Reach out and touch someone

Finding that Michael Jackson’s celebrity cachet is still all there, as a matter of California law (specifically a unique provision contained at Cal. Penal Code Section 6-418(b)(2), which provides simply “celebrities are above the law”), a jury in Santa Maria, CA acquitted the “king of pop” on all charges associated with the child molestation prosecution he faced. (Juries are still out, apparently, in the nearby towns of Nino and Pinta.)
Well, let the jokes fly: Michael “beat it”. He can moonwalk right out of the court house. Whatever. The jury was, as I feared, duly awestruck by the big-time celeb, and the prosecutor, alas, was a tad too aggressive on a case loaded with problematic characters the most prominent of which was the vic’s professional shakedown artist mom, who, evidently, seems to have placed her child in a freakish situation, hoping to cash in. (And given that the civil suit is to follow, where the troublesome “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard is replaced by “preponderance of the evidence”, may yet get that wish.)
The man remains a freak, and a deeply troubled individual, who should simply not be allowed alone in the presence of children, including his own. That’s the way it is: a lesser man (in celebrity status and wealth, that is), on mere accusation of what there seemed to be enough evidence here to convince a grand jury to indict (not that that’s all that hard), would probably find himself on a sex-offender registry and paying some social worker $150 an hour to babysit him with his own children.
Not the king of pop, though. He gets away with some… very troubling stuff. Well, he can have wild court house celebrations all he wants. I’m not sure this sort of accusation will be good for business (I really do resent reporting such as CNN’s that he was “found innocent”; we are all innocent until proven guilty– he was found not guilty— a big difference here– because the man was anything but “proven innocent”.) Jackson is wildly in debt, and while he won’t face jail (because his status as a celebrity is infinitely more important than the safety of children– as that jury saw it, and sadly, just about American jury would see it when the accused is a major star), he’ll probably face some hard financial times ahead.
And he’ll doubtless soon be reaping all the medical problems he sowed over the years with those freakish skin peels to make a Black man look like a White woman. And one or the other of these things will, hopefully, take him out of the pajama party business.
Maybe reality will set in for this fellow, one of these days. But probably not. In that sense, it’s unclear to me even what value punishing him would serve… I’m sure Jackson could figure out the difference between Santa Barbara and San Quentin… or am I? In a world where just about any irate ex-spouse can swear out an accusation against just about any man that said man is molesting their children, and the man’s life goes to instantaneous hell without so much as a court hearing… the fact that Mr. Jackson can continue to be allowed to live in his 24-7 predatory playground… is beyond galling.
Of course, I might just be saying these things because I can’t moonwalk…