The Polanski "quandary"

[ataxi]

FRIAR BARNARDINE. Thou hast committed--
BARABAS. Fornication: but that was in another country;
And besides, the wench is dead.

Marlowe, The Jew of Malta
I don't see it as my task or as my right to dispense moral instruction, but this Polanski business is like the Pole Star of moral navigation. You don't even need a compass. Here's a brief list of things that explains what I'm talking about:

A List of Things That Do Not Excuse Raping a Minor

1. You drug the child first
2. You're a famous film director
3. Your wife was murdered by the Manson Family
4. You plead guilty to a lesser charge
5. You flee the country
6. It all happened thirty years ago
7. Lots of famous people including many other film directors say it's ok
8. A Frenchman named Mitterrand says "scary America ... has shown its face"
9. A tendentious link is drawn between your arrest and the general principle of allowing artistic freedom at film festivals
10. Whoopi Goldberg says she's sure it wasn't, you know, "rape rape"
11. The victim doesn't want your crimes revisited

I've known about Polanski's offences for years and years - I remember first reading about them in an article about Nastassja Kinski in about 1993 or so - and although I'm not entirely clear why he's being arrested now, I can't see why anything should exonerate him, much less a massed choir of film people demanding exceptional treatment because he's a genius and muddying the waters with claims about artistic freedom. Seventy-six isn't too old to answer for what you've done wrong, and although the US justice system carries no particular authority compared to any other in my opinion, it's fair enough for its agents to perform their duties as might be expected.

There's no need to imagine that anyone who thinks it's not ok to force non-consensual sex acts on a thirteen year old girl with the aid of Quaaludes is some kind of wowser who just doesn't understand genius. The best case scenario concerning Polanski's crime in 1977 - which presupposes that his victim's straightforward claims are in many cases false and admits only that to which Polanski himself has confessed - is still a really horrible one.