Fashion designer Jodhi Meares sentenced over drink driving crash
While the power of celebrity has always been ever present, it turns out that simply being a low list female celebrity with a great lawyer is enough to evade responsibility for your actions as well.
While I haven't really followed the case, learning about the bull-shit sentence that she received for a High Range alcohol related driving offence is bloody offensive to me. The fact that she was so drunk to roll her car AND blow almost 4 times the legal limit and get the absolute minimum fine is a joke! $1,100 fine and a 12 month suspension? Well, I suppose she'll looking for coins in the couch to pay for her driver for the next year...
Let me put it another way:
- I could shove a paddle-pop stick into 2 parking meters and receive a fine only $60 less AND lose 14 demerit points.
- I could display a damaged parking ticket/receipt TWICE and be fined $1,038 and lose 14 demerit points.
- I could forget to remove my parents mobility parking card TWICE and be fined $1,246 and lose 16 demerit points.
Now the first 2 offences I listed would only incur a 3 month suspension and the second would incur 4 months compared to the 12 month suspension that Jodhi Meares will have to face. The above offences are also all related to parking... You know, when you are either not in a car or the car isn't even moving. But furthermore I would also like to add that none of the offences that I have listed had the risk of KILLING ANYONE!!!
Now according to my own moral beliefs, standards and what I think to just be a logical progression of thought (and yes, this is solely my own opinion here and in no way law or common knowledge), if I were to shoot a gun in the air in a fit of exaltation, regardless of if I'm aware of it or not, I'm potentially about to commit manslaughter. So when a person gets behind the wheel of a car drunk, I think the same logic applies. Regardless of the time of day, in a heavily populated area it would be sheer luck that I don't hit someone with my bullet, just as it would be pure luck that Jodhi didn't actually kill someone. But the weapon of ignorance and stupidity that caused her to get behind the wheel of her car intoxicated should not remove the responsibility of the potential cause for harm from her actions and decisions. This unaccountability effectively reinforces the sentiment or belief that people with money/fame are better than YOU, and therefore should not be held to the same ideals or constraints as the normal public.
Lets have a quick look at the possible sentences to see what Ms Meares' status aided her in avoiding.
| PCA offence | Penalties | First Offence | Second or subsequent offence |
High range PCA
(Blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or above)
OR
Refuse a breath analysis, hinder or obstruct taking of a blood sample, wilfully alter the concentration in the blood.
| Maximum court- imposed fine | $3,300 | $5,500 |
| Maximum gaol term | 18 months | 2 years | |
| Disqualification | |||
| -minimum | 12 months | 2 years | |
| -maximum | Unlimited | Unlimited | |
| -automatic* | 3 years | 5 years | |
| Immediate licence suspension | Yes | Yes |
Wow... Just wow. The "Automatic" suspension for this offence is longer than the suspension the judge gave her. So if a "normal person" were unable to go to court with representation, it probably wouldn't be a question of how long you're suspended for, but if you should be going to gaol or not. Of course, poor Ms Meares has been hounded by the media in the aftermath of her lapse in judgement, but I suppose that's the consequence of being a complete knob jockey when it comes to good self governance when you're a person of moderate celebrity.
I suppose if she killed someone she might have actually been disciplined a little harder - you know, something along the lines of a good finger pointing from the judge or a light slap on the wrists instead of the blow job the judge tried to give her in her sentencing.
At least Magistrate Huber is setting a good example for all the young aspiring women out there...
If you work hard enough ladies, someday you too might be able to grasp just enough celebrity or status to get away with almost anything. So don't make good moral and social judgements regarding your lifestyle. As long as you can fake it - odds are you'll make it, and then you won't have to worry about what is right and wrong... Right and wrong are a little blurry after "4 1/2 drinks" anyway!
Frankly, I think the responsible thing for the Magistrate to have done would be to make an example of Ms Meares. Someone has to show the generations that follow that people of all standings are held to the same strict standards, and that regardless of ones social status if you fuck up on an enormous level you will be held fully accountable in the eyes of the law.
