American Dollar > Morality & Law

Yup, it's official. You can do whatever the hell you want in Hollywood. There is no law. No seriously, go out and try it. Go out and rob a liquor store and murder the clerk with a blunt object of some type. Here's a few suggestions: a metal bat, a paraplegic's prosthetic leg, or a his own arm after you saw it off with a rusty hacksaw. Disgusting? Yup. Morally wrong? You betcha. Unofficially ignored by any and all authorities? Booyah!

You see, if we've learned nothing else from Los Angeles (and Southern California in general) it's that anything and anyone is fair game. Everything is up for grabs. Everyone can be bought and everyone can be sold. Martial law is the closest thing to order that area beholds. Seriously, the closest thing to civil order is the fear that the gangs beset in people's minds. The Bloods, the Crips, and celebrity bodyguards. That and the almighty dollar are what run that town. That and a fake plastic smile.

So what exactly am I talking about and why am I going on and on about it? Hmmm, anyone catch CNN or MSNBC or (shudder) Fox News Monday afternoon? You might have heard these words very often: "We the jury find the defendant not guilty."

Now before you jump to conclusions and berate me with hateful slurs and what have you, hear me out. When I was about eight years old I loved Michael Jackson. Bad was my favorite album. Michael Jackson at the Hartford Civic Center was my very first concert. I was 10. I still find much of his music of the timeless classic variety. However, and this is a huge "however", that doesn't make up for what he became and did from 1993 on. Having whatever skin disease he has doesn't give you any excuse, first of all. Being beaten, insulted, and ridiculed by your father when you were younger isn't an excuse. There is no excuse for seducing young boys with tales of Neverland Ranch and the "dreams" that can be fulfilled by a stay there. His father may have screwed with his head but that's no excuse to jerk off 12 year-old boys.

Is he mentally abnormal? Emotionally retarded? Oh, hell yes. Is that an excuse for what he was prosecuted for? Hell no. And you know what? This prosecution had as much evidence against Jacko as Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden had against O.J. 10 years ago. What happened to him? He got off scott-free and promised to find the "real killers." So is Michael going to assemble a crack team of suppletoucher experts and special place analysts to hunt for the real molesters?

This is what it's come to. If you have any amount of money or stigma as someone mildly important you can commit some kind of crime that would most surely get John Q. Public put behind bars and get off with nary a scratch on your little head. It's a f%$kin' joke. The whole legal system is a joke over there. The L.A. county court system is a microcosm of America as viewed by the rest of the world. Some rich asshole does whatever he wants and no one holds him accountable. Sound like a place you want to be associated with? Not me. Does this make me unamerican or unpatriotic? Hell no. I'm all for America and what we stand for. But that doesn't mean there aren't areas we need to vastly improve upon. Within the top 10 of that list is most certainly the justice system. Let's start small and work on Los Angeles county first. The Supreme Court and the method by which one can become a justice is another issue for another time.

So what's the lesson for today, children? Everyone and everything has a price and Los Angeles has a sale everyday of the week. If you have enough money anything is attainable in Hollywood, even child molestation and murder. I think Trey Park said it best when he sang, "freedom costs a buck oh five." And apparently so does putting little Billy's testicles in your mouth. Mmmmm, scrotumtastic.