www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Paris Hilton was released from jail today . . .

. . . is anyone else appalled ?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19091578/

-- John

What a joke. Just more proof that the more $�� you have, the fewer laws apply to you.

Poor wee rich girl - she was being sooooooooooo brave about it - serving her sentence in an ordinary jail. According to what I read over here she could have served it in a paying jail [ far better conditions ] but chose to be like everyone else.

BUT she was allocated a 2 person cell all to her wee misunderstood self.

She was sooooooooooo brave - and now she is out early - like any other normal prisoner

Has she learned her lesson - time will tell

Anyone opening a book ?

Speaking from years in law enforcement and related jobs, this ridiculous move is bound to set a precedent in the justice system and thanks to the lawyers it will be hard to sentence any woman to jail as long as she cries enough. Not to mention the normal in-processing "search' procedures.

Anyone who has had children, nieces, nephews, or worked with teens, and whose heart is not judgemental and/or jealous will remember the old adage that 'but for the grace of God go they'.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has done something stupid in their youth. Most young people don't go to jail for even one hour for those same mistakes and/or stupidities.

I am glad that she is out. She has made some pretty stupid mistakes and bad choices, and although they may not be the exact same mistakes and bad choices, who hasn't made atleast one themselves?

Didn't the Lord say 'he without sin cast the first stone'? I am very careful not to gloat about anyone's misfortunes, because there is a Greek saying that I have seen come true all too many times: 'whatever you criticize in others or their offspring, may happen to you or your offspring'.

Just because she is rich, young and stupid, and a celebrity, and perhaps someone that we just don't like for whatever reason, does not mean that she is not a human being like everyone else. If God has so deemed to bless her and her family with beauty and riches, than who am I to question God?

Sorry--I know this goes against the tide of opinion here, but that is how my conscience guides me.

Alice

I don't see why such things get the attention they do. Paris Hilton, what signifiance does her life have on the public?

She goes to jail, she gets out of jail. This kind of thing happens all the time. We may care, but it's only because of the various assumptions we make about her.

I am glad I don't have to deal with the paparazzi at every hour of the day.

Dear Alice,

I agree with you. Poor Paris! Besides, being Greek, I can't help but admire her beauty. Hey, the Greeks launched a war over Helen, remember?

Love,

Zenovia

If this had happened to a average person you would be serving the time with the general population besides they have a jail ward for those who are "ill", this is sickening...sorry Alice I disagree. Although I am a lawbiding person I've seen justice be twisted due to $$$, my brother worked at Folsom Prison and my wife for the Sheriff's Dept.

Neither affected my son's vacation in the system.

james

Dear John,

Would anyone else have been in jail for what she did? She was only in jail because of who she is.

I think there is a song titled: You are too beautiful... Hmmm! Maybe someone should write a song: You are too rich...

Actually, on a more serious note, she does not seem like a 'hard' person, that could take all that's being thrown at her. If I were her, I would take my money and go to a place where people would not be so obsessed. I don't think she realized that when one gets the publicity that she has been getting these past years, that there is a certain amount of 'hardness' that is usually part and parcel of an ambitious self made person. It usually comes with the territory. I'm sure she's suffering emotionally, not only because of the sentence, but because of the ill deserved hatred and meaness being thrown her way.

She learned her lesson, so I wish the media would leave her alone.

God Bless,

Zenovia

Alice, it's all well and good to be merciful, but this wasn't her first offense.

What happens the next time she's driving drunk and maybe kills or seriously injures someone?

While I agree with Alice regarding the need to forgive as the gospels dictates, those that habitually repeat and then flaunt it in the face of all are ones that have a severe problem and need to be dealt with according to society�s rules. While mercy should be extended, Paris Hilton knowingly repeated her dangerous acts towards others. She had to have known that being confined to jail had to be a possibility.

This person needs help, before she winds up killing or maiming someone and possibly ruining a number of lives, not just her own. I just hope she gets it soon, before it is too late for others and her.

Who is this Ms. Paris Hilton to deserve so many words and attention?

Did she mistake? She must pay. For example, here, if a person is found of police as drank during driving, over a certain alcohol limit, then must stay in jail over 6 months. Life is very precious.

We live in a fallen society, so ugly in many senses. Our hearts are colder than the coldest ice. Life is cheap and who will weep the innocent lost lives? What hearts will cry the lives of the little angels sent to God before the time?

I will keep in prayer Ms. Paris Hilton, may God enlighten her heart and mind, and choose Xristos.

Marian

She did not go to jail for drunk driving...she went to jail for violating the *probation of that offense* by driving with a suspended license.

Drunk driving is a MOST serious offense, and that should have been dealt with more severely perhaps *at the time*, but it was not, and that is not what sent her to jail.

The charge of having a suspended license is one that can happen to anyone for the most innocent of reasons--forgetting to pay a moving violation ticket, or forgetting a court date, for instance.

I can't tell you how many NY city taxi drivers have license suspensions for too many tickets, etc...I have never heard of any of them having to go to jail for it...a hefty fine: yes--jail: never.

Alice

Thank you, sister Alice, for sharing this. Now I understand. However, who is this person, i.e. Ms. Paris Hilton, so that the media makes so much tam-tam?

