Lest we forget that the Jusice System sucks…
Yes, it is true, they made Paris go back:
Judge Orders Paris Hilton Back to Jail
Jun 8, 3:03 PM ESTThe Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Paris Hilton was taken from a courtroom screaming and crying Friday, seconds after a judge ordered her returned to jail to serve out her entire 45-day sentence for a parole violation in a reckless driving case.
“It’s not right!” shouted the weeping Hilton. “Mom!” she called out to her mother in the audience.
MAMANO!!! Please pardon me while I laugh my ass off at this. Join with me:
(mod courtesy of digital_femme)
Yes, yes. I’m very mean. How can you not feel sad for this poor white girl?
Oh wait, here’s how to avoid feeling sad:
On September 24, 2004, 27-year-old Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a Washington, D.C., jail. Magbie, a quadriplegic since a drunk driving accident at the age of 4, was a first-time offender.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin defied a presentencing recommendation that Magbie be given a term of probation — a sentence that even the prosecutor found acceptable.
Retchin imposed the sentence because she didn’t like Magbie’s attitude, and the car in which Magbie was riding when apprehended had a loaded gun and cocaine. Magbie had told Retchin that marijuana made him feel better and that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with using it.
A miscommunication between jail, hospital, and court officials gave Retchin the impression that the D.C. jail could handle Magbie’s medical needs — primarily, a near-constant need for ventilation to help him breathe. In fact, the jail could not accommodate him, but by the time Magbie reached a hospital, he was dead.
(Source via blackfolk)
Care to guess what color Mr. Magbie’s skin was?
Yep.
I’m so proud to be an American.
YES! YES! YES! Sometimes the system works. And the fact that she was crying and sreaming just makes it better. Will she ever get it that she’s no better than the rest of us? Probably not, but at least she had this experience.
I actually laughed when I saw the pictures then quickly thought I should feel bad for laughing- then I read the rest of your post. Thank you for that!
Ah, karma strikes again for the #1 argument for confiscatory taxation. Thanks for the contrasting story as well.
Listening to it on the radio was hysterical. The BBC presenter was having trouble keeping a smirk out of her voice. But we have more than our own history of open prisons for rich white men with “heart conditions” [lack of, perhaps].
Thank you for this – I’ve had a feeling that I had something to say but I didn’t know what. You said it better than I ever could. Real people die in jail because they are sick. Real people with mental health problems get worse in jail.
I think people defend her because they relate to her – they too would be horrified at being locked up with “them”.
I’ve been following this story with almost obsessive attention, really embarrassing myself privately and unable to figure out if I was being sick or what. Your boldness (and the contrasting story) has released me to post on my blog about this, too. I feel sorry (on some level) for anyone who is pushed to the point of freaking slap out in public. While viewing the photo of her in the cop car, however, I can’t help but think about all the people of color — children, even — in the back of cop cars right this minute who are crying in their hearts and there ain’t no pictures of them all over the mass media.
Oh, yeah. And I’m linking to this.
I was so glad they made her go back.
Yeah, I was very relieved when I read this. I couldn’t believe they were going to let her “do time” at home.
Remember the song “Happy Happy! Joy Joy!” from Ren and Stimpy?
Altogher now!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Happy Happy Happy Happy!
Happy Happy Happy Happy!
Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy! :D :D
thank you for putting this in perspective and yeah, i went out and got drunk to celebrate Paris lost freedom.
I had a designated driver too.
She had a nervous breakdown because she can’t function when she has to be treated like a functioning member of society who is held accountable for her actions and choices.
My hope is that a DJ somewhere will remix her screams of It’s not right (which I think she yelled because she believed that her family making donations to Sheriff Lee Baca would help her get away with breaking the law) into a really hot techno track.
Love your blog!
I make a point of refusing to acknowledge the existence of Paris Hilton whenever possible, but tonight I’ll make an exception.
HA!
I normally try to avoid all things Paris as well, but after reading your post, my alter-ego, Evilbel, has decided to re-read the article at least once a day for a while.
My cold, hard, little heart took an uncharitable amount of joy in the fact that not only did she have to go back, but she cried about it.
