[QUOTE=George Kaplin]
You’re right. Most ordinary people don’t flout the law as Paris has. But some do. Some people flout the law exactly as Paris has. Some people don’t sign up for the classes, and do drive after having legally promised not to. The question is not “What happens to most ordinary people?” but “What happens to those ordinary people who’ve made the same screw-ups as Paris Hilton?”. Based on what I’ve read and seen during this bizarre feeding frenzy, the answer appears to be “Absolutely fuck all. Doodley squat. Nothing or next to nothing.” I have to agree with Dio, the only reason the judge is being such a hardass is because he’s trying to make a name for himself as the People’s-hero-who-knocked-Paris-Hilton-down-to-size[sup]TM[/sup]
[/QUOTE]
Well for what its worth, I worked with a guy that did not attend the alcohol diversion classes after getting a DUI. Full disclosure I do not know if he did not sign up, or if he signed up and blew them off. He was stopped for a traffic violation. The officers arrested him on the spot (Friday night) and threw his ass in jail until Monday AM when he was brought before a judge. I don’t know how long the judge set the sentence for, but it was over 30 days before he was back to work.
This was in Los Angeles in 1987ish.
So from where I am sitting adding in the effect that groups like MADD has had on DUI sentences, I think 45 days is not overly long for 3 violations of your DUI probation.
Uh, Evil Captor, I do remember being in GD several times supporting you an others, so can you please make that brush you are painting with a little bit small?
[QUOTE=GIGObuster]
Uh, Evil Captor, I do remember being in GD several times supporting you an others, so can you please make that brush you are painting with a little bit small?
Thank you for your attention.
Regards,
Ed.
[/QUOTE]
I’ll be glad to make an exception for you and any others that have debated the REAL issues relating to work and money and class in America, but most of the people in this thread who’ve posted their white-hot hatred of Paris have NOT done so, as you probably know.
And I’d like to add the sickening crew who’ve contributed to the Paris Hilton thread over in Cafe Society to this list, since in Cafe Society I’m not free to directly express my disgust for those peabrained brightnshiny addicts.
The sheriff claims that she was released for medical reasons but in his news conference he stressed that the jails are overcrowed.
The LA Country Sheriff’s department is under orders from a federal court to relieve jail overcrowing. The supervisors are either reluctant or refuse to build more jails. Courts keep sentencing people to jail.
It looks to me like they grabbed any excuse available to release Hilton because she was going to require extra attention to keep her safe and the jail systems staff is already shorthanded.
It’s up to the sheriff to manage his system within the constraints that exist. I think that if overcrowding and personnel shortage is the problem, another inmate there for a misdemeanor could have been found to release. If it really was medical reasons I think it wouldn’t have hurt a bit to talk to the judge first in view of his specific order that there be no work release, house arrest and all that. She didn’t need to be released in the middle of the night without good reason and there appears not to have been that.
The judge was given no adequite documentation at the hearing to convince him that the medical need was severe. Of course he was really pissed which he might not have been if they had waited until morning and consulted him.
I do think making her serve the full 46 days is out of line. She didn’t release herself early, the sheriff’s department did and I can’t see punishing her for it.
I hold no respect for Hilton since I think she is a spoiled brat and a real bitch to boot. However people should be punished for what they do wrong and not for what others do.
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
I dunno, so many of the people in this thread seem to be of the opinion that if the sentence had been for Paris to be disemboweled and let dogs eat her intestines while she watched, they’d be all for it. I mean, the hatred is just surreal, though some try to obscure it with a haze of smarmy righteousness.
Where are you people when I’m over in GD arguing with laissez faire conservatives that the rich as a class are economically fucking over the rest of us, big time? I could use a little bit of that rage against the privileged when some smarmy conservative is saying for the nth time that it doesn’t matter that an unfettered capitalist system, which is what America pretty much is right now, confers all sorts of advantages on the rich as a class, with corresponding disadvantages for the middle class and the poor.
Oh, you can’t be bothered with dull stuff about how your chances of getting medical care are being trashed while the wealthy buy their third vacation homes, or your kids have to go in hock to get an education that you were able to get on scholarships and work-study while the wealthy find new ways to pay little or nothing in the way of taxes, no you can’t be bothered with THAT. But some hare-brained heiress tries to weasel her way out of a DUI conviction and you’re ALL OVER that stuff!
How about putting some of that outrage where it’ll do some good, people? You wanna know what’s wrong with America? Look in a fucking mirror, morons!
[/QUOTE]
Thank god we’ve got you here to remind us of the events that a fair amount of us live with every day. Without you, we’d just continue thinking that we had nothing to worry about.
By the way, keep fighting the good fight. Keep sticking it to the man. Oh wait, you’re not actually sticking it to anyone. You’re posting on a message board, just like the rest of us. “Where are you while I’m posting in GD” indeed. Could you have a more inflated opinion of yourself?
Get this into your head. This is a message board. It doesn’t matter. You aren’t actually changing anything.
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima]
Then again, I’m sure herpes aren’t exactly rare in prisons, so who knows.
[/QUOTE]
Prison herpes eats heiress herpes for lunch.
