I never met Roman Polanski, although I certainly knew many of his friends, including the studio executive Thom Mount, who was “close to Roman” when the director escaped the US, and later went on to produce several of his films that were made abroad. Mount had been the executive in charge of Bustin’ Loose, a film I wrote for Richard Pryor, and produced my directorial debut, My Man Adam, a film about which the less said the better. (Mount is allegedly the inspiration for the novel and film The Player.)
Later, I wrote another movie – Enemies, A Love Story – that starred Angelica Huston, who was living with Jack Nicholson when Polanski got himself into trouble with the thirteen-year old Samantha Gailey at Nicholson’s house. Angelica was there that night, but Jack was not. By the time I worked with Angelica (1989), it was twenty years after the Tate-LaBianca Murders and twelve since Roman fled the country, but still you were aware that she had seen things few of us ever would.
So, although I never met Polanski personally, it was six degrees of separation. But there is nothing surprising in this. Few of us who have spent the last forty years in the twisted heart of “The Entertainment Capital of the World” were more than those six degrees from the charismatic Pole, even when he was on the other side of the globe. From the Holocaust to Manson, this man carried history on his shoulder in the most lurid sense.
Reading the news of his arrest in Switzerland has been surprisingly upsetting, but not because I have a strong opinion about whether justice should be served at this late date, thirty-two years after the fact. I don’t, although I am sure that the excuses that were made for Polanski at the time – that he didn’t realize the girl was thirteen, etc. – were utter baloney. (He had been receiving permissions from her mother to do a photo shoot, fer crissakes.)
No, it’s a deeper manipulation that disturbs me – something akin to the feeling I had watching The Pianist, Polanski’s 2002 film about a young Polish Jewish musician struggling to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto of World War II. It won Oscars for actor Adrien Brody, writer Ronald Harwood and for Polanski. The fans at the Internet Movie Data Base love it 8.5 out 10 and rank it #59 in the top 250 of all movies.
Not me. Lurking behind the stylish images and high art of The Pianist, I heard Roman Polanski talking to me. I heard him imploring me and saying – see what I have suffered, it was horrible beyond comprehension, you must excuse me anything I have done. I felt exploited and I didn’t like it.
Now maybe I don’t have a right to say this. I was born at the end of 1943 and the closest I ever came to the Holocaust were the numbers tattooed on the arm of one of the nurses in my father’s medical office. I didn’t suffer like Roman, hiding out during WWII like the hero of The Painted Bird. But perhaps this comparison is apt, because Kosinki’s novel has been accused of inauthenticity. Suffering from the Holocaust is not an excuse for bad behavior – or perhaps even, as is more accurate in Polanski’s case – allowing your personal demons to be an excuse for that behavior.
So I’m feeling exploited again, angry at U. S. authorities for bringing this up after all this time and angry at Roman for not facing the reality of his actions. None of this, as my grandmother used to say, is “good for the Jews,” especially at a time they have far bigger fish to fry. It is also worth noting, although cruel, that Polanski has admitted to being unfaithful to Sharon Tate during their very brief two-year marriage, an admission made only under oath many years after carrying the torch for Tate as if she were his own personal second Holocaust.
Look, Polanski is weak like the rest of us. But in the end, there is something about him that is a metaphor for Hollywood – despite that he has been exiled from here these many years. A tremendously talented man, he is the emblem of special pleading.
UPDATE: I see from the comments that a few readers think I condone Polanski’s actions. Not in the slightest. I called him the “emblem of special pleading” and tried to take it beyond what I assumed we all thought obvious – you don’t fool around with thirteen year old girls.
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162 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » Roman Polanski’s Arrest: A View from Los Angeles:[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:50 am 2. canuck:…and I am angry the French protected him all these years and angry that someone just didn’t put a bounty on his head…dead or alive to do his pleadings with Ted Kennedy.
It is impossible to have much in the way of sympathy after looking at his crime for which he is already convicted.
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:45 am 3. LeighB:While I was delighted to hear he had been arrested, I also think the charges will be dismissed. And I’ll leave defending a grown man’s drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl to others. And there will be plenty defending and protecting him from any consequences, as there always have been.
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:47 am 4. cedarhill:If it will make folks feel better about being exploited again, we can draw lots to see who gives him a lethal injection for what he’s done. Or, at least, maybe he’ll be able to meet some folks in prison that don’t really like someone raping little girls.
Sep 28, 2009 - 4:32 am 5. marky:Ah, cmon guys, what’s the big deal. I mean, OK, OK, he diddled a thirteen year old. Well, I’ve seen lots of hot thirteen year olds that make me drool. I mean really hot. So I understand how Roman probably got lured into a bad situation. Cause some of these thirteen year old sex goddesses really strut their stuff. Of course, I’m only eleven years old. And, although, obviiously, I wasn’t around during the holocaust, life hasn’t been a bed of roses for me either. Just two weeks ago I had to sit through Obama’s school speech.
Sep 28, 2009 - 4:40 am 6. Pragmatist:Polanski is a child molester so look for moonbat ‘libtards’ and Mohammedans sticking up for him. Its what they do.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:05 am 7. bgates:I’ll leave defending a grown man’s drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl to others.