As a person of faith, I know I shouldn’t take joy in another person’s suffering, but it’s about freakin’ time that being rich and white doesn’t give you a license to break the law with impunity!
As a person of color, I knew that Mr. Magbie had to be a POC, otherwise, he likely wouldn’t even have had to serve any time at all for a first offense, as his daddy’s lawyer would have either had it all taken care of, or would have shown the court what a fine, upstanding young man he was and that he had simply committed a youthful indiscretion. Conviction rates for whites and non-whites differ sharply, even when the drugs involved are so different/more potent (marijuana for non-whites, cocaine for whites).
I’m deliberately unfamiliar with Paris Hilton so that part of the post doesn’t really do anything for me
…but that kind of negligence just blows my mind. What in the nine hells were they thinking?! I hope they’ve made proper reparations to his family, and if they haven’t — I guess they can be glad I’m not a mortal incarnation of karma.
May I link this post on Alas? (Don’t want to if you’re planning to.)
This post reminds me of a Tim Wise talk in which he pointed out that Lee Iacoca was/is a murderer as he is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of the Pinto which execs. knew would result in a certain number of explosions but it was calculated that it was cheaper not to fix the problem but make payouts later. Paris’ actions did not come close to this. She got a DUI and some further driving related offenses. If u dont know, DUI’s are about the only thing that white middle class folks need to worry about from the criminal injustice system. White super-rich folks like Paris Hilton can usually avoid this, but this time it didn’t happen. So she now has to face class humiliation by suffering the same consequences of the predominantly white priveleged folks in their twenties who emulate Paris/Lilo/Britney etc. by “partying” in obscene excess.
I guess I have a problem with cheering the incarceration of others even if it is a child of immense privilege. Its like saying that some people are deserving of rape/torture/enslavement. Isn’t this glee over her arrest predicated on an understanding of incarceration as humiliating and inhumane? It reminds me of that bandwagon everyone can jump on against so-called violent sexual predators, but when it is clear that systematic child rape is happening by U$ soldiers and private mercenaries in Iraq the high moral consensus is silent. If Paris is an acceptable punching bag for those of us on the other side of the class line, then it is not such a stretch to accept another recent dichotomy: Rutgers black women = good / NC rape accuser = bad. All of this is easy to swallow because the power equation is plain in the Paris instance, but is not mentioned in the second instance (i.e. who profits from NCAA games, who gets into college, who will entertain our privileged white collegiate athletes, etc.) If Humiliation and Incarceration are the devices that give us victory and a sense of well-being then perhaps we should reexamine the goals of the beloved community.
Commiesmurf that’s an interesting point.
I’ve also been feeling kind of ill that I commented on the Hilton case but I didn’t mention the awful injustice of the Magbie case. A guy who basically didn’t do anything, dying because a judge didn’t like his attitude.
commiesmurf,
I don’t think this has anything to do with craving a sense of victory over class privilege (if that’s what you’re saying — if not, please clarify). I think it has to do with wanting to see wealthy people treated the same as the rest of us when it comes to criminal justice. So often wealthy people get away with horrible, heinous acts — you mention Lee Iacocca, and he’s a great case in point. He *should* have been charged with murder, yet I’m sure his own wealth and that of the company protected him. That kind of thing fills me with rage, as it does many others. So it’s not exactly surprising that when the justice system *does* catch one of these people, even if it’s for a relatively minor offense, people like me cheer. It makes us feel that the system isn’t completely broken; it’s not a rubber stamp. That may be a naive belief — I think the system *is* broken — but it’s nice to think otherwise, at least for a little while.
I don’t get your comparison between the Rutgers women and the NC rape accuser. These women were the victims of crime (I’m still not convinced something didn’t happen to the NC girl), not the perpetrators; *all* of them got vilified by the press, quite frankly. I never saw the Rutgers women painted as good, other than at the press conference they called themselves. So what do they have to do with anything?
