Reality Chick

  I've touched on the topic before, but this letter from a mother to paparazzi makes me want to revisit this menace.

  People are a little gung-ho when it comes to celebrity in America with even people of fleeting fame followed from the hairdresser to their doctor's office. Some folks relish glimpses of their favourite star off the red carpet- in the wild as it were. Solely because of their (or their spouse's) occupation, every move is calculated, and it is often simply dismissed as the price of fame. But there's another, more sinister trend occurring of late- the merciless stalking of young children.

  In LA even the greasiest gossips had rules when it came to photographing children. In the unwritten code, kids were only subjected to the lens in the company of their parents and never before or during school hours. It was a silent contract and while people periodically got pissed off it worked out reasonably well for photographers, the famous, and - most of all- their kids. But that isn't the deal in the Era of Now. In the Era of Now, everyone and anything have a price and that includes children and their mates.

  People like Scuzzez make their brand of misery grow by insulting everyone regardless of age, but he gets more blame than he probably should here. All it takes is a quick glance at the checkout line to see that magazines are not only taking disturbingly personal photos of children, they are using them to pass judgment on parents if their kid doesn't dress such a way, is adopted, looks awkward, and the list goes on. I have even noticed speculation made about the future sexual orientation of three year olds. And that's just on the cover- some of us do not have the internal schadenfreude to look inside.

  If you think that these kids deserve this solely because of who their parents are, you're in need of a reality check. Think about this for a second- if you were dropping your child off at school and saw a crowd of middle-aged men with cameras, you'd hop out of your truck with murder on your mind. The police would be called and every one of those perverted scumbags would be hauled off to the slammer. In our society grown men who like to ogle children are considered appalling stains on our species.

  To stop the harassment of the children of celebrities, it will take community action. When Joe the electrician or Sandra the therapist drop off their kids and see these weasels, they should phone authorities. Tell the police exactly what they see- a bunch of men in the trees looking at innocents and taking pictures of them. If every parent called the cops on these freaks  maybe there would be some kind of enforcement. I wonder how many of these fuckers lacks a work permit and/or has a criminal record. Call me old-fashioned here, but where I come from, people who stare at children are called sickos, and no paycheck can turn someone into one- either you are one or your not. It's cut and dry.

   Look at Charles Leaf, the Fox reporter arrested for aggravated rape of a 4 year old. He was well known for hanging around on news jobs and taking pictures of kids while claiming it was freedom of the press. If you think that he's the only one, you are a complete fool.

  If you take pictures of unaccompanied minors, you should go to jail. End of story.