20070704

The Paris Hilton Conundrum

by Joseph Ridgwell

Whatever way Stevie looked at it, his friends imprisonment by the powers that be didn't make sense and wasn't fair. Bobby O had been sentenced to nine months for stealing a pair of jeans, and was now banged up for twenty-three hours a day in the countries most notorious young offenders institution. Just yesterday his old man had been moaning about a city whiz kid who had defrauded a bank out of millions, but got let off with a suspended jail sentence. His old man said that white-collar crime was never dealt with in the same way as blue-collar crime. Stevie had had to ask his old man to explain the white-collar blue-collar thing, but once he had grasped the concept he could see that his dad was dead right. Then his dad mentioned Bobby O and said a strange thing, he said that if Bobby O came from a rich, upper class, or well-to-do middle class family he wouldn't even be in prison.

6S - C1

Joseph Ridgwell, author of The Drifter, lives and writes in London.

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