I’m also pretty sure Paris isn’t in with the general population in jail, so I highly doubt she’s being subjected to the same suffering that ordinary people endure there. And she *should* endure that suffering — lest we forget, she wasn’t jailed for jaywalking or tax evasion, but for drunk driving. AFAIC, drunk driving is attempted murder of everyone in the driver’s path. It needs to be treated seriously or no one will take it seriously. Not that this is a serious sentence, IMO — she wasn’t even going to serve the whole 45 days anyway because that state gives half time for good behavior. 20-something days in jail for attempted murder? No, I’m sorry, she gets no compassion from me whatsoever.
I’m curious about the intersection of race and class in people’s reactions here: Would a poor young woman of any race with alchohol problems be pitied? Would people gloat if Hilton was the same in every way, a rich young woman with alcohol problems, but black instead of white?
Nora, there’s another example to consider when looking at wealth privilege in the US: OJ Simpson, for whom the system worked as it was designed to. I found an interesting article once comparing his case to a number of low-profile case involving poor whites in comparable circumstances: they were all convicted quickly.
I’m curious about the intersection of race and class in people’s reactions here: Would a poor young woman of any race with alchohol problems be pitied? Would people gloat if Hilton was the same in every way, a rich young woman with alcohol problems, but black instead of white?
If Paris were a poor, not-white woman, I would have been surprised she got only 45 days for drunk driving. And yes, if she was released after 3 days, I would be glad she was made to return to her sentance.
There’s an interesting article about her at the World Socialist Web Site: here. The campaign to keep Paris Hilton in jail: nothing healthy about it.
This bit seems particularly relevant:
>>Geragos pointed out that due to the horrific overcrowding in Los Angeles County jails, many non-violent offenders are released early—some 200,000 in recent years, according to an item on CBS News.
>>“In fact,” Geragos noted, “she did about double to triple what anybody else would have done … I’ve had one [client] within the last week who literally turned themselves in, took the bus ride and were released right from county jail onto the electronic monitoring and then was released from that in six days … So when people say Paris was getting special treatment, I say, yes. She got double or triple what everybody else in LA County gets.”
this is a case where being rich and white acutally helped her go to jail. I could really care less if she went or not, its not like she is going to live like the rest of the general population anyway.
Oops, I goofed up the link to the Hilton article:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/hilt-j09.shtml
OMG-OMG I almost cried reading about the young man dying.
Unbelieveable.
Paris, she’ll be fine, she’ll get out do the talk show circuit, write a book and go on actng as she always has. We can only pray she doesn’t maim or kill someone in the future.
Personally I was sick of her a long time ago.
Look out Nicole Ritchie you’re next.
Us working class white girls are laughing our ass off also.
Will,
Would people gloat if Hilton was the same in every way, a rich young woman with alcohol problems, but black instead of white?
If Paris was poor, or nonwhite, I highly doubt that she would be in the public spotlight to the same degree as she is. She doesn’t *do* anything; she’s famous for being famous. That only happened because the media in this country fetishizes white women, especially blonde wealthy ones who act like morons, and Paris is a quintessential media creation. So no, people wouldn’t gloat the same way if Paris was black, because the media would have ignored her and damn few people would know she even existed.
And then there’s her fandom. Race and class is an inextricable part of Paris’ current “popularity”. I’ve repeatedly heard that Paris’ popularity is rooted in the fact that hordes of young women and teenagers identify with and fantasize about being her. Contrast her with Nicole Richie — both come from similar environments, both wealthy, even stars of the same TV show. Yet Paris is hot shit and Nicole’s almost a footnote. Where’s the difference? Talent? Body mass index? The sex tape maybe… but I also notice Nicole identifies as black. In this country, not a lot of young women want to identify with that.
On top of that, Paris has shown herself to be both a classist (reference any episode of “The Simple Life”) and a racist. So I think it’s understandable that the people she’s bitchslapped with her ugly, ignorant behavior would feel some extra glee at seeing her suffer. (That would pretty much include anyone who’s not a “pretty” white socialite.) I can’t help but feel that she brought it on herself.
Nora, there’s another example to consider when looking at wealth privilege in the US: OJ Simpson, for whom the system worked as it was designed to. I found an interesting article once comparing his case to a number of low-profile case involving poor whites in comparable circumstances: they were all convicted quickly.
Could you cite this article?