Defend it? I can think of one group that will help him make it a tax writeoff.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:11 am 8. glenn:Scumbag. So is anyone who defends him. Having said that, leave him in France. They deserve him.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:36 am 9. JFM:Let’s imagine Clint Eastwood or any other half right wing film director either had had consensual sex with an underaged girl or had raped a 18+ woman (in other terms had done half what Polanski did). We can bet liberals would be requiring him being sentenced to 30+ years and being chemically castrated.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:59 am 10. Talnik:This fiasco is his own fault, he should have dealt with it in the 70’s.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:11 am 11. Steve:His suffering was cruel and undeserved. He is not a tragic hero though. He uses his suffering as a crutch. That is what addicts do.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:12 am 12. Mike2:The fact that Polanski has suffered psychological and spiritual damage is beyond question. Rosemary’s Baby illustrates that. It was one of the most truly awful and depressing movies I have ever seen. The issue for all the victims of WWII is how they chose to deal with their survival. Polanski chose one way and Simon Wiesenthal chose another. I leave it to others to decide which has made the better contribution to humanity.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:13 am 13. Marina:And is it “good for the Jews” that he’s still there, out there, somewhere, and we all know it and we all remember? And he receives his Oscar, and the Hollywood crowd stands up and applauds, and the rest of us just thinks: Wow… How can THAT be “good for the Jews”? Remember the reaction to Ted Kennedy’s death? Nobody has ever forgotten what he had done. The whole nation, always remembering, but unable to do a thing. That wasn’t “good for the Kennedys” at all. Imagine they’ll let Polansky go. One day he’ll die. And the reaction will be like “That Jew that raped a 13 y.o. girl is now dead”. People never forget anything unless they chose to. In this case only Hollywood and Euros had done it. Let him be punished for what he has done. It’ll be “ambivalent for the Jews”, because anti-Semites will always find thier reasons for their sick ideas. But the girl (the human being) deserves justice. Imagine it would have been YOUR daughter. Come up and say to her: “Should justice be served at this late date, thirty-two years after the fact?”.
Look at the comments at your article – nobody has forgotten. All those “thirty-two years”. Outside the Hollywood bubble, everybody remembers.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:23 am 14. Observerx:He drugged and raped a 13 year old. Make all the excuses you want…
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:25 am 15. pelaut:Those Hollywood/DC/NYC/SanFran celebrities who have “seen things few of us ever would…” — aren’t they really neat people?
I hope Polanski gets big bad jail time, not for buying some sex from a girl whose mother sold her to him (pretty standard Hollywood fare), but for being one of those really neat people.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:34 am 16. Now and Then:Hey, great news! Tom Foley has a new radio show . . . a conservative talk radio show! Let’s give him a hand, shall we? (Just be sure to wash it afterward.)
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:34 am 17. Poor Citizen:Im with no 11 maria on this one too.
My wife still talks about things I said when we were dating twenty years ago…people (specially women eh guys?) never forget….they are like elephants..(ouch…my wife just slapped me…) ok, beautiful, thin elephants…
good article, thanks.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:43 am 18. Bob:Take the rabid mutt behind the barn and shoot it.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:45 am 19. ricpic:The Pianist was totally dishonest. Which of those Jews caught in the Warsaw ghetto got to take a bubble bath – as a kind of time out – before the Germans closed in for the final kill?
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:56 am 20. jedrury:13 year old girl + sex + Roman’s plea of guilty + release on bail+ skip town=criminality. Let the judge decide on both the sentence for the sex and the sentence for the bail jumping.
Sep 28, 2009 - 7:08 am 21. James Felix:Look, Polanski is weak like the rest of us.
Um, no. For the overwhelming majority of us a moment of weakness means having a third cocktail or overeating while on a diet, not raping teenagers. Polanski belongs in prison, and he should have been there a long time ago.
Sep 28, 2009 - 7:42 am 22. Jim:Listen up everyone: lots of people drug and rape 7th-grade girls that they have been trusted to take care of for a day, plead guilty to a lesser charge when she won’t testify, and then flee the country.
The man is a CELEBRITY, ok? That is what matters here. The French understand this. Why can’t you?
Oh yeah, and the judge “had it in” for him. Don’t forget that part. There’s a documentary, and everything.
The man has suffered enough. Would you want to spend 32 years banned from the USA? Sure, you might be an obscenely rich filmmaker, getting cheered wherever you go in Europe, winning Oscars, and having access to girls in countries where their age is much more irrelevant. But would take the sting out of your exile?
Sep 28, 2009 - 7:55 am 23. Kevin R.C. O'Brien:How is it “Good for the Jews” to let an admitted pedophile pervert go unpunished? I hope it’s just coincidence that the people I’ve noticed making either the “it was no big deal, the bimbo had it coming” argument (Patrick Goldstein in the LA TImes – blurbed on P1) or the “hey, he suffered so he had the right to drug and violently sodomize a child” and “he’s so creative, what’s a ruined kid or two to that” arguments (pedo-pal Goldstein again, Anne Appelbaum and Roger here) happen to be Jewish. If it’s a universal sentiment among Jews that a monster like Polanski, who undoubtedly savaged other kids — it’s what perverts do –then the creepy antisemites (who have been spreading their bile at various blogs already) will have a regular Parteitag. (Not to excuse them. In a perfect world, they’d be Polanski’s cellmates).