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
And I’d like to add the sickening crew who’ve contributed to the Paris Hilton thread over in Cafe Society to this list, since in Cafe Society I’m not free to directly express my disgust for those peabrained brightnshiny addicts.
[/QUOTE]
Which thread? There’s three of them that are 3+ pages. And that’s just CS.
[QUOTE=Leaper]
What breaks, if any, is Paris Hilton really getting?
[/QUOTE]
Let’s see…
She could have recieved 90 days for violating probation, she got 45.
She was initially given credit for 22 days due to good behavior.
She was given a private cell and kept out of the general population.
She was given phone access for an hour a day.
She got sent home for medical reasons after 74 hours of an over 550 hour sentance(over 1000 hours before good behavior)
She could have recieved 90 days for violating probation, she got 45.
[/quote]
Most people would have got zero. She’s getting treated worse, not better.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Every expert I’ve heard talk about this on the News channels. Tiurn on the TV.
You’re the one who’s claiming she’s getting special treatment. How about a cite showing that regular stiffs would get 45 days.
[/quote]
Read post #281
WTF are you talking about? Reading the last two posts by kidchameleon he is obviously talking about the other prisoners in the jail. Since you know damn well the other prisoners are not getting private cells and an hour of phone time, you have a problem. The fact that she is getting special treatment pretty much blows your little I stand up for the underdog routine clear out of the water. So you pull your standard patented No habla English trick and pretend to not understand what has been posted. :rolleyes: Nice.
WTF are you talking about? Reading the last two posts by kidchameleon he is obviously talking about the other prisoners in the jail. Since you know damn well the other prisoners are not getting private cells and an hour of phone time, you have a problem. The fact that she is getting special treatment pretty much blows your little I stand up for the underdog routine clear out of the water. So you pull your standard patented No habla English trick and pretend to not understand what has been posted. :rolleyes: Nice.
[/QUOTE]
She shouldn’t have been in jail in the first place so comparing her to other prisoners is bogus. I’m sure she was treated better than people on death row too. So what? The only valid comparison is to other peple who committed the same offenses, not other people in jail.
She could have recieved 90 days for violating probation, she got 45.
She was initially given credit for 22 days due to good behavior.
She was given a private cell and kept out of the general population.
She was given phone access for an hour a day.
She got sent home for medical reasons after 74 hours of an over 550 hour sentance(over 1000 hours before good behavior)
[/QUOTE]
But did you gloss over all the previous posts that explained how an ordinary person who did exactly the same thing that Paris did, generally wouldn’t do ANY TIME AT ALL? So really, how are those “breaks”? You have to compare it to what would normally happen, not the absolute theoretically worst thing that could happen. And I’m guessing they kept her seperated not just to be nice to her, but to cover their own ass by avoiding an incident while she’s in custody.
Say I’m a car dealer, and I normally sell my cars for $1,000 under MSRP. If I sell you a car for $500 under MSRP, I’m not actually giving you a “break”.
[QUOTE=lowbrass]
But did you gloss over all the previous posts that explained how an ordinary person who did exactly the same thing that Paris did, generally wouldn’t do ANY TIME AT ALL? So really, how are those “breaks”? You have to compare it to what would normally happen, not the absolute theoretically worst thing that could happen. And I’m guessing they kept her seperated not just to be nice to her, but to cover their own ass by avoiding an incident while she’s in custody.
[/QUOTE]
Those previous posts cites consisted of “I saw it on tv” and “Turn on your tv.” Funny how that flies now, but if I were to say that I saw the evidence of Iraqi WMD on tv a few years back, I would’ve been laughed off the boards. How quickly the standards of evidence have fallen. :rolleyes:
True story. Coworker of mine got arrested for DUI. Got probation, suspended license, mandatory alcohol classes, had to take random breathalyzer tests. One morning he up and failed his test. Thirty days in prison. The only way he could get released from prison was to get himself into a rehab facility where he could serve the rest of his time. He spent five days in jail and twenty-five in rehab.
There. Now we have proof that people actually do spend time in jail for probation violation.
[QUOTE=Harborwolf]
Thank god we’ve got you here to remind us of the events that a fair amount of us live with every day. Without you, we’d just continue thinking that we had nothing to worry about.
[/quote]
Sorry, but I feel mighty lonely on those GD threads a lot of the time. There ARE Dopers who participate in threads on these issues, but not many of the Dopers in this thread who are pounding on Hilton do. So I think ya kinda NEED reminding. And I’m glad to do it. No need to thank me. I mean, if you guys get so worked up about some pampered socialite pulling strings, or trying to, to avoid jail, it might just behoove you to think about why things are this way and what we should do about it, instead of baying mindlessly for said socialite’s blood.
If posting on a message board were all I did, you’d be right. But it’s not all I do, I’m also in contact with elected officials, people I know and my family about these issues as well. I haven’t solved the problems inherent in capitalism or anything like it, but you know, you don’t have to be Gandhi to advocate peace.
How do you know that? There may be lurkers … in fact, there are certainly MANY lurkers reading this thread … who are reading it and thinking, “Evil Captor has a point. Paris Hilton is unimportant, I really need to think more about why there’s so much inequality between rich and poor in the US.” That would be changing something. A mind, it’s called.