I’m curious as to where you found it, because statistically it makes little sense to equate the justice of the poor with the justice of the wealthy. There are too many factors conflated in the issue — class privilege certainly, but also resources (the ability to afford a kickass lawyer who can drag the case out forever), type of wealth (the ability to *wait* forever, sans income, while the case is dragged out), connections, publicity, etc. as well. And comparing OJ against poor whites is a red herring — I’m sure you’d have the same results if you compared him against poor blacks, poor Latinos, etc. So it sounds like whoever did that study had an agenda — maybe trying to prove more “reverse racism” or something.
However, if you compare OJ’s case against those of other wealthy white men accused of horrific crimes then you’ve got a basis for real comparison. These are OJ’s peers, after all, if you take the class-is-everything view. And I can’t help but wonder: how many of those men were vilified by the press to the same degree that OJ has been? How many *were* able to eventually publish books, or otherwise profit from their crime? How many were even prosecuted in the first place?
This is not to defend OJ. I don’t know if he did it or not, and to be honest I don’t care. But I know that in the immediate aftermath of OJ’s acquittal, I heard an awful lot of absolute fury from white people who wondered how the system had gone wrong. You think the system worked as it was designed to because OJ was rich? A whole lot of your fellow Americans thought it failed — because OJ was black.
Nora,
First off, this is my first time posting here and I appreciate you responding and I thank ABW for her fantastic blog.
Okay. Tim Wise’s point about Lee Iacoca is that crime is a social and political construct. Lee Iacoca didn’t escape prosecution because he personally is wealthy (like Paris). He is not on death row because the law requires corporations to maximize their profit and market share. Tim Wise’s point is that it wasn’t even considered that Lee Iacoca face criminal charges. So I was suggesting we should rejoice when the real criminals face justice. But you would agree with that I’m sure.
Nora said:
it has to do with wanting to see wealthy people treated the same as the rest of us when it comes to criminal justice
That brings me to my second point. With this statement and others you make clear that Paris should be punished just like everyone else. But does that mean we want the same treatment for Paris that J. Magbie received? When I wrote: “Its like saying that some people are deserving of rape/torture/enslavement” I should have been more direct. Prisons are places where rape, torture and slavery (see 13th ammendment) are institutionalized. And for this particular argument I don’t think it matters how light or harsh Paris’ treatment is. The justice system (cops/courts/prisons) is designed and was invented to control poor people. Enslaved Africans found themselves below poor people, a criminal class. So it is not a grandiose statement to say that the purpose of the justice system is genocide against poor people and people of color predominantly, and Black men in particular. How can we cheer this same institution when it delivers its peculiar justice on anyone…
Nora said:
don’t get your comparison between the Rutgers women and the NC rape accuser.
With Paris v. Iacoca and then domestic sexual predators v. systematic child rape in war zones I was trying to make the point that we (the U$ public) can hate Paris and child abusers because it is safer than talking about (let alone organizing against) Iacoca and all manner of institutionalized mental and physical trauma being inflicted on all people (though not equally) in Iraq and Afghanistan. I feel the media when they weren’t blaming rap music were basically agreeing with Snoop Dogg. These women are higher in the class hierarchy than “real” hos like the NC accuser and that is why Imus had to go. Black women who assimilate to a class standard and image deemed acceptable by a white supremacist mainstream media will be able to hold a press conference and ask for redress. The NC accuser was called a ho on syndicated media before, during, and particularly after the Imus affair. Michael Eric Dyson made this point on a recent Charlie Rose (MED and Patricia J. Williams on the same show!) http://www.charlierose.com/search?q=michael+eric+dyson&searchTopic=-1&searchFromMonth=MM&searchFromDay=DD&searchFromYear=YY&searchToMonth=MM&searchToDay=DD&searchToYear=YY&searchFilter=michael+eric+dyson&searchType=guest
so the connection is that we settle for Paris’ humiliation in lieu of holding Iacoca responsible and we accept a class caveat on hate speech instead of an honest assessment of the white supremacist dominant media that continues to profit off hate speech…
p.s. I really don’t mean to rain on anyone’s good feelings, but I find that when I am feeling powerless I imagine myself commiting acts of violence against certain people or institutions. My targets would probably be applauded on this blog, but I remember being a 12 year old white boy growing up in North Orange County (same privilege, but further from the beach)
during the 92 LA Rebellion. I remember DARE and the public school system constructing what a gang member dressed like, what a gang member looked like…I had empowering thoughts of violence against the deserving back then too. It was unhealthy then and I imagine it is today as well.
