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[dawnspring]

Filmakers sign a petition calling for the release of PolanskiI want to see this list, so that way I can then forever boycott ANYTHING having to do with said actors and directors. They aren't sticking up for a good man, as far as I'm concered they are all nothing more than advocates for child sexual abuse. If they signed that petition, they are scum

Comments

[browren]

There's a blurb about the victim, here, and she apparently said this:
"What happened that night, it's hard to believe, but it paled in comparison to what happened to me in the next year of my life," she said last year, when she appeared in a documentary about problems with the case.

In the end, she was relieved when Polanski fled because reporters stopped calling.

"He did something really gross to me, but it was the media that ruined my life," she told People in 1997.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/09/28/2009-09-28_roman_polanskis_victim_now_45_got_over_it_long_ago.html#ixzz0SaS4CBOH
Not sure what to think about that. On the one hand, I can see how this particular case would be an excellent example to demonstrate that nobody is above the law, but on the other, the victim herself feels that justice has been served. I'm not sure that the internet and/or the

[purplehaze9]

Well, the internet and media surely don't. The law does. If there was a warrant out for his arrest and he is apprehended, then he does need to be extradited and face the consequences in America.

Quite frankly, I think it's shameful that several countries willingly harbored a convicted sex offender because he happened to be a good movie director.

[browren]

Is there a reason that his crime is more important, though? There are plenty of American politicians with war crimes convictions overseas, for instance. There were a whole bunch of lawsuits against the Catholic Church for abuse of children, but when those got settled out of court, the state didn't continue on for a criminal conviction for some reason. There are also plenty of "freedom fighters" in America who would be considered terrorists in their home countries. I'm just curious what is the criteria for picking and choosing which countries' laws are the ones that get followed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not attempting to defend Polanski, but I can see how there could be some logical validity in his defenders' point of view. One could even cynically think that had Ms. Geimer become a successful movie star, that we'd never have ever even heard about the crime, and that it was just typically Hollywood "casting couch" behavior that became public.

[dawnspring]

Except...remember what I do for a living. Him getting away with this crime will set a terrible precident and make our work that much harder. Just because she no longer wishes to seek justice doesn't mean that it's ok for those who will commit similar crimes later on to be allowed to walk away too because he was allowed. Rape a kid, go to Europe and live the high life, get exonerated. Oh yeah, total justice

Really, if he was not this 'celebrated' director, he'd have been caught, locked up, and had the key thrown away years ago. People want him released not because they think he's being unjustly targeted, they want him free because he's rich and famous.

[browren]

That's true of most wealthy people, though, they expect to get away with crimes that the "little people" would get decades for.

Aside from money worshippers, you also have the cynics who (like I mentioned) don't really believe that it should even be called rape, and many who would wave it off as a one-time error in judgement. And there is a pretty substantial cultural gap there, too.

A question or two: Polanski apparently pled guilty to a single charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor as part of a plea deal where the prosecution dropped all the charges involving alcohol, drugs, and sodomy. According to the wikipedia entry:
All parties expected Polanski to get only probation at the subsequent sentencing hearing, but after an alleged conversation with LA Deputy District Attorney David Wells, the judge "suggested to Polanski's attorneys that he would send the director to prison and order him deported".
Is it ok for a judge to change a plea deal after the fact, simply because the person being charged is rich and famous

[dawnspring]

I don't even want to go down the one-time error in judgment slippery slope. So you commit a crime once. You still -committed a crime-.

1) That's what the appeals process is for. Also, it was a suggestion/heresay. Just because you do not agree with the judgement does not give you the right to flee the sentencing in order to avoid it. If he had faced it, THEN he would have had legit grounds for claiming injustice and persecution. But since he bolted, he's lost that chance.

2) They could have suggested that, but they didn't. They can't try that now anyway since the French government has let their bias be known.

[lilfluff]

On #1 there, to slip a little off subject, that also seems to be the bit people often miss about the concept of civil disobedience. You'll hear being from time to time bragging about doing something on the sly or doing something and then wrangling to avoid getting caught, who then claim it's civil disobedience