America’s privacy laws written by Nancy Grace

I once knew a woman who called for an ambulance (she really needed) from her home but told the 911 dispatcher that the ambulance could only come if the driver didn’t use the siren: she couldn’t handle the embarrassment.

If this woman had been an American, there would have been no chance she would have called. And not just because of the siren. Because her every word could have been made public the minute she did and subjected her to ridicule thereafter.

The Swedish mother-in-law of Tiger Woods, who is a person of some importance in Sweden, is shown carted off on a stretcher after a panicked daughter calls for help, a call that is heard round the world.

Where was her privacy? Why was she stripped of her dignity? Why do you lose your rights as soon as you seek help?

Or fall into trouble.

The minute you get arrested in the US your picture with the number under your chin is whistled through the ether with ill-disguised glee.

This doesn’t happen in other countries. Of course, other countries don’t execute, either.

This whole Tiger Woods thing is a fiasco on two levels: it exposes him as the real person he is, not a pretty sight, while exposing the US as a nation of voyeurs, hardly an honourable characteristic.

It’s as if the laws were written by Nancy Grace.