Here, driving without a license, suspended, is equal to jail, at least 3 months, or a consistent fine, written in the police record.

However, who is this person? And why is she so much watched?

M+

Dear Marian,

Paris Hilton is an heiress to the famous Hilton Hotel family fortune. Her grandfather was the founder of the Hilton hotels. She is young, very rich, very pretty, an actress, model and socialite who likes the party life and celebrity.

American media loves celebrities, and the American people love to follow what they are doing. It is stupid and shallow, and Americans get too carried away with all this nonsense. Celebrities, whether they are rich by birth or rich by occupation, are generally not people who live virtuous lives of any kind. Americans also tend to get too carried away with gossiping about celebrities. It is the same way some Europeans (the English, for instance) love to follow their royalty in magazines, etc.

If you do an American google search on her, there are more than enough photos of her available.

I hope this helps.
Alice

Thank you, Sister Alice,

I googled for photos of her, and...hmmm.

Despite the fact she is rich and she loves a party life and etc., she is a child of God, called to be part of the Kingdom of love and communion. She must become humble in her soul, to think that all will quickly pass, and to look to Xristos. God have mercy upon her life. Amin.

Marian+

Dear Marian,

It would be nice if, in her fears and travails of the recent week, if she would turn to Christ. I don't know if her parents are people of any kind of faith. Throughout all this media frenzy, unfortunately, I have not heard one utterance of God and/or faith.

It is too bad that the judge did not hand down the usual sentence to her of community service, like they do with other celebrities. Working with the sick and poor would have done much good for her soul, I think.

The worst thing about money is that it is a false God and religion, followed by many, (and I have even seen this with many people who have been blessed by this gift and who attend church), because it gives the person a sense of security and faith in IT, and what it can provide, rather than allowing dependence on God and what He can provide. It also gives a false sense of ego and self importance.

Again, as our priests say, money in and of itself is not evil, it is how much you depend on it and how much you love it that is evil, and that is one of the greatest temptations that every single one of us in the Western world faces, laity and even clergy!

May God have mercy on us all!

Alice

over crowding? how convenient.
if she were a twenty five year old working class woman of color,for the same crime, or less, they would let her stay in the pokey, even if she had to be stacked like cordwood on top of nine other prisoners in a two person cell. twenty five is not all that young. my mother, at the age of twenty five was the mother of two young kids, (my sister anf myself) and had just remarried after having to slog through being a single divorced mother with a deadbeat ex who conveniently forgot to send in child support.grow up, lady!
I don't know how the rest of the country saw St.Paris the Martyr, but here in Chattanooga, the anchors on the local news would preface their reports on Hilton with: if any one really cares.......
right you are, Alice, she should turn to Christ (and we need to make sure our calling is sure ourselves, folks). and to show any fairness to Paris Hilton, she is not unique. too many celebs have let fame and fortune go to their heads and we as a nation have idolized these people to the point where it is easy, all too easy, to push the envelope to the max. I am afraid that Paris Hilton will not be the last, but you don't need to be either a rocket scientist or a great mystic to figure that out.
much Love,
Jonn

I know as much about Paris Hilton as I do about most celebrities, which is to say very little, but quite frankly I'd much rather see her turned loose on society than some repeat violent offender.

Lawrence, that is a very good point! If only we would focus as much attention on those rapists and pedophiles that are turned loose, or just slapped on the wrist.

Since our tax dollars pay for each day of incarceration, I rather that Paris would have been forced to help others in months of community service (to learn values, compassion, and how to step out of one's self), then to have the true threats to society, who murder, rape, dismember and mame women and children of ALL races, religions, and socio-economic levels see the light of day.

Lord have mercy!

Sincerely,
Alice

Dear Lawrence,

How true! But we happen to have Al Sharpton and others with their political viewpoints. Don't you know she's white and rich and here she was let out of jail for that horrors of horrors ... driving with a suspended license.

Now in OJ's trial, it was perfectly okay with Sharpton to have him go free, after all it was only murder...and wasn't the wife he murdered white and pretty? And didn't OJ deserve to have the best lawyers in the world get him out of that one, after all he could well afford it. Wasn't he a well known sports figure and therfore a hero!


God Bless,

Zenovia

I wonder if Paris Hilton was told "no" very much as a child.

You mean...the "N" word?!?

she was only realesed beacuse she is famous and has money

According to the latest information over here - the poor wee rich girl was released because she was suffering in jail and they were concerned for her mental well being

Stirkes me that mebbe 2 nights of disturbed sleep in the institution may have helped make her realise how lucky she was - that it was a short sentance.

However she is now in her comfortable home - and many others do not have that opportunity.

I'm tired of all these folk who are Idols with clay feet. May the young folk soon wake up to this.

More info [wtam.com]

According to the AP and the tv network news, the judge ordered Paris Hilton back to jail to serve her sentence.

With that I am going to close this thread. I don't think that this topic has brought out the Christian best in many of us.
Let's pray that she will find strength in Jesus Christ to see her through her sentence, and that she will emerge a young lady with a deeper sense of and appreciation of the responsibility called life.

My prayers for her and for all young people, rich or poor, black or white, that live in these confusing, non-Christian times.

Alice, Moderator