Abuse no more!

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Well, another week and more news on the Peer Abuse front. This week, its great news and involves someone finally taking a group of bullies by the horns.

In California, there is a serious problem with the paparazzi who try and do what they can to get photos of celebrities without their consent. When I say anything I mean anything! As a result, they become a danger not only to these celebrities but the public in general. All sorts of laws are broken when they are out and about stalking their prey. Recently, Nicole Richie and Madonna were both in accidents as a result of the paparazzi. The late Farrah Fawcett could not even go to the hospital for chemo treatments without them stalking and harassing her. The paparazzi have become nothing more than a danger to themselves and those around them and its high time they were reigned in.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an anti-paparazzi bill into law yesterday which now states that celebrities can take legal action towards paparazzi and media outlets when photos are used illegally. This was amended to a law that gave fines when these items were used improperly. The Paparazzi Reform Initiative sponsored this bill. This law will not be used to completely shut down media outlets and other means of reporting. It was formed to try and reign in the behavior the paparazzi uses in obtaining information on celebrities. To try and prevent not only celebrities from being hurt but the public as a whole. Ethically, many boundaries and rights promised to all citizens of this nation have been violated and its high time to bring these back into practice. Respect our fellow man and what is promised to all of us as citizens and as human beings.

Thank you Governor Schwarzenegger for signing this into law. As I have mentioned in the past, this is a form of Peer Abuse and these paparazzi have done nothing but bully these celebrities. They violated laws and endangered others. Now, driving down Wilshire Blvd. or anywhere else in Los Angeles will be safer for everyone. People can relax and I know these celebrities feel better knowing further legal action can be taken. At the end of the day, aren’t we all entitled to live our lives without the fear of being harassed, stalked or invaded on daily basis?

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Hey guys! Thanks Kristen, I am feeling better. Yeah, Arnold and I have the same last name, lol.

You are right......we tend to point the finger at paparazzi but society is just as guilty because we purchase this crap. Thats just it...nobody is considering the dangers when pictures of these children show up in these mags. Thats the first thing that crossed my mind......the fact that children were being photographed. I guess I point the finger so to speak at the paps because they are the ones who initiate this stuff. If they were not around, this probably would not even be an issue.

I hope these celebs start fighting back with this new law in place. They have a right to privacy as well as anyone else.....

Hope y'all have a great day!

[Kristin Bowers]

The only reason tabloids exist is because people buy them. There is no other purpose. If nobody bought them....they could NOT stay in business. It's the old principle of "supply and demand." Obviously, the American public is hungry for the photos they take and that is where the problem lies, in my opinion. How can we blame the paparazzi for giving people what they want? If there is blame to be placed (and placing blame really doesn't accomplish much, in most cases) it rests on the shoulders of the people who purchase and indulge in those types of magazines/tabloids. Mainstream America, in other words.

And as shameful as it is that they take pics of the celebrities' children....people want to see them. People aren't sitting out there thinking about what effect it might have on those kids when seemingly crazy people are chasing the children and their parents around snapping flashbulbs in their face and creating chaos around them. All they care about is their own self-gratification in seeing what is going on in the life of someone they have come to "worship", in some sense. Many people can't even mind their own business on the street where they live....much less mind their own business when it comes to some "celebrity" whose life they find interesting, for whatever reason.

For me, the interesting people that I meet are the ones you rarely see on TV or in magazines. They are the everyday, ordinary people that you meet on the street who have overcome great adversity in life through hard times and struggle and still manage to laugh and smile and love in spite of anything they may have endured. If people invest their time reading tabloids and watching an abundance of "reality" TV....then I fail to see how they can have time to be out in the real world investing themselves in making this world a better place to live.

"It has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money--usually. But though you might have the wealth of royalty you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fireplace has. Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. Yet, it is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. Yet, no one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one received either more or less than you received.

Talk about an ideal democracy!! In the realm of time, there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will and the supply will still not be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say, 'You are a fool. You do not deserve time and you shall be cut off at the meter.' Also, you cannot draw on the future. It is impossible to get into debt! You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.

Strange that the newspapers and magazines, so enterprising and up-to-date as they are, are not full of 'How to live on a given income of time,' instead of 'How to live on a given income of money'! Money is far commoner than time. If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a little more, or borrows it, or maybe even steals it. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does make a mess of one's life."~~~~Arnold Bennett

Heyyyyyyyy......he has the same last name as YOU! How wild is that? *GIGGLE*

LOVE TO YOU, ELIZABETH!! I hope you are feeling much better. *HUGS*

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Yup, I know and she did not deserve the treatment she recieved in that video. The fact that these paps will take photos of their CHILDREN really bothers me. Doing it to them is one thing but children?

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Well Tubejay, we are on the same page here so cannot say a whole lot about your post. But I will say this.....I do NOT buy any of those magazines or watch those tabloid shows. Stuff like Perez Hilton (who IS a bully) I avoid reading as well. You are right, it does keep them in business when we purchase these things. My friend who got this law passed, he has seen it firsthand as he is a bodyguard. He has told me some real nightmare stories. If you have a chance, go to my site (http://www.peerabuse.info) and check out the video I have up of Kate Moss. UNBELIEVABLE! They have no respect for her or anyone around her. It is stalking and harassing and Peer Abuse.....what they paps do. Its horrible!