Fortunately this sentiment is not universal among Jews (what sentiment is?). It may be universal among media/infotainment Jews, or maybe among media/infotainment exceptionalists of all backgrounds. I’d dearly like to see some examples of goys making the same pro-pedophile arguments that Roger and the others do. The Jews in my circle, which is very far removed from Roger’s lotus-eating, drug-quaffing, child-raping crowd, would not only see this guy hang, but help knot the rope.
Finally — where was all this sympathy for the tortured artist when Michael Jackson was in the news? Jackson was probably guilty, but unlike Polanski, never hung his head and admitted every act he was charged with in open court.
The entertainment racket is profoundly sick. It affects every one in it apparently, even Roger. Clear your head, sir.
Sep 28, 2009 - 8:38 am 24. LoboSolo:The female in question has already settled out court and doesn’t want persue criminal charges. If the victim feels she has already been compensated and doesn’t want to go thru the whole thing again, then let it go.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:26 am 25. Roger L Simon:LoboSolo, I agree with you. Frankly, this is all a media show at this point – for the US authorities who seek extradition and even for Sarkozy in his great pretense – not to mention for me. I’m going to be on the BBC in an hour to discuss it.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:30 am 26. Minerva:I recall another (in California?) notorious case where the judge, in passing sentence, acknowledged that the convicted defendant had lived a miserable childhood, but it was the adult, not the child, who was being punished.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:30 am 27. Maggie:Horrid little man.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:38 am 28. Mike Sheard:Lex Rex. He was convicted, bring him back and have him do his time.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:38 am 29. Banjo:The liberal mindset, particularly in matters of taxation and libido, holds that laws and rules are for others — the little people.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:39 am 30. RW:Interesting article and I had not looked at the Piano that way but guess it’s my fault for not seeing the parallel.
Not buying into the suffering issue. The girl was 13 and he knew what he was doing. Justice comes slowly sometimes for Nazis, almost never for Soviet communist murderers and for one pedophile.
Personalizing it as some folks have mentioning if it was your family really hits home. Many people live a lifetime of pain due to child abuse. Sexual abuse of children is really about as low as one can go.
Let him face the music or spend months in Zurich in jail fighting extradition.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:43 am 31. al miller:Well settling it out of court maybe okay with the girl whose mother sold her to Polanski but it is bad public policy. Mothers cannot be permitted to do this and men cannot be permitted to buy this and children are not mature enough to consent. Of course if some men want the Muslim rule of law go ahead and ignore it.
Shame on you Roger Simon. You stepped down 10 steps today.
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:44 am 32. David W. Lincoln:What Roman Polanski did to the victim was alter her life negatively. Instead of what she could have looked forward to, she had to undergo healing, thereby missing out on what could have been.
I take Samantha at her word that she has been healed, but the time spent healing could have
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:48 am 33. french F.:been put to other things, such as enjoying life. We will never know what could have happened, but we can conclude that life would have been better.
French and POLISH governments are asking for the releasing of Polanski ; besides the girl who is at the origin of this trial, is 45 by now, and said that she no longer pursues Polanski.
Now the Swiss, in their bizarre relation with the fical paradises, settled an agreement with the US administration, that isn’t too harsh for their banks, wanted to show their good will towards America and gave Polanski as a ostensible proof of it. Though Polanski is in use to travel to Switzerland, up to now freely !
Well, dunno the real file of his paedophil behaviour, but in Hollywood, people have some weird comportments, apart Clint Eastwood of course, that, if we were aware of them, not many would be free to walk in the streets !
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:51 am 34. MarkD:Some animals are more equal than others?
Look, it doesn’t matter what the child, now woman, says. Polanski was convicted in a criminal court. Her forgiveness might be a consideration in his sentence, but not his conviction.
I suppose Teddy Kennedy deserved a pass as well? Sorry, Roger. You are better than this.
Next up, how Michael Jackson was persecuted?
Sep 28, 2009 - 9:58 am 35. Dred Scott:“It’s Chinatown, Jake.”
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:04 am 36. Jim Bass:Read the victim’s trial testimony at thesmokinggun.com – it is heart breaking. Polanski didn’t do this by mistake, he plotted it. Then, when his plea bargain (42 days for rape of a child!) was about to go up in smoke, he ran like a coward.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:04 am 37. Andy Rigrod:A couple of very odd comments on here seem to misread Simon entirely. I don’t see him condoning Polanski. In fact, he disses The Pianist as Polanski’s attempt to excuse his awful behavior – something I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Makes a bit of sense.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:08 am 38. Malvolio:Doesn’t every criminal sing this same song? Daddy beat me, Mommy didn’t love me, that’s why I’m so bad. OK, for Polanski, it was Hitler and Charles Manson not Mommy and Daddy, but that doesn’t make his raping a child somehow forgivable.
I can’t believe any soi-dissant conservative wouldