Do Celebrities Get Away with The Crimes They Have Committed?
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Introduction
Murder, Illegal drug possession and aggravated sexual assaults and are just a few in the long list of atrocious crimes that celebrities. Celebrities tend to get away with most of the crimes they have committed compared to an average person. But why would celebrities quickly get away with the crimes they commit? This is the answer that everyone would like to know. While a regular person can serve decades in jail or probation for less crime, famous people have a proneness of dodging the same situation with fewer consequences, and their lives hardly affected. In criminal cases, superstars and prominent defendants are given exceptional access to impartial trials and prejudiced adjudications because of celebrity status, wealth, and high spaced connections. Since it allows them to get away with their crimes whilst the regular person pays for high actions and ensures the sequel considered necessary by the law. Money talks in the legal world; it doesn’t matter the offender is a professional athlete or in the entertainment industry.
Many times, we hear about famous people who have been accused of serious crimes such as sexual assault and attempted murder, and they still get away with it. Most times, we would hear of an agreement being reached out of the courthouse (Nzekwe, et.al2017). These celebrities pay for their crimes to silence the complainants; since they are capable of writing cheques worth millions of dollars, they elude the raspy reality of their actions. Due to this, celebrities continue to perpetrate crimes since they have a reason to believe that they will always dodge the law. Why worry when they can easily make the entire case disappear. The capability to pay their way out of a crime is a luxury that ordinary people do not afford. Therefore, money is proof that famous people rarely pay appropriately for their crimes.
Celebrity status quickly helps them bypass the repercussions for their crimes. Even with the crimes they have committed, these celebrities still get invitations to award shows, exclusive parties, and even big roles in the movies and television shows. It seems like society doesn’t care at all. Their careers and lifestyles are not affected in any way by their illegal troubles. Knowing that they hardly pay for their crimes, these celebrities have repeatedly committed the same crime. Even though some of them eventually get caught, most simply walk free. Today’s society makes it difficult for a regular man to reintegrate back into society after serving a sentence, no matter how short it was. Felons struggle a lot as they try to fit in, where else celebrities continue to receive movies, TV shows, and sports as if they committed any crime. Some people think superstars are so deeply rooted in their stardom that they lack responsibility making them not aware they committed a crime (Marwick, 2017). However, it is still unacceptable to commit any crime, and they are not exempted. With that said, I would like to compare and contrast crime cases Kobe Bryant, Bill Cosby, and R. Kelly and how, in one way, they escaped their crimes because of their social status.
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant was one of the best American professional basketball players. Kobe was born on August 23rd, 1978, in Philadelphia. Kobe was a son of a former NBA player Joseph Washington Bryant commonly known as Joe Bryant. Kobe Bryant was accused of aggravated sexual assault facing life in prison. Eagle County Sherriff investigators first confronted the Kobe on July 2nd. At first, Kobe denied his charges that he did not have sexual intercourse with the accuser. After he was told that they had physical evidence, Bryant changed his mind to admitting he had sexual intercourse with the girl but argued the sex was mutual. On July 4th the same year, Kobe was arrested. He was then released immediately on 25000 dollars bond, and the news leaked to the public about his arrest. He fearfully confessed to committing this crime with a 20-year-old girl. However, the case never made it to trial. A week before the opening statements are to be made, the case was drop after the girl who has been drugged through the mud by the public apprised the court that she will not testify. The civil suit was later settled with a total amount of 2.5million dollars. The girl claimed that she knew Kobe and his sportsmanship when she engaged him. Kobe Bryant’s case projects a likelihood of opportunistic behavior. The accuser claimed that she kissed Kobe, and instead, he took the opportunity to satisfy his immediate sexual impulse. It is possible that the basketball player was unaware that he committed a crime just like any other celebrity who committed crimes and act like they didn’t know. It was wrong just because people love and worship them; social cognitive ideologies show that rape may be a consequence of erroneous thinking, but which are triggered by social interactions; this supports the idea as Kobe subsequently apologized to the accuser. In his apology, Kobe stated that he understood why the girl thought it was a rape to protect rape victims from public scrutiny.
