Sunday, August 8, 2010

I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying

Hypothetical situation to think about.  Suppose black male no older than about 25 from the inner city goes out and gets drunk every night with his older friends.  Not only does he get drunk, he also takes a lot of drugs (prescription and illegal) and abuses them.  Through his teen years, before the age of 21, he gets into numerous car accidents.  Sometimes he flees the scene because he was drunk at the time.  When he does get caught, he simply goes to a nice facility that emphasizes comfort over personal responsibility for rehabilitation.  The one time that this man does get put in jail, he stays for less than an hour and a half.  Of course, after he gets out of rehab, he is often seen drinking and doing drugs.  He's been sent to the same rehab facility multiple times, but he still drinks.  The one time that he does get a sentence, it's just probation.  Can't drink or do any drugs or break any laws whatsoever or he'd end up in jail.  He's been caught drinking and driving multiple times after the probation is set.  When it's time for him to see the judge for violating probation, he comes in late and dressed inappropriately for someone who is trying to avoid jail.  He only gets a little more probation added on.  He is later ordered to wear an ankle bracelet that monitors his alcohol consumption.  He complains that the bracelet doesn't go well with his new sneakers he got on sale at Foot Locker.  He then violates probation again when the bracelet signals that he had consumed alcohol.  Finally, after all the drinking, drug abuse, and probation violations come to a head in court, he is sentenced to 90 days in jail.  He only serves 14 days.  Sounds pretty sad, eh? 

We all have seen this story unfold.  Except replace the black male from the inner city with a Caucasian female movie star.  Look, we've all seen the Lindsay Lohan saga play out.  We all agree, well all but the famous people and her immediate family, that her life story is a travesty of justice.  The government tells us to have faith in the system.  Have faith in justice, it will prevail.  The fact of the matter is, it doesn't.  If you have money, a pretty face, and a Hollywood resume, you can pretty much beat the justice system and go right back to the junk that they've been doing.  I wanted to say another word, but young kids read this. 

Look at Charlie Sheen.  He's shot his fiancee, bought sex multiple times, overdosed on drugs, and attacked various women in his life physically.  All he got was a slap on the wrist for all those things.  I don't know what's worse, all these famous people avoiding true justice or the trumped up punishment that inner city kids get for minor crimes.  God forbid, if I ever get into a criminal situation, I will just bring up all these cases and ask for leniency.  Before you get up in arms, I will say for the record that R. Kelly and O.J. Simpson avoided jail and justice for their heinous crimes.  However there is one difference, their peers declared them not guilty.  I wonder what the verdict would have been if there was no jury.

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