Roman Polanski Arrest

[The Seeker]

It's simply amazing to me that there are people willing to give this convicted child rapist a pass on his crime!

They claim he didn't receive a fair trial......ummmmm- He plead GUILTY to the charges!!!

They claim he didn't know she was 13 years old......ummmmm- His own release form to photograph the girl had her date of birth on it and her MOTHER had to sign it for her since she was a minor.

When he was about to be sentenced, he fled the country. What more proof of guilt is needed than that....oh, and the fact that he admitted that he drugged the girl with Quaaludes and alcohol before raping and sodomizing her.

The very fact that France has been willing to allow this man to escape justice for so long disgusts me. Kudos to the Swiss for doing the right thing.

I guess if you make good movies, you are excused for such horrible behavior? I wonder if there is some type of mathematical formula that these supporters of his use to decide what crime deserves punishment? Would shooting a baby in the head at point blank range also be OK?

If they are so sure he didn't get a fair trial, then they ought not to be worried if he's extradited back to the USA.....criminals get all the rights and he could just appeal it.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion you can't make a good enough movie to be excused for raping (by your own admission) a 13 year old.

 

[DaveM]

First I can recall hearing of this case Roman Polanski was hunted by US prosecutors for 31 years. Now to see what the outcome will be

 

[The Seeker]

From your linked article:

Frédéric Mitterrand, the French culture minister, said the arrest was proof of the "frightening" side of America.

"In the same way as there is a generous America which we love, there is also a certain kind of America which is frightening, and it is this America which has now shown us its face," he said.

What's really frightening is the fact that France has knowingly harbored an admitted child rapist!

I wonder if it had been HIS Daughter that was raped, how he'd comment if the USA refused to arrest and extradite him back to France?

It also says "The judge then tried to renege on the plea bargain struck with Polanski."

Judges aren't bound by plea bargain agreements made between the prosecutor and the defense lawyers.

Again I ask.....exactly why should this particular person be excused from such a crime? Because he's famous? How sad that anyone would think that way.

 

[DaveM]

Well looking at past history it sure looks like being famous gets you special treatment :tongue:

 

[The Seeker]

Another quote of a Frenchman from another article:

There's a kind of feeling in France that America is acting essentially out of revenge against a very great talent, a man who basically never abided by America's rules

Huh? Child rape is just an AMERICAN rule?

Evidently, it's quite alright to drug and rape children in France...those prudish Americans!!!

 

[The Seeker]

I'll bet in France if Claude, the factory-worker raped some 13 year old, he'd get time in prison.

 

[DaveM]

Well of course he would like in most countries but being famous changes all that :sad:

 

[CarlS]

He should be executed. He is pure scum to do such a thing. I am glad the Swiss did the right thing. Those comments by Frédéric Mitterrand reinforce my already very low opinion France.

 

[Gromit]

France does not have an extradition treaty in place with the US. Polanski is a French citizen so he can legally reside there. Polanski owns a house in Switzerland and has done for more than 20 years - he has frequently visited Switzerland and other European countries that do have extradition treaties in place with the US so why has it taken so long for the Swiss to wake up that he has been in their country and extradite him? Very glad that they have now done so and that this pig is going to face the music for the rape AND jumping bail. Hope the US locks him up and throws away the key.....I understand child rapists don't really have a good time in prison.
To be devil's advocate - could it be that the Swiss have 'suddenly woken up' and extradited the scumbag because of the scandal of US citizens funds hiding in Swiss bank accounts 'tax free'? Just a thought..............(I love a good conspiracy story)

 

[The Seeker]

I don't believe he ever made his travels to other places very public. He'd do so on the hush. The paperwork has to be in order, currently dated, and in their hands when they arrest him.... which is tricky from thousands of miles away.

 

[CarlS]

I understand that France and the US do not have an extradition treaty - which in itself is very telling. It is the comments of Frédéric Mitterrand that really sour me. Does this mean in France child rape is OK? That is what his comments indicate.

 

[Gromit]

Isn't Mitterrand facing his own trial and law suit at the moment for 'slandering' Sarcozi during the election??? Wouldn't it be poetic justice for the two of them to be cell mates??
If Polanski had committed this crime in France I bet there'd be a far different cry being heard right now. I don't care who you are, where you are, how long ago you committed the crime - touch a child and you should hang!!!