The law is supposed to protect victims from public scrutiny, but in Kobe’s case, the accuser is allegedly exposed to public ridicule. The girl was ridiculed in all social media platforms, the general public, and network news. This caused the interruption of court proceedings. So, when celebrities are concerned, even the law that is supposed to guide the court proceedings do not function as supposed to. Celebrities tend to get the advantage of putting their criminal charges behind them immediately, and Kobe Bryant is one of those who managed to do so. He worked to put his sexual assault charge behind his career after the basketball. His treatment is indicative of other celebrities who quickly move past allegations of any kind.
Celebrating only his good life, his work ethic, and philanthropic commitment is not enough. People tend to focus only on the right side of these celebrities and ignore their wrong side. The public and the law must acknowledge that the celebrities’ behavior should also have repercussions. Honoring them requires also focusing on their negative side.
Bill Cosby
William Henry Cosby is an American author, actor, and stand-up comedian. For decades the comedian was considered as an archetypal person. He was a thriving African American comedian and has also stared and co-written a hugely successful television show, “The Cosby Show.” Cosby’s public image was shattered in 2014 when several women accused him of sexual assault and rape. The women claimed that the comedian knowingly abused them. As for today, 35 women have come forward to accuse Cosby of sexually assaulting them. Moreover, other people in the entertainment industry have claimed to know Cosby’s actions. But most of them tend to shy away to do his public image.
Cosby denied all the allegations to maintain his innocence. He also declined to public discussion the accused by saying he doesn’t know about it. Cosby’s crimes started way back. In December 1965, Cosby was accused of drugging and assaulting Kristina Ruelhi in Beverly Hills. Kristina kept this as a secret up until 2005 when she decided to come public. Also, in 2006, Lachel Covington, who was 20 years old, then accused Cosby of putting his hands into her pants. She also claimed that the comedian forcefully grabbed her breast. When he was questioned, Cosby insisted it was not true. However, in December 2015, Cosby was charged with three class 11 felony charges of aggregated sexual assault and was eventually found guilty and to not less than three years in prison. With all the crimes he has committed, Cosby still got jailed for 3-10 years.
Compare and Contrast
First, three men were all accused of sexual allegations, and because of their status, they managed to get away with the crimes they have committed. These men also pay a lump sum amount of money to avoid the consequences of their crimes. Cosby and Kelly were accused of several sexual assault cases, but they managed to escape most of them. Another similarity in their cases is that they all denied having committed these crimes at first. Bryant, however, admitted later that he indeed committed them but still managed to get away with it. Cosby and Kelly, however, stood to their ground to completely deny the accusations. Both Cosby and Kelly were charged with child sexual abuse. The three men’s cases had several similarities, and because of their fame, they have managed in one way or another to escape their crimes.
- Kelly
- Kelly is a sobriquet of Robert Sylvester Kelly. He is an American R&B singer born on January 8th, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois. He has nominated a Grammy award for writing Michael Jackson’s song, “You are not alone.” R. Kelly was one of the most famous artists in the 1990s. He’s known for his hit songs such as “Burn it UP” “I believe I can fly” and “Ignition.” The RnB artist has been nominated to Grammys Awards and Won four out of this number. With all the fame, Kelly was never on the right side of the law. He was accused of several sexual misconduct cases, child pornography, and the underage sex.
In July 2008, the singer was exonerated in one trial where he was accused of having had sex and urinated on an underage girl. He has also paid monetary settlements to several women who have accused him of both physical and mental sexual abuse. Moreover, he was charged with making underage pornography. The latest case was in 2019 when he was charged with ten more counts of aggregated sexual abuse. He was then arrested in July 2019 and is currently incarcerated at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
Reference:
Marwick, A. E. (2017). Scandal or sex crime? Gendered privacy and the celebrity nude photo leaks. Ethics and Information Technology, 19(3), 177-191.
Nzekwe, G. N., Ngonso, B. F., & Oyewole, P. O. (2017). Celebrification and Blogosphere. A Narrative of Social Media Portrayal of Celebrities. Public Relations Journal, 13(1, 2), 1-16.
Yang, Y. (2020, January). Crisis Management Report on Kobe’s Sexual Assault Case. In 2019 International Conference on Education Science and Economic Development (ICESED 2019). Atlantis Press.
De Luca, K., & Alexander, P. M. (2019). The Mens Rea of Sexual Assault: How Jury Instructions are Getting it Wrong. Manitoba Law Journal, 42(3).