Paris Hilton, Victim of Society

Paris Hilton, after serving five (official) days in jail, seems to have tired of playing prisoner there and is now confined to her humble home in West Hollywood.

She condescended to grace the LA County jail system with her presence after attending the MTV music awards last Sunday.

Arrangements with the county legal system had originally been for the hotel heiress to raise the tone of the LA jails for 45 days. This was later reduced to 23 days. Hilton's reason for refusing to prolong her personal appearance in Los Angeles' jails has not been officially proclaimed. Rumors of staph infections or overcrowding have been denied.

Ms. Hilton's visitation at the jail was the result of a conviction for "reckless driving stemming from a Sept. 7 arrest in Hollywood. Police said she appeared intoxicated and failed a field sobriety test. She had a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent, the level at which an adult driver is in violation of the law." (from the AP, May 04, 2007)

The hotel heiress subsequently violated terms of her probation, apparently as a result of following legal advice given by her publicist.

It's hard to take any of this fiasco seriously. I suspect that a commoner who had endangered others while driving in a state of marination would have had a more inconvenient encounter with law enforcement and the judicial system.

Ms. Hilton was released because of an unspecified "medical condition." Why the LA jails' medical services couldn't handle the heiress' complaint wasn't disclosed.

Despite appearances, our betters are almost indistinguishable from the rabble in terms of physiology, and may be evaluated and treated with the same medical procedures.

To be serious, this is disgusting. Whatever the facts, the appearance of this practical joke of a legal procedure is that those with wealth and position are held to a different, and much lower, standard of behavior than the rest of us.

Such preferential treatment is understandable, since we can neither reward nor punish those we deal with as effectively as those with wealth and position. That does not make it right.

In my opinion, separate rules for the wealthy and the riffraff encourages commoners and our betters to hold the law in contempt. That does not tend to encourage socially acceptable behavior.

In the long run, the big loser in this affair is Paris Hilton. Eventually, the shock of being confined to her multi-million-dollar abode, unable to attend award ceremonies and night spots as is her wont, will wear off. When that happens, I'm afraid that the lesson she learns from this will be that she, with the help of her family and vassals, may do as she pleases.

To someone with my beliefs, that state of mind is very bad for a person's interior welfare.