Hollywood. The epitome of the American Dream. The place
where dreams become a reality. Lala Land so they call it. There’s certainly an
air of glamour about the place, it’s an aspirational location for aspiring
talent. And apparently, crimes committed by the Hollywood elite come with a far
lighter slap on the wrist than those committed by the rest of the world.
Matthew Broderick, star of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, took two innocent lives in a car crash in
Northern Ireland in August 1987 in which he claimed he had no recollection of
what happened. He was fined $150 for death by careless driving, which is the
equivalent of £100. So if I do my math correctly I work that out to be valuing
each life he took at £50. No prison sentence, nothing. How on earth can you put
that price on human life? And how can a judge allow him to have gotten off so
lightly? He got the same punishment you would receive for running over cattle.
As far as I am concerned criminal justice should be distributed
justly 100% of the time regardless of a person’s public status. That should not
be a factor in deciding upon the punishment they receive. I am quite frankly tired
of reading about stars that spend 4 hours in a Los Angeles jail only to be
released because of “severe overcrowding”. Overcrowding isn’t a new issue that
has recently hit us. It’s a problem over here in England too, America. Did you
let out the wrongly convicted people at the same time too? If overcrowding is
the biggest problem the criminal justice system faces in not being able to keep
the celebrities in jail, then I suggest they look to expand.
Is it not infuriating to know that you or I would be treated
entirely differently to a Hollywood actor if we were facing punishment for the
same crime? I’d bet my bottom dollar that us mere non-famous mortals would
certainly receive a slight more than a slap on the wrist.
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