Why Nab Roman Polanski Now? Revenge
This is what they have been doing in the Los Angeles Country district attorney's office: they have been Googling "Roman Polanski."
Polanski, the French movie director who fled the US 31 years ago after pleading guilty in a murky case involving sex with an underage model, was arrested over the weekend in Switzerland on a US warrant issued in Los Angeles. The LA prosecutor's office described the arrest, according to the New York Times, "as all but inevitable in a game of cat and mouse they had never stopped playing."
That is, of course, baloney. There is nothing inevitable about catching a famous person who has not been in hiding after 31 years. Indeed, he didn't just riskily or mistakenly show up in Switzerland; he owned a house there. They didn't catch him, because they weren't looking for him. But then, the advantages of finding him changed.
Prosecutors are the scariest people in a democracy because they can have you arrested and put in jail. They can do this essentially at will, if arresting you suits their purposes. Alternatively, they can not arrest you if that suits their purposes. One reason prosecutors can function at such a level of virtually no accountability is because, while almost all other public servants have terrible press, law enforcement agencies have always used their muscle to maintain good press (there is even a further point about, specifically, the LA prosecutor's office and its relationship to the prosecutor's image in television and movies).
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Nina Burleigh: Genius and Young Flesh
Great Men - and other men - sometimes do find pliant, young flesh irresistible. Geniuses are usually forgiven for it. The arrest of Roman Polanski is a good idea, and should stand. It doesn't matter whether he is a genius.
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I can't believe there's a second side to this issue. Polanski drugged, raped, and sodomized a 13-yr old girl. And people are defending this? We should let him go because he's a respected and talented director?
I had no idea that artistic merit gives you the right to sodomize a minor while they beg you to stop. That's very cosmopolitan.
What I dont understand is why so many HuffPost bloggers (not all, but most) are more concerned with the timing of the arrest than with justice for the disgusting molestation of a child. I would spin the question of "why now" to "why not finally now"? This man has ridden his fame to 32 years of freedom in Europe, when any John Doe committing the same crime would be deservedly locked up for years and a cast off from society.
Mr Wolf implies that anyone can be arrested at the prosecutor's whim: "Prosecutors are the scariest people in a democracy because they can have you arrested and put in jail. They can do this essentially at will, if arresting you suits their purposes." Hey - we're all Roman Polanski! It could happen to us!
But wait - isn't there the matter of committing a crime - in this case raping a child then running from the law?
Prosecutors in a democracy are enforcing the will of the people - they are not the most scary people in a democracy. A democracy requires an informed electorate/polis - I'd say among the scariest people in a democracy are those who pervert information and misinform (and badly educate) the polis, rendering it unable to make informed democratic decisions.
This case is anything but "murky." Roman Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a child. He was lucky enough to be able to plead to statutory rape. He was too cowardly to pay for his crime.
While there are issues of unlawful flight from a horrible crime, and clear judicial misconduct wrapped around the beginning of this case.....t
New flash Mr. Wolff: prosecutors who have a warrant for your arrest can have you arrested at any time. If you have an outstanding warrant and fear that the prosecutors will all of a sudden and without warning have you arrested at an incovenient time, you completelly control that: turn yourself in.
I think that it is unfortunate that they waited so long, but I'm glad that it finally happened.
And it gives all the right wing radio clowns a chance to talk at length about having sex with a 13 year old, in that digusting slobbering way of old men. The woman is not a young thing in thrall of the great director, is ANYONE thinking about dragging her through all this after all these years? Forgivenes isn't easy and she's done it, leave her alone.
Took them 24 minutes to get there,I gotta stop listening to that station!
I wonder if it will take as long for the Bush administration officials responsible for torture (and deaths) to be held accountable.
Right now, we have the doctrine of "look forward, not back". Perhaps Polanski can ask the Obama administration to extend that reasoning to him.
I already suggested that Madoff should have made that argument. As long as the concept of justice is so broken, doesn't anyone have the right to say "let's look forward, not back?"
I don't care if their motivation was pure or not. But it is outrageous that it took this long to nab him.
Oh, there's definitely politics involved. Again, as many have said, he could have been nabbed during his various decades of travel.
Still, he escaped justice for a violent sexual crime against a minor. It may be politics that are being played, but these are very shrewd politics.
