# Do Upper-Class Kids Get a Pass From the Cops? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238 "2009-12-06T22:36:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/41 "2009-12-08T16:43:08Z")
In America, your money determines your class. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/42 "2009-12-08T17:58:07Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Look at the OJ Simpson Trail, whether you believe he did it or not, isn’t the issue. Ask yourself, if OJ was regular black guy, working at say, General Motors, and the all the evidence in the case was the same, do you think he’d have gotten off? No his wealth and celebrity helped him to get off. Or you could ask yourself, if Amanda Knox was anybody but a white American college female, would anyone ever know her name, let alone heatedly argue from thousands of miles away about her innocence? The tendency is to focus attention on the court system and law enforcement, but pro-rich leniency exhibited in these arenas is a product of societal bias; it doesn’t arise in a vaccuum. Even in the absence of high priced lawyers, we are willing to give white, affluent people the benefit of the doubt. And I say white because that’s an important variable, too. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/43 "2009-12-08T18:01:33Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > In America, your money determines your class. Well, not entirely, though it’s a big part. I think education plays a pretty huge part. Do people really consider a family living in a trailer park who wins a million dollars to suddenly have changed class? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/44 "2009-12-08T18:19:04Z")
> [@Obsidian](#): > > On top of that, it’s not just some random lawyer Dad calls-- odds are they know and have known the family lawyer. […] Also, I can’t speak for other rich kids, but I remember from the time I was a teenager my Dad drilling it into me that should I ever get arrested, to say _nothing_, and call Eric. Eric would handle it. We’ve drilled that into our kids as well. We put the law firm’s card in my son’s car with similar instructions, but I think we overdid it. When he got his first speeding ticket, he clammed up and insisted on calling the lawyers on the phone. They assured him it was OK to talk to the nice policeman. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/45 "2009-12-09T19:17:13Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, not entirely, though it’s a big part. I think education plays a pretty huge part. Do people really consider a family living in a trailer park who wins a million dollars to suddenly have changed class? If reality shows are any indication, apparently yes. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238/46 "2009-12-09T19:43:16Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, not entirely, though it’s a big part. I think education plays a pretty huge part. Do people really consider a family living in a trailer park who wins a million dollars to suddenly have changed class? Well no, because they won’t still have that million dollars in six months. But if they actually invest it wisely and get into a better situation, then yes, they will have suddenly changed class. You’re right though, education is a huge part of it. Access to resources is another big part of it. We tend to imagine ourselves doing things that are either conceivably within our reach, or else we have wild fantasies that are beyond ludicrous. But the in-between of that, the levers in society that you can pull if you have the cash to get it done, that engenders a different relationship to society than someone who cannot imagine being a consumer of certain products. Things like a lawyer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-upper-class-kids-get-a-pass-from-the-cops/520238.md?page=2)