May 16, 2001

4:11 AM

Hollywood dives. Have they got a series on Michael Jackson?
posted by leafy (17 comments total)

Ick! Reminds me of the final scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Ark of the Covenant melts the bad guys' faces off. Darn shame. She started off kinda cute, too.

Y'know everything from science fiction to silly comic books of decades past prophecied that things like drugs were gonna someday make people immediately beautiful or stronger or smarter or faster for short periods of time with no side-effects. Entire meals were supposed to be available in pill form by the 21st century, and the best we can come up with is fast food that's not good for us at all.

We achieved rocket ships and talking cars and handheld communicators (cellphones actually) and Tang and space-age metallic alloys and aluminum foil and a whole bunch of those other things that writers like Asimov and Bradbury predicted. Science guys have even been working on robotics. They got a (vaguely) humanoid robot that can actually climb stairs now.

Yet despite hundreds of years of breakthroughs in technology, when it comes to controlled substances we still got bupkus. And whatever happened to cosmic rays turning us all into superheroes, too? And I want my anti-grav belt!
posted by ZachsMind at 4:51 AM on May 16, 2001

If the hollywood police were going to be totally fair they would point out that the photos represent the effects of "Drugs, Prostitution, and Malnutrition." It is clear that this is a woman who has lived on the edge.
posted by LAM at 5:22 AM on May 16, 2001

Yikes! If they had five more pictures I think that her face would have been sucked into her skull! That page just ruined my plan to lavish myself in cocaine and whores this weekend.
posted by Stretch at 5:33 AM on May 16, 2001

I think it's actually kind of sad to see things like that, and if used in a series on a billboard, would probably be some of the most effective anti-drug advertising ever. Rotten.com has another series which is just as sad, at least as much so as anything else they've put up on their site.
posted by almostcool at 6:36 AM on May 16, 2001

Entire meals were supposed to be available in pill form by the 21st century, and the best we can come up with is fast food that's not good for us at all.

Well, maybe we don't have meals-in-a-pill, but we have them in nutrition bars and shakes.
posted by dnash at 7:10 AM on May 16, 2001

Bad / no dentisty, too. That lady lost her teeth and didn't have proper dentures put in, and suffered significant gum deterioration. If she was shooting up heroin in her gums, that can really wreck you...
posted by MattD at 7:51 AM on May 16, 2001

Freebasing makes you grind your teeth like mad, meth destroys tooth enamel, and junkies are not normally predisposed to going to the dentist.
posted by jennyb at 8:11 AM on May 16, 2001

and here's a similar series...
posted by timb at 9:53 AM on May 16, 2001

Yes: we got that from 'almostcool'.
posted by leafy at 10:41 AM on May 16, 2001

Oof. And to think I reread the comments to make sure it wasn't already posted. Time for some sleep.
posted by timb at 10:47 AM on May 16, 2001

The second one (that was posted by almostcool, and then by timb) isn't as noticable as the first, but you can still see how things change over time. You got to wonder how she looked in, say, 1984...
posted by GirlFriday at 12:30 PM on May 16, 2001

It's Urban Survivor®! Towards the end the contestants tend to look a little the worse for the experience ....
posted by dhartung at 6:59 PM on May 16, 2001

While I like one-liners as much as the next guy/girl, I have to say that the link puts me in a place far away from any type of levity. This isn't about failed drug wars or pop-culture references, this is about human fragility. Not trying to be holier than thou, just really moved by the content.
posted by machaus at 8:36 PM on May 16, 2001

Sorry, Timb.

What worries me most is whether or not the police department obtained any sort of legal, written consent before they published these pictures - either from her, or from her family/next of kin...
posted by leafy at 1:22 AM on May 17, 2001

Are mugshots public property? Or rather a matter of public record? I get the impression that they are, and that the police then wouldn't need permission from anyone.

For instance, I highly doubt that the people on the FBI's most wanted list signed any permission forms saying "Yes, you may plaster my mugshot/known photo in every post office in the country."
posted by cCranium at 6:00 AM on May 17, 2001

Using a mugshot to track down a criminal is one thing. However, I doubt that it is ethical to use pictures like this which would, if seen by friends or family, cause distress. Why shouldn't a man or woman - however far down the skids - have the right to a certain amount of dignity, and be granted the same degree of confidentiality as the next person, if warranted?
posted by leafy at 1:27 AM on May 18, 2001

I doubt that it is ethical to use pictures like this...

I agree completely, but ethical and legal are two different things. If it's legal then there's very little recourse, unfortunately.
posted by cCranium at 5:41 AM on May 18, 2001