Mr. Wolff: what you say in your last paragraph may be true. But you might add that it helps the prosecutors quite a bit, if they decide to have you locked up, if you have already plead guilty to a heinous offense and then fled the jurisdiction.
Polanski is hardly a victim of prosecutorial misconduct. On the contrary, the people of California might wonder why their prosecutors have been so slow to act before now. In any event, I fail to see how Polanski can run, enjoy being free all this time, and then complaint because he is only now being called to account for his crime.
See Tallulah Morehead's Profile
So now a new element enters the parade of Polanski apologists: paranoia.
So let's fire all the prosecutors, and let the rapists run riot.
The apologists shock me. All because the guy is a famous director.
Favorited again Tallulah for truth and light.
I am not an apologist. But I did watch the documentary on the case (which is definitely pro-Polanski). If I remember correctly he had already served most of his sentence. He then fled, when he realized the judge on his case, was not going to honor the sentence, and was totally loony. I believe, the prosecutor himself, said that he understood why Roman would have fled. Is there not an argument, that Roman, has basically already served, his sentence, and that the case should be thrown out due to the misconduct of the judge?
I think your facts are essentially correct but you are giving a view skewed toward Mr. Polanski. He had "served his sentence" because the sentence that he plea bargained for was "time served" about a month and a half. The reason he fled is that the judge was reportedly angered by the slap on the wrist sentence for drugging and raping a 13 year old. From what I've heard of the story I have to say that doesn't sound "loony" at all to me. When you say the judge wasn't going to "honor" the sentence it sounds as if the judge was going back on some deal he already made. Not true. Judges are not included in plea bargains but they do have the right to reject a plea if they think its unduly lenient (or harsh).
Actually yes, you are an apologist, if you're arguing that 42 days of psych evaluation is appropriate for rape, and especially rape of a 13-year-old.
He is being extradited for "fleeing the jurisdiction" -- not for any sexual offenses. The reason he fled (and I'm not a legal expert) is that the angry judge had the ability to sentence him to *indefinite* psychiatric observation. Despite Polanski's hubris: indefinite psychiatric confinement is not justice. It is a concentration camp. Maybe the best thing is that Mr. Polanski comes back voluntarily, and appropriate justice is administered on the evasion issue. The sexual charges were already adjudicated (and the victim is now on his side). Yes, it's true: perhaps his penalty for the sexual offenses should've been more severe. But, that's not the issue, now. By that logic: everyone who ever smoked marijuana illegally; ran a traffic light; drove home after more than two drinks; felt-up a drunken girlfriend; sniffed their mother's panties; or commited any crime: should agree to have themselves locked up for indefinite psychological confinement. You get the idea: throw the first stone. This is now a technical legal issue. It is not about sexual offenses anymore. Yours truly, sophocles_jr
Maybe child-rapists should be confined to a psychiatric institution indefinitely.
I don't know, I guess some people just can't get over a grown man rapping a 13 year old girl, and I am one of those people.. I don't think great movies, a tragic life, fame or democracy have anything to do with it. It is a bit scarry that so many people rush to defend him, because of his work or some stature of limitations. I wish I could get 30 years of France everytime I've erred in my life, and believe me, I have never been anywhere close to rapping anyone. Let the man do the time he has to do for the crime he commited, I'm sure it will provide for some great closing scenes for whoever directs the movie about his life.
Confirmed ultra leftist pinko commie here. If you don't believe me read any of my 1000+ posts. Also an avid Hollywood movie lover including a number of Mr. Polanski's films. Speaking as a father and avid lover of the Constitution as well I must say bring him here and let him face the American justice system as ANY other person regardless of the crime would have to do. The "statutory" rape of a 13 year old is especially heinous to me as the father of 2 girls who were once 13. Yes as a dad I would just like to take a baseball bat to the rapist but luckily for alleged rapists and all other accused this is one of the best and most fair legal systems in the world where sometimes the innocent are found guilty or the guilty go free but overall it's good and it's the system we have. If you don't like it or some of the laws petition your representative and get them changed but you can't do it after that fact. Mr. Polanski can either choose to take whatever sentencing is handed down or go to trial but hiding out in another country just isn't right.
As another confirmed ultra leftist pinko commie, and the mother of a future 13-year-old girl, thank you. Agreed on all counts.
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