I was almost sick when I heard she got sent home early- and positively geeked when I heard the judge had gotten pissed and sent her back to jail. Whether or not non-violent offenders in that county frequently get off early, I believe two things are true:
1)All of us, whatever color our skin is, need to have faith in the justice system, and none (few?) of us do. We all know that having money will buy you out of trouble, and having white skin doesn’t hurt either. It is healing for us to hear that the money and the whiteness didn’t prevent her from doing the time that she earned. Call it schadenfreude if you want to, but I think it’s a little more than that.
2)The girl needs to experience negative consequences for her actions. Her parents obviously never gave her any. She is not going to be raped or beaten in jail- she’s going to be protected and served- but it’s obvious she feels as though she’s being punished, so maybe a breakthrough will be had. I hope the judges who sit for her friends are equally fierce, and they all learn lessons.
The thing that really worries me? What if her money buys an even more clever lawyer, or the influence of someone above the judge, and she gets a second reprieve? I do believe all hell will break loose.
Dammit. I posted this long-ass response this afternoon, and the internet ate it.
Anyway, commiesmurf, I can’t claim to swim in the currents of political theory that you obviously can; I can only speak from my feelings. And those feelings are, hell yes, Paris should suffer the same as Magbie did. Maybe if rich white women got treated like shit too, the public consensus on criminal justice would shift away from “bury them in jail ’til they die” or “let them suffer repeated anal rape in punishment of their sins” to something more humane. You’ve put your finger on it; as long as the justice system disproportionately punishes the poor and people of color and others deemed “lesser” human beings, it will never reform. So since reforming the system seems to be impossible, I think we should apply that system with equal horror to all. Just break it all the way, and let *everyone* see how nightmarish it is. Maybe then we’ll be more willing to fit the punishment to the crime, and apply a standard of actual fairness.
And yeah, it probably isn’t healthy that I honestly want Paris, and any other overprivileged assholes like her, to suffer. But the consequence of an unhealthy justice system is the development of some unhealthy attitudes in the populace that the system is supposed to serve. I’m not sure how anyone’s supposed to maintain healthy detachment and compassion after hearing so many stories like Magbie’s.
As for the Rutgers and NC women… wow. Interesting to see how others perceive it. Allow me to point out that Imus and other talk show types have called black women (and black men, and Latin@s, and GLBTs, and so on) all manner of crap over the years. Hell, in the same broadcast as the “nappy-headed hos” comment, he called them jigaboos. But nobody in the media had a problem with that. This is what leads me to believe that it wasn’t the racial part of the slur that got Imus fired, it was the gendered part — the “ho”. This got *white* women up in arms. This in turn made it a “universal” issue, worth their time and attention, and this is what drew so much media to the issue. If the white women hadn’t gotten on board, well… I believe Imus would still have a job today. Why wouldn’t he? Nobody fired him all the other times he made blatantly racist jokes.
So I don’t see that the Rutgers women got much better treatment than the NC State girl. They were both *treated* like hos, even if the former got a backhanded apology and the latter is still being vilified. None of this is anything new for black women.
hey Nora, I rescued your comment from the spam filter. If you ever have a comment that disappears for no apparent reason, drop me a note in email. It probably just got moderated/spam caught.
Here’s another link for Paris dissing black people, as well as gays, poor people and people who go to public schools.
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?temnum=6590
Just type in search term “Paris uses N word”
ABW,
Whoops — that’s what I get for not visiting the site for a few days. Please do post that comment; I thought it was lost forever. =)
First off – Great blog ABW! That is so very sad. My son in law was pulled over for driving while black with a white girl in the car. The cop actually asked my daughter if she was ok and had she been taken by force! She was so angry and jumped all over the cop, that he took them both to jail! South Carolina’s finest? Of course they dropped everything when she saw the judge and had a civil rights attourney with her. I KNOW this would not have happened if he were white.
