According to Ms. Pat Brown, criminal profiler and CEO of The Sexual Homicide Exchange, there is no excuse for letting Jennifer Wilbanks -- the 32-year-old runaway bride from Duluth, Georgia -- off the hook. Wilbanks, who obviously wants and needs a lot of attention, committed a crime -- including a fraudulent 9-1-1 call to claim she had been kidnapped -- and should be charged as a criminal, claims Brown. Wilbanks put her family through hell and wasted precious police resources. Furthermore, she had many chances over five days to let her family and the police off the hook. One account is that she had bought a bus ticket five days before fleeing Georgia to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque, NM, where she was found.

Instead of acting like an adult and just calling off the wedding, Jennifer behaved like a little girl. Worse, the media are treating Wilbanks like a little girl who got cold feet and should get nothing more than a "there-there-my-little-sweet" pat on the head.

To make matters more ridiculous, the police chief in Albuquerque, feeling sorry for the poor, little, distressed runaway bride, gave Jennifer a teddy bear. Moreover, this story consumed all TV networks, and Geraldo, for days on end -- even after Jennifer was found. Special treatment for a criminal. A female criminal.

Had this been a guy, said Pat Brown, he would be going to jail, without a doubt. The double standard looms, my friends.

POSTSCRIPT
Apparently, according the New York Post, Jennifer Wilbanks has jilted at least one fiance before this current incident and has been prosecuted for shoplifting. I wonder now if the police chief of Albuquerque will ask Jennifer to return that teddy bear he so stupidly gave her?

POST-POSTSCRIPT
Runaway bride is indicted (FoxNews). Faces up to six years in jail. Another crack in the double-standard armor.

My remaining question is: Why is this the story that just won't die?????????????????????