 

[gumpt1oo]

No need to waste money on a trial, he already pleaded guilty, just chop his nuts off and then string him up, sorted!

 

[CarlS]

Hanged publicly. Gromit, you Gump and I certainly agree on that. This one was especially horrendous as he drugged her and both raped and sodomized her.

 

[The Seeker]

[quote author=CarlS link=topic=7296.msg39570#msg39570 date=1254235107]
I understand that France and the US do have an extradition treaty
[/quote]

Actually, it isn't just the USA they don't have extradition treaties with.

They don't extradite ANY of their own citizens to ANY country under any circumstances.

That said....they refused to extradite even a US citizen who shot a cop execution-style in Philadelphia (it was caught on surveillance video).

 

[CarlS]

I left out the word "not" in my post.

 

[The Seeker]

How low will Hollywood go in defending Roman Polanski? Former Oscar hostess Whoopi Goldberg tries to parse the meaning of rape between rape and something called “rape-rape†— which, if you read the testimony of Polanski’s victim, Polanski literally did by raping her and then sodomizing her. Goldberg tries to argue that Polanski pled guilty to statutory rape, not actual rape, which is true, and that he served a sentence — which is absolutely false:

VIDEO

Although Polanski got a deal in which the counts of actual rape and sodomy got dropped, the victim’s testimony makes clear that Polanski did both, and it wasn’t consensual at all. He drugged his victim to make her more compliant, and then forced himself on her twice despite her protestations. Whoopi wants to focus on the age of the victim and the reduced charge for the plea agreement to make it into a Lolita situation, perhaps where the girl and her mother stalked Polanski, rather than a violent rape and sodomy.

I’m curious how other Hollywood feminists see this. Debra Winger defended Polanski yesterday and demanded that the US drop the charges, after many years of feminist complaints from Winger about the Hollywood system. She doesn’t appear to apply her standards and values to a male director who victimized a child trying to break into the business, but Winger will gas on for hours about how older women get mistreated by Hollywood. This seems to be a big credibility test for Hollywood, one which they are flunking — badly.

Not everyone has flunked it, however. Washington Post’s reliable liberal voice Eugene Robinson contradicts Anne Applebaum (who absurdly claimed not to know that her husband was pushing for Polanski’s release and the withdrawal of the arrest warrant) and wonders what the hell is wrong with Polanski’s defenders:

Polanski has dual French-Polish citizenship, and officials in Paris and Warsaw are outraged. Which makes me outraged. What’s their beef? That Polanski is 76? That he makes great movies? That he only fled to escape what might well have been an unjust sentence? Sorry, mes amis, but none of this matters. If you decide to become a fugitive, you accept the risk that someday you might get caught.

Much has been made of the fact that Polanski’s victim, now 45, has said she no longer feels any anger toward him and does not want to see him jailed. But it’s irrelevant what the victim thinks and feels as a grown woman. What’s important is what she thought and felt at age 13, when the crime was committed. Those who argue that there’s something unjust about Polanski’s arrest are essentially accepting his argument that it’s possible for a 13-year-old girl, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, to “consent†to sex with a man in his 40s. Or maybe his defenders are saying that drugging and raping a child is simply not such a big deal.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a huge deal. Even in France, it should be a big deal. This isn’t about a genius who is being hounded for flouting society’s hidebound conventions. It’s about a rich and powerful man who used his fame and position to assault — in every sense, to violate — an innocent child.

And it’s about a man who ran away rather than face the consequences of his actions. Before any sentence could be imposed, he absconded like a weasel to live a princely life in France.

Only a moron or a moral midget would read the transcripts and the actual facts of the case and conclude that Polanski deserves to avoid accountability for this crime. Unfortunately, Hollywood is filled with both.

 

[CarlS]

Much of Hollywood is comprised of morally bankrupt elitists. This is why I rarely watch a movie and have nothing to do with any thing that would support Hollywood.

 

[DaveM]

The one question they asked in the video was where was the mother, how did she allow her daughter to go into this situation alone. Now that is something I would also like to know. I would never ever think of leaving a young girl alone in a situation like this.

 

[otherwise]