Paris, the escapegoat

Petitioning the Gubernator

Some friend of a rich heiress has filed an internet petition to pardon Paris Hilton such that she does not end up in jail for traffic offences that she should be banged up for.

The delusions of grandeur in the petition are mind-blowing when for the reason of birth into great fortune rather than personal achievement she gets compared to President Richard Nixon and her situation is equated to the pardon he received from President Gerald Ford for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

There are many who have not done as much as Miss Hilton who would love to have an iPetition going to the Gubernator, but to be pardoned for driving under the influence with the reckless disregard for public safety by driving lights-out would be a travesty of justice.

This bizarre influence peddling is unseemly, she is only going to spend 45 days jail, if only to help set her priorities right.

Role Model Roll Up

It can only be so laughable that Miss Hilton is painted as a role model who “provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives.”

I cannot imagine the excitement of having Miss Hilton, off our screens, out of the news, starving the gossip columns, inaccessible to the paparazzi and incommunicado for 45 days, hardly mundane.

Indeed, many would love to have a rich daddy, I am not sure of the many who would want to film their sexual proclivities have that broadcast to the whole world via the Internet.

One must say though, that the position of being a role model does complicate the plea for mercy; do we allow role models to break the law with impunity, allow them to get away with it through surreptitious influence peddling and then see their protégés behave themselves?

I think not.

The effrontery

Now, this is what grates me, she is caught drink-driving, she has her licence suspended, she accepts that she should not be driving when caught the first time and then repeats the offence of driving without a licence and now, with her lights off in the dark – this, her friend says is an honest mistake in the same light as the involvement of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

It leaves me breathless with disbelief; the machinations of a remorseless, unrepentant, hypocritical and pretentious bashful rich girl – who is now trying to worm her way out of the consequences of well-balanced legal process on which she must have expended the best legal minds with the premise of being a scapegoat.

An escapegoat

You do not make scapegoats of people who have deliberately broken the law; they should by all means receive just review within the legal system and make do with the results, Miss Hilton is no scapegoat, but she is trying to be an escape goat. No doubt, this would be appealed to the nth degree.

Miss Hilton backs this petition, but she is of the great fortune that I am not the bench in a full-bottomed wig doubling the sentence and ensuring that she is well taken care of in Prisoner: Cell Block H - You are going down!. Time to file my own petition; keep her in there to the very last second.

Gaol Couture by Paris

One gets driven

Aspects of my upbringing except me from driving such that if opportunity does come to own a car, it would most likely be one that comes standard with a chauffeur, choices are few and that costs a lot of money.

Thankfully, one has had no need to play a lottery of one of three pedals and shift the gears such that the car remains stationary at an intersection before lurching forward into the grand dame's car in front; one is satisfied with the mix of metro, tram, train, taxi and air travel services around Europe.

As it stands, I cannot be caught for driving under the influence and I have never been done for any traffic infringement - even in Amsterdam, when on my bicycle I stop at the lights and always have lights on from dusk.

The drunken roads to prison

Roads are a very public place - moot point - there is a civic responsibility incumbent on being a road user, soberness, alertness, consideration and patience but many seem to get away with the mindless use of a mobile phone whiles in traffic having had a drink or two with utter disregard for the safety of both themselves and others - if caught, such people should have visited upon them, the full weight of the law.

In some lands, the penalties include license endorsements/suspension, hefty fines or imprisonment, some culprits attract all that as we read of a hotel heiress who having been caught drunk in charge of a vehicle and put on probation with a license suspension then was done for speeding and driving at speed with her lights off.

You must walk this way

It is now the accepted rite of passage for rich young people to find happiness in a pill downed with copious amounts of alcohol as their lascivious existence becomes the livelihood of the paparazzi and scoop chasers some of whom they engaged to rise to fame in the hedonistic rags called glossy celebrity magazines.

A fast car, a few expensive drugs and the immediacy of sex almost always involves rehab, a brush with the law, a day or two in court and the fashionable sojourn at the pleasure of the government of the day, somehow, daddy can no more pay the price of keeping the whole sorry tale out of the public domain anymore.

New careers for others

Upon that, you find the feeders, public prosecutors in the guise of doing their job, redoubling efforts to ensure that the privileged do not escape the letter of the law or dare I say, the opportunity to embellish the résumé with - "I put a rich kid in jail" with the flurry and the gamut of press interest and photo opportunities that would enhance the career of any ambulance chaser.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Hilton is being treated the same as anyone else, indeed, your village rag might just summon the front-page headline - Rocky ride for Paris, they might even improve on it; our boy has done well. This is just speculation, Rocky is beyond reproach, he is only doing his job.

Is this news?

My news spectrum has been invaded with news of a rich nonentity going to jail for flouting her probation, it happens everyday, so why is this taking over the headlines?

Paris Hilton would be making an appearance at the Los Angeles Country jail where she would be rehabilitated for 45 days, paying her dues to community in protected custody for her safety - read solitary confinement - reserved for special cases.

Crime does pay

Contrast this with the other celebrity who had to do 5 days community service with the sanitary department in New York - Naomi Campbell - she made her appearances a stunning fashion show by clothes-horsing over £236,000 of couture, it was a mockery of the whole crime and punishment model (excuse the pun).

Naomi Campbell on Day 1 to Day 4 appearing for community service.

© The New York Times - Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency (Monday); Bryan Gedder/Getty Images (Tuesday and Wednesday); Lucas Jackson/Reuters

You only have to view this on the Crime Does Pay slideshow in the Telegraph. Ms Hilton might not be afforded a Dolce & Gabbana couture evening gown worth about £50,000 as part of her prison wear but she can at the end of her visit put her hand to a new venture - Gaol Couture by Paris - it would be a sure hit, youth fashion today is no better than what you will find worn in prison, anyhow.

Naomi Campbell on Day 5

© Reuters - The Daily Telegraph