Socialite’s Arrest Draws Comments

* Re “Socialite Admits to Selling Drugs, Gets Jail Time,” April 22:

I can’t help but wonder. If this Newport Beach socialite was a minority first-time offender from Long Beach, would this entire case have been handled differently? I believe so.

Just when you think change has taken place in our society, you are given cause to think again. How sad.

FRANK CHLARSON

Corona del Mar

* Tina Schafnitz was arrested March 16 for selling cocaine. How many other drug arrests were made that day, and have been made since, in Orange County? And how many of them were given 61 column-inches of coverage in The Times Orange County?

This handling of the Schafnitz story is National Enquirer-type journalism, although it would appear from the quotations used that it was designed to generate sympathy for Schafnitz.

Sorry, a drug bust is just a drug bust to those of us who don’t live in $1.5-million houses.

JERI TURPIN

Mission Viejo

* If this had been an unshaven, disheveled man busted for selling drugs, the same people that talked about what a wonderful human being Schafnitz was even though she sold drugs would have sent the lower-class man off to jail and thrown away the key.

Would anyone have listened to all the good deeds he had done for humanity? No.

What happened to the war on drugs? Do we sweep it under the carpet when it involves our politicians because they have done so much for our city, state, or country or the drug pushers if they are raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation?

Should we really care what form the individual takes who is responsible for getting our kids hooked on drugs? Do we really care that it is a sleek, beautiful socialite or a ratty-looking bum on the streets?

The result is the same: Your kid is hooked on drugs.

JACKI KING

Huntington Beach