I love justice. I mean, I looooooooooove justice. I honestly believe in justice. I believe in the system and I believe in karma when the system does not work and other times when it does work. I recently heard a list of the most hated people in America. Number one is Casey Anthony. The top ten is rounded out with reality TV stars, fame seekers and some of my favorites, OJ Simpson, Octomom and Paris Hilton. The problem with these folks is that they each embody injustice of some kind.
Last month, Casey Anthony was found not guilty on three of the seven most important counts that she faced. People have asked my opinion about that case quite a bit since it happened. It is an unpopular view and I will admit I didn’t follow the trial very closely, but I think it was the right verdict. There did not seem to be a way to know how Caylee Anthony died and that is the major proof problem. There was no way for the jury to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt of what happened, and that is not enough evidence to send a young woman to jail for life – or death. It could have been an “abuse of a corpse case,” but that is probably a misdemeanor anyway. If the “accidental drowning” story was true, even though all of the stories associated with this case are far-fetched, there is no way the medical examiner could conclude the actual cause of death.
The court of public opinion had clearly decided. My Facebook newsfeed was decidedly enraged by the Casey Anthony verdict. And why not, this woman was out partying like crazy in the month that her toddler was missing. Even so, we are fickle. Casey Anthony was released from jail recently and it was a quiet affair. Now if this had been an episode of Law and Order and if you further believe that Casey Anthony killed her daughter, she would have cracked under the detective’s high stakes, highly emotional interrogation.
“Ok, fine, I did it! Are you happy now? I was sick of Caylee and so I…” insert confession here. And if reality was Law and Order and if Casey Anthony was found not guilty with this kind of evidence, then a Nancy Grace character would have shot and killed her on the courthouse steps. Tot Mom bleeding out, clutching her stomach. Any last words?
“I’m going to meet Caylee now,” she whispers.
“No you’re not, bitch. I’m sendin’ your ass straight to hell.” Fake Nancy Grace fires the kill shot. Television justice is so much faster than regular justice. Instead, we have to wait (without fast forwarding the commercials). Time will tell how horribly the American public treats Casey Anthony and prevents her from reentering society. She may be out of jail, but her life is still going to suck. She will be hard pressed to find a job, a date or a fresh start.
I remember being 14 years old and in ninth grade at the junior high school. They had an assembly where we all got to go to the library, if your teacher allowed it, to see the live reading of OJ verdict on TV. For a later blog post, I’ll discuss how old it made me feel the night Osama Bin Ladin died. I was in a hotel bar and two young guys were overly excited about Bin Ladin’s death. They then explained to the bartender that in sixth grade, the school had an assembly on the morning on September 11 to explain what had just happened to our country and that they had been waiting since they were 12 for Bin Ladin to be caught. Sixth grade? I was in college! Anyhow, back to my flashback of when I was young, not from when I felt old.
When the verdict was announced by, the library erupted. It erupted with cheers because at that age, it was cool for an aging football star to get away with murder. It was cool for the “Juice” to be “loose.” It was cool to laugh at crazy old Ron Goldman and Marcia Clark’s ugly hair. I remember feeling disappointed for a couple of different reasons. First, if my peers thought injustice was cool, then I would never be cool. Second, why are celebrities exempt from the rules but we still have to follow them? Years after OJ began his search of every major golf course for the “real killers,” justice caught up with him. Justice took OJ down hard on that stupid robbery of sports memorabilia thing in Las Vegas. Finally, after 15 years of freedom, OJ is in jail.
Octomom is widely hated by Americans too. What a great story – a struggling mother of 6 decides to have 8 more babies. Why? Not really sure. Is this the beginning of a campy movie? I wish. Maybe she had no idea that you could work at an elementary school or day care or a children’s museum if you love spending time with kids. Then of course, Octomom got all of that weird plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie. How horrible for the U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to have a doppelganger like Octomom rolling around out there. Justice is slow, but she always catches up one way or another. The last laugh for Octomom seems to be that she is now culturally irrelevant. Also, she’s an un-dateable single mother of 14.
Frankly, I was surprised that Paris Hilton made this list. She is really just a rich girl who made a sex tape and is now somehow famous because of this, right? Okay, well that’s enough for us. Paris seems to flaunt her privilege everywhere she goes, and we hate that about her. I’m not exactly sure what makes her worse than the Kardashians, though. Are they just more business savvy? Are they prettier? Are they doing amazing humanitarian work in between each of their reality TV shows? I have to admit, I will take a brunette with curves over a stick-thin blonde any day of the week. In an interesting twist, the late Mr. Kardashian was actually one of OJ’s attorneys and his longtime friend. Here’s his wikipedia entry, which I find fascinating. These Kardashians girls are skating by – maybe they should pump the brakes on the reality shows before they fall out of favor with us.
Paris seems to be the only one in this motley crew of hated Americans that was actually found guilty of a crime the first time around and served jail time on that offense. Justice dinged her with 23 days in jail for a suspended driving license, an offense where most defendants are released on time served. Paris went and pissed the wrong people off. Congrats to that judge for being a hard ass with her and showing her that she does not get a free pass because she is rich and famous.
OJ became America’s sad joke. Will Casey Anthony follow suit? This is the only year when your Casey Anthony Halloween costume will be relevant, so it is now or never. We love the drama of the public demise, especially when it is someone who embodies injustice. But while we love to hate, are we being careful? Did we actually make Octomom famous by being mildly interested in her life and circumstance? And why is Paris still famous? That grainy green sex tape is not that good, trust me – I’m voyeuring for you, for God’s sake!