Paris Hilton is a nobody and if we just ignore her maybe she will go away.
“Paris Hilton is a nobody and if we just ignore her maybe she will go away.”
Well said.
I’ll give you all even more ammo it really fries my eggs that those very SAME people in the media who let NO time pass in making hateful,snide,negative,mean-sprited comments about Whitney Houston will turn right around and say let’s feel ‘sorry’ for these sleazy white ‘hoes’ such as Anna Nicole,Lindsay got some blo,model Kate Moss,Brittany off the deep end and now slutbag Paris of the famous ‘sex tape’. And I LOVE how white people try to point to O.J. as now the justice system being ‘even’ oh really first of all what in the HELL does this have to do with Paris Hilton second was everything ‘even’ when all Charles Stuart and countless other white people like Susan Smith had to say was ‘a black man did it’ America’s favortie tag line apparently. Or when this was Robert Blake and Robert Chambers walking out a sfree men I don’t remember much ‘outrage’ then certainly not from king phony Geradlo who obviously has NONE when he goes to blither blather for the 9,000th time with lowlife Charles Manson[guess the ratings calmed him down]. Furthemore all the white male serial killers who not only DON’T get vilified by the racist hypocrites,and you know how I KNOW they are because they get angry and defensive when I bring up their utter and complete silence when it’s white males,but are treated as pop culture icons and romancitized by the exact SAME media that whined like CRAZY after O.J. as if this is the FIRST time justice has went awry for them maybe. Or the ‘wiseguy’ mob lackeys and denizens who are glorified in numerous mob movies AND on popular tv show “The Sopranos” and don’t EVEN get me started on the glory days of old with the family picnic/barbecue/lynchings bring the ‘kiddies’ too. So forgive me if one no-talent[except on home video]slut has to face the consequences of her actions like all those folks of color[minus one]who have to endure that and worse most of whom were innocent or does Mr. Simpson represent them too?!!
I don’t give a crap about Paris.
But my god, that second story…
words fail.
fuck.
Does anybody think Paris will learn anything from this experience?
Marla, yes, I think she will spend more money on legal defense earlier in the process next time. Make sure it gets in front of a friendlier judge. That sort of thing.
Word.
(And the fact that I am in your masthead tickles me greatly. I feel like a celebrity!!)
won’t be losing to much sleep tonight lol
Speaking of the justice system, if anyone is interested, here is a link to a petition on the Jena Six cases:
http://www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html
O.k. Get the fuck over it! What in the hell does her being white have to do with anything? What if Biance’ went to jail crying? Let me tell you something, I am WHITE, poor and angry. You have no idea what this girl is going through. You can have all of the money in the world and still be fucking miserable. It doesnt matter what you have materially, it matters spiritually. You all sound like fools.
Hi Rose, thanks for commenting. You ask what does her being white have to do with anything? Well, it has to do with the fact that most of the time white get different, lighter sentences than blacks. therefore it’s always frustrating to see white people getting away with stuff and satisfying when they don’t. More to the point, it’s about her being white and rich and STILL having to go to jail. Paris is a walking poster girl for white privilege. She makes all white people look bad. You should be ashamed to have such a specimen in your race. It’s doubly satisfying to see someone with the money to buy their way out of jail sent back where they belong. And she does belong there, criminal that she is.
Also, I find it funny that you feel the need to throw your own financial situation in your comment. is that supposed to be some kind of shield to protect you from me saying “No honey, YOU get over it”? So what if you’re poor? What bearing does that have on this conversation?
Hello Ms. Angry Black Woman, I thought that I might add this post to the disussion. Firstly, it may add additional perspective to Rose as to what Paris might be going through. But much more importantly, please tell Larry King what’s up and spread the word. http://killbigotry.blogspot.com/2007/07/larry-king-meet-byron-halsey.html
I would also tell Rose that both Hilton’s economic AND white privilege are reasons that her 23 ordeal gets a national audience, but Byron Halsey could serve 19 years for a crime that he didn’t commit and fight for airtime. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture?