Wednesday - December 23, 2009

Boy George loses court case over right to be on TV, and a justice system minus the justice.

This is not how I planned to start the blog day. I had planned on making public how Drew managed to burn a pot on the stove here in Winchester, England, while sitting at home in the USA. However as often happens when reading all the morning papers, I had to stop because I found something that (to me) just screamed ...  stop everything else and post this NOW, before you forget.  As if I could.

We often joke about loony tune law suits and how quick ppl are to insist on their day in court.  Well folks, we need to stop joking cos things stopped being funny long ago.  This post concerns a fellow who calls himself Boy George.  I don’t care that he’s queer.  It’s his life he has to live, and his life isn’t our business.  Unless he makes things public and we’re drawn in.  By drawn in in my case means, he looks totally disgusting to me. He really does. And decadent. And going to court, which is after all, very public. So naturally ppl like me are gonna make comments.

Two of the things I fail to understand are, how is it that he can’t look in the mirror and fail to see just how stupid he looks? How can he not see?
The other thing I fail to understand, is how in the world someone so bizarre looking and so creepy looking, found a large following. I also wonder about that other loony tune in the rock world, Ozzie Osborne.  Although to be honest, while I’m no fan and think he was nuts in his behavior, he has often shown a funny side in sober moments, and has managed to show a weirdly friendly side. You could even say likable, which is trying things a bit I know.  But this is all about the man who calls himself “boy.”

Apparently, he believes he has a right that none of us mortals possess.  A right that certainly no conservative would ever dream was his or hers.

Boy George thinks he has a RIGHT to be on TV, and specifically he has a RIGHT to appear on Big Brother. And so he went to court to somehow prove his case for this very human right.  He lost the case but it made the news.

His sort of people seem to find “rights” in all sorts of places. 

Boy George loses Big Brother legal battle

Boy George has been told he cannot participate in the final series of Celebrity Big Brother, a judge at the High Court has ruled.

The star’s legal team had been trying to lift a Probation Service ban on him appearing on the Channel 4 show.

The singer - real name George O’Dowd - was released on licence from prison early for imprisoning a male escort.

Mr Justice Bean said the Probation Service was within its rights to refuse the star permission to appear.

He added that somebody who is out on licence and the restrictions placed on their freedom are part of their punishment.

Public confidence

A spokesman for the Probation Service said they were “pleased” with the judgement.

“We believe we made a common sense direction and this has been endorsed by the judge.

“We expect offenders to keep to their licence conditions which are in place to protect the public, punish offenders for their crime and aid rehabilitation,” he added.

The 48-year-old former Culture Club singer and DJ went to the High Court to quash a decision by the Probation Service banning him from appearing on the show.

On Tuesday Richard Clayton QC, representing the Probation Service, said O’Dowd’s participation would pose “a high level of risk” to the service’s reputation.

The former Culture Club star is currently on licence and wears an electronic tag.

Mr Clayton argued that if he used the show to promote his status as a celebrity and earn “a lucrative sum of money” it could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.

I kinda think the public lost any confidence in the system a long,long time ago. For example, do you folks recall only a few days ago about a homeowner who caught one of the robbers who threatened to kill him and his family?  He and his brother chased and caught one of the gremlins, broke his jaw etc.  They were both jailed for their “assault” of the burglar, who it was claimed was now brain damaged and could not appear in court to answer to criminal charges. The public is outraged over the judge’s call to put the homeowner and his brother in jail, while setting free the gremlin.  Well BMEWS, here’s an interesting update on that one.

The brain damaged would be burglar recovered from his physical injuries it would appear, because after recovery he went on to commit a string of crimes bragging btw that the cops couldn’t touch him.  He didn’t seem to be too brain damaged to commit further crimes.

Sorry BMEWS, I can’t let it go here. One more choice example of how things don’t work.  Guy assaults his girlfriend. He’s a big bruiser and a former bouncer.
She wants to leave him and calls police to press charges.  He’s arrested threatening that if he couldn’t have her, then nobody else could either.
So he’s jailed for assault and after a short time he is released with “warning” and ordered to stay away from her, in fact, he was even banned from the town she lived in. I guess a restraining order.  One month after his EARLY release from jail, he caught up with her returning home from work, and stabbed her 13 times and killed her.  She had already told authorities she feared for her life and that he was not the sort of man to make idle threats.

So yeah.  I’d say the public has zero confidence.

But Alison MacDonald, representing O’Dowd, told the court his Probation Service licence was designed to monitor his behaviour, protect the public and rehabilitate rather than punish him.

O’Dowd’s lawyers could now take the matter further to the Court Of Appeal and ask the Lord Chief Justice if he will consider hearing the case.

It is not yet clear whether the star’s legal team will do that.

The singer was convicted of false imprisonment after admitting handcuffing Norwegian Audun Carlsen to a wall in his London home in April 2007.

Previously O’Dowd had been given permission to perform at Brighton’s Gay weirdo Pride event in August.

BBC NEWS

Posted by peiper     on 12/23/2009 at 07:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Justice - LACK OF • UK •  
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