Roman Polanski wants clemency
Thanks for tipping me off to this goes to sheafrotherdon.
From The Daily Beast: at last week's anti-nuclear-proliferation talks, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from Polanski to Obama, in which the former asked for clemency.
The sheer gall of this infuriates me. Absolutely fucking infuriates me.
Quote: 'The Polanski letter, which is not directly quoted in L’Express’ article, is said to suggest that the two months the aging director spent in a Swiss prison-in addition to the 47 days that he spent in detention in California in 1977-should suffice for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse he pled guilty to.
Crap like this is why I hope that this is pursued to the full extent of the law, and that Polanski ends up in prison for a good long time. I'm not at all sure that he will, but I hope that's what happens. Because this letter illustrates one thing quite simply: Polanski thinks that forcing an innocent teenager to submit to sex is of so little consequence that he should spend less than a year in prison. Not only that, but he thinks that HE is so fucking important that he should be given clemency by the president of the United States himself.
Some people have said that since the victim doesn't want to pursue this, the police shouldn't. Others have said that he's old, so the police shouldn't pursue this. Personally, I think that's a load of garbage. Setting aside the issue of whether or not the police are obligated to follow through on prosecution - and I believe that in certain cases, they are obligated - there are enough men walking around out there thinking that women's bodies are theirs to use and abuse without Polanski being in the media as getting away with it.
And this sort of attitude is pervasive - I know through my own personal experience, since I can recall my grandmother telling me that my grandfather had said that I was abusing him.** And yes, this is the same grandfather who sexually abused me for years. Yet somehow, he was of the opinion that he was the one being abused. I don't think he said it lightly, either - I'm fully convinced that the man is deluded enough that he thinks that somehow it's my fault, or it wasn't wrong, or who the hell knows what.
The point is, men already view themselves as the victims when they have to pay for the consequences of their violence and abuse towards women, sexually and otherwise. It's bad enough without Polanski perpetuating the idea that sexual abuse is a crime so unworthy of punishment that jail time of less than a year is somehow cruel and unusual.
**ETA: Context of the above being one of the times I attempted to talk to my grandmother (who still, as far as I know, doesn't know, and I will admit to having kept it that way for reasons of my own) after she told me this. It didn't go anywhere, I don't really have a clear memory of why. But that's not really the point of this entry, I just wanted to give some context.
From The Daily Beast: at last week's anti-nuclear-proliferation talks, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from Polanski to Obama, in which the former asked for clemency.
The sheer gall of this infuriates me. Absolutely fucking infuriates me.
Quote: 'The Polanski letter, which is not directly quoted in L’Express’ article, is said to suggest that the two months the aging director spent in a Swiss prison-in addition to the 47 days that he spent in detention in California in 1977-should suffice for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse he pled guilty to.
Crap like this is why I hope that this is pursued to the full extent of the law, and that Polanski ends up in prison for a good long time. I'm not at all sure that he will, but I hope that's what happens. Because this letter illustrates one thing quite simply: Polanski thinks that forcing an innocent teenager to submit to sex is of so little consequence that he should spend less than a year in prison. Not only that, but he thinks that HE is so fucking important that he should be given clemency by the president of the United States himself.
Some people have said that since the victim doesn't want to pursue this, the police shouldn't. Others have said that he's old, so the police shouldn't pursue this. Personally, I think that's a load of garbage. Setting aside the issue of whether or not the police are obligated to follow through on prosecution - and I believe that in certain cases, they are obligated - there are enough men walking around out there thinking that women's bodies are theirs to use and abuse without Polanski being in the media as getting away with it.
And this sort of attitude is pervasive - I know through my own personal experience, since I can recall my grandmother telling me that my grandfather had said that I was abusing him.** And yes, this is the same grandfather who sexually abused me for years. Yet somehow, he was of the opinion that he was the one being abused. I don't think he said it lightly, either - I'm fully convinced that the man is deluded enough that he thinks that somehow it's my fault, or it wasn't wrong, or who the hell knows what.
The point is, men already view themselves as the victims when they have to pay for the consequences of their violence and abuse towards women, sexually and otherwise. It's bad enough without Polanski perpetuating the idea that sexual abuse is a crime so unworthy of punishment that jail time of less than a year is somehow cruel and unusual.
**ETA: Context of the above being one of the times I attempted to talk to my grandmother (who still, as far as I know, doesn't know, and I will admit to having kept it that way for reasons of my own) after she told me this. It didn't go anywhere, I don't really have a clear memory of why. But that's not really the point of this entry, I just wanted to give some context.