Do celebrities get away with crime easily?

Do celebrities get away with crime easily?

Introduction:

From Salman Khan’s hit and run case to Sanjay Dutt’s possession of illegal ammunitions case, it has always been seen that celebrities in India as well as in other countries get away with crime far more easily than an ordinary person. Though others debate on the view that they are also targeted more often than common people.

Drugs, alcohol, speed driving, using abusive language, losing temper over journalists, keeping illegal ammunitions, having no licenses – you name it and somewhere some celebrity would have done it and got away with it after paying fines or fighting laws.

Even when under trial, they do get advanced facilities within bars and are treated as if they are on a vacation from work. Fans across the world start pleading the cases of their favorite celebrities, counting his charitable nature and all the kindhearted work he might have done before or after committing a crime as serious as bringing threat to the life of someone else. Are we too blinded by the limelight of these stars that we tend to ignore their misdeeds, hence making it easier for them to get away with crime easily?

Yes:

1. Easily bailed out: The celebrities are rich people with more money than empathy and hence they are bailed out even before the nation has the time to digest the news of their arrest. They make it appear like a very normal process where a cop arrests them on charges and their lawyer comes and rescues them home, just as they enact in serials and movies. Unless one has the chance at living a hard life behind bars, how are they expected to learn their lesson to be more careful and considerate of the laws of the administration?

2. No fear of image tanning: Celebrities are hardly apprehensive of their image being tanned under their deeds when they are exposed in public. Even if they are sent on probation for years, they are more than usually out before the term ends and their life also resorts back to normal soon after which is not possible for a common man who would be bankrupt with a threat to his image and job due to name tanning in such cases. The larger than life sized ego of celebrities would take pride in doing whatever they do and there is no threat to their fame.

3. Money talks: Most of the time when a celebrity is involved in a case, the matter gets settled outside the court. Settlement money reaches out to the victim and the case is withdrawn. That explains why most charges on celebrities vanquish from news reports and police file faster than they are registered. Charges of sexual assault on celebrities are soon lost between false acclaims that the victim’s family was simply trying to get money from the celebrity by tainting his image. Would a normal person get off with a rape charge as easily as this even if the case is false? We all know the answer to this is a big ‘No.’

4. They just don’t learn: The most shocking part about celebrities getting easily away with crime is that they don’t realize their mistake or take a lesson from it. Take the famous example of Lindsay Lohan. She kept on committing more and more crimes, including breaking probation for which a common person would have faced charges for eternity.

5. Impartiality: Everyone is biased towards celebrities, including administration and people. They get treated better and receive appraisals for petty works that a common person would do on a daily basis. Similarly, when they are convicted or alleged of a crime, everyone starts showing love and affection to them to the extent that a pressure is built upon administration to release the celebrity. We are star stuck to such an extent that we ourselves have created walls that acclaim that they are so much better than us and that their life matters more than the life of us common people.

6. Better defense: Celebrities get exceptionally better advocates, or let’s say the best that there is, to plead their cases. When the best lawyers meant for those particular kind of cases are fighting against the lazy government lawyers for the victim, we always know in whose court the ball shall finally go.

No:

1. They are targeted more often: When a celebrity expresses his view regarding intolerance and safety of his children in country, he becomes anti-national. A comedian gets arrested for mimicking a self-styled guru. When a celebrity’s car that he was not even driving hits someone, he is a murderer instantly while a political leader of a leading party gets away easily when her car hits and kills multiple members of a family. It seems celebrities are always under the media scanner, ready to declare them convict at the first instance. In turn, celebrities do what they need to do in order to save themselves – they deploy resources and get away.

2. Just like any Richie-Rich would: Getting easily bailed out or buying everything including laws is not the case with the genre of celebrities only. All rich people in the world get away equally easily as celebrities do by paying whooping big amounts to lawyers and administrating heads. In fact, records can attest to the fact that political figures and their kin get away with crimes more easily than celebrities do. Corruption has two sides involved always. Along with these powerful people, let us not forget that the administration is also equally involved.

3. Law above all: Law comes above everything and everyone. Even celebrities with immense power and resources have to deal with cases that last forever. Even when they are in their death bed, some of them have to be present for their case hearing just like a normal person would. In the case of Sanjay Dutt, we saw that he had to live behind bars just like a normal person would have to until the administration got impressed by his good work and decided to grant bail early.

Conclusion:

Law should be equally implacable to everyone – common people, celebrities, politicians and rich people. Laws are meant to keep people in check and that they do not misuse their powers to do whatever they want. Even if celebrities get away easily with crime, it should be condemned by people. They are no different or special than anyone. If they have committed a crime or are under the scanner, the proceedings should be the same as it would be for a common man.