Why Paris Deserves To Be In Jail

Paris Hilton, if anything, is a source of bemused amusement; as are her many Hollywood friends, real, fake or imagined. But her attempts to avoid serving jail time really hit a raw nerve among members of the media, which include the bloggerati. Surprisingly, there are some who deem the sentence, a mere 45-days, a tad harsh. I think Captain Ed from Captain’s Quarters blog says it best:

Pardon me for injecting a little conservative thought into all of this, but I have very little sympathy for Ms. Hilton. She has had all of the advantages possible in society, and has shown herself contemptuous to any sense of responsibility. The screaming and crying jag in court only came after she had thrown away her chances to get lenient treatment by lying and evading responsibility for her actions.

Let's not forget why Paris Hilton went to jail. Last January, Hilton got convicted of driving drunk. That killed 18,000 people last year; it's no joke. Hilton didn't have to serve a day in jail for it, either. She got 36 months probation and had her license suspended (in November 2006). She was also ordered into an alcohol education program.

Within a month, she had been arrested twice for driving without a license, and still had not entered the program as ordered. The city prosecuted her for violating her probation and the court order, and convicted her last month. Her defense? She blamed everyone but herself, and even at this last court proceeding, wanted to appear only by telephone. The judge had to order her brought to court.

Paris Hilton is no child. She's twenty-six years old. She has all the money she needs to hire the best lawyers to represent her. For that matter, she had all the money she needed to hire a driver after her license got suspended. Not too many of us have those kinds of resources, but she does, and she decided to flout the law and her probation anyway.

One of the things we can hope for by the end of her jail sentence, I guess, is a very sober Paris Hilton, who will hopefully mend her ways and live a semblance of a normal life, perferably within the confines of the law; and that it serves as an example to others like her.