title is) said that she wound up in the hoosegow because of her "celebrity status," not in spite of it; that a "nobody" caught doing what she did would not have had to settle in behind bars. This article in the L.A. Times would seem to bear that out.
Which causes me to refine my attitude a bit, not so much about drunk drivers but about her. I think anyone caught behind the wheel with serious alcohol in their system should be in jail and I don't buy the idea that we can't do that because of overcrowded jails and courts. Stop locking up people for possession of marijuana or similar substances and make room for the drunk drivers. Let out all the folks who have been shown via DNA testing to not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted. Between those two moves, you oughta clear out a lot of cells. Then treat everyone, famous or not, the same way.
The same part of me that feels unease when people cheer a Death Penalty execution in this country is uneasy at all the schadenfreude out there about Paris Hilton's pain. Both may be necessary for society to function but I don't think someone's death or pain is ever a good reason to party, and I'm really uncomfortable about the slipshod court system. I also wonder how many people cheering Ms. Hilton's ordeal know or even care why she's in the slammer. If the 'net and cable news channels are extracting a representative sampling, most people seem to believe she was convicted on three counts of being a rich, stuck-up bitch, two counts of being stupid and five counts of getting to be more famous than she deserved.
Which is a shame. The one positive thing that might come out of all this is if people realize that if you get caught driving while intoxicated and then you lose your license and persist in operating a motor vehicle, that could happen to you. I don't see anyone making that connection. They're too busy savoring the fact that someone who is richer than they are, more famous than they are and probably more attractive than they are is in agony.