Let's cut right to the issue...
Sep. 29th, 2009 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeThis column rocks harder than...than Rush (the band, not the Bloviator).
Reminder: Roman Polanski Raped a Child
Some choice excerpts (warning, some uncomfortable language and imagery):
Roman Polanski raped a child. Let's just start right there, because that's the detail that tends to get neglected when we start discussing whether it was fair for the bail-jumping director to be arrested at age 76, after 32 years in "exile" (which in this case means owning multiple homes in Europe, continuing to work as a director, marrying and fathering two children, even winning an Oscar, but never -- poor baby -- being able to return to the U.S.)....
let's take a moment to recall that according to the victim's grand jury testimony, Roman Polanski instructed her to get into a jacuzzi naked, refused to take her home when she begged to go, began kissing her even though she said no and asked him to stop; performed cunnilingus on her as she said no and asked him to stop; put his penis in her vagina as she said no and asked him to stop; asked if he could penetrate her anally, to which she replied, "No," then went ahead and did it anyway, until he had an orgasm...
Polanski was "demonized by the press" because he raped a child, and was convicted because he pled guilty. He "feared heavy sentencing" because drugging and raping a child is generally frowned upon by the legal system. Shore [blogger at the Huffington Post] really wants us to pity him because of these things? (And, I am not making this up, boycott the entire country of Switzerland for arresting him.)...
The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not -- and at least in theory, does not -- tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you've made...
(BTW, this article gets one thing wrong--the age on consent in California was not 16 in 1977, it was 18, as it is today.)
I'm actually (pleasantly) surprised that most press and commentary in the US is critical of Polanski, the articles addressed above notwithstanding. Frankly, I've grown used to the pattern of "rape and child molestation is terrible--unless it's someone we admire like Kobe Bryant or R. Kelly or James Barbour. THEN it's okay, THEN she's an entrapping, opportunistic whore." It does seem as though the public tide in the States does not support that (then again, Polanski is an Other--he is hardly an American idol, since he's European). Of course there are still the Polanski fanboys who will dance the dance of mitigation--anything to throw sand in the eyes of what he really did. She was almost 14, her mother threw the girl at him, she REALLY wanted it, everyone was doing that in Hollywood anyway, the US justice system is corrupt and meaningless anyway...NONSENSE. All fucking nonsense. Read the testimony. He gave her champagne and quaaludes, she said no repeatedly, he violated her in several different ways. He committed MANY felonies, it wasn't this hazy, dreamy consensual sex with someone who lied about her age. FUCKING BULLSHIT.
Warning--if you read the comments after the column, most are supportive of the article but there are some genuinely creepy--really dark side of the moon disturbing--commenters out there, saying some truly misogynistic things.
Reminder: Roman Polanski Raped a Child
Some choice excerpts (warning, some uncomfortable language and imagery):
Roman Polanski raped a child. Let's just start right there, because that's the detail that tends to get neglected when we start discussing whether it was fair for the bail-jumping director to be arrested at age 76, after 32 years in "exile" (which in this case means owning multiple homes in Europe, continuing to work as a director, marrying and fathering two children, even winning an Oscar, but never -- poor baby -- being able to return to the U.S.)....
let's take a moment to recall that according to the victim's grand jury testimony, Roman Polanski instructed her to get into a jacuzzi naked, refused to take her home when she begged to go, began kissing her even though she said no and asked him to stop; performed cunnilingus on her as she said no and asked him to stop; put his penis in her vagina as she said no and asked him to stop; asked if he could penetrate her anally, to which she replied, "No," then went ahead and did it anyway, until he had an orgasm...
Polanski was "demonized by the press" because he raped a child, and was convicted because he pled guilty. He "feared heavy sentencing" because drugging and raping a child is generally frowned upon by the legal system. Shore [blogger at the Huffington Post] really wants us to pity him because of these things? (And, I am not making this up, boycott the entire country of Switzerland for arresting him.)...
The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not -- and at least in theory, does not -- tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you've made...
(BTW, this article gets one thing wrong--the age on consent in California was not 16 in 1977, it was 18, as it is today.)
I'm actually (pleasantly) surprised that most press and commentary in the US is critical of Polanski, the articles addressed above notwithstanding. Frankly, I've grown used to the pattern of "rape and child molestation is terrible--unless it's someone we admire like Kobe Bryant or R. Kelly or James Barbour. THEN it's okay, THEN she's an entrapping, opportunistic whore." It does seem as though the public tide in the States does not support that (then again, Polanski is an Other--he is hardly an American idol, since he's European). Of course there are still the Polanski fanboys who will dance the dance of mitigation--anything to throw sand in the eyes of what he really did. She was almost 14, her mother threw the girl at him, she REALLY wanted it, everyone was doing that in Hollywood anyway, the US justice system is corrupt and meaningless anyway...NONSENSE. All fucking nonsense. Read the testimony. He gave her champagne and quaaludes, she said no repeatedly, he violated her in several different ways. He committed MANY felonies, it wasn't this hazy, dreamy consensual sex with someone who lied about her age. FUCKING BULLSHIT.
Warning--if you read the comments after the column, most are supportive of the article but there are some genuinely creepy--really dark side of the moon disturbing--commenters out there, saying some truly misogynistic things.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 11:04 pm (UTC)I also read the blog entry on the Huffington Post that was linked in the story you linked to. Would you believe it was written by the Co-founder of a group called "Women Overseas for Equality." I despise men who hit women, so I really want to see my fiancee kick her ass.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-30 04:34 pm (UTC)If I may sum up:
Why now?
Because that's when they got him. Your argument is that, because law enforcement was lazy or incompetent in the past means that they must continue to be so forever?
Aren't there more important crimes?
Sure there are, but strangely, we don't prosecute crimes in strict order of severity. "Sorry, ma'am. We're not allowed to prosecute rapes until every single murder ever committed is solved."
Who benefits?
(This one was particularly galling, as it appeared in a New York Times Opinion piece from someone who'd worked with Polanski.) Who benefits!? The entire American system of criminal justice! It benefits by proving that the wealthy and powerful are not above the law. It prevents future wealthy defendants from fleeing, and prevents total social upheaval from not-so-wealthy people who think the law no longer serves them.
This is just a media-driven witch hunt.
You know, the left sounds just as pathetic as the right does when it invokes the media as bogeyman. Guess what, folks: "Fugitive Oscar-winning director flees rape sentencing and is arrested decades later" is a pretty big frickin' story! It's like, "Man Bites Entire Pound Full of Dogs."
Hasn't he already been punished enough?
By getting to live in luxury in Europe for decades directing art films? Oh, the torture! If that's punishment, then I'll confess to everything from the assassination of President Lincoln to the sinking of the Andrea Doria just to be punished.
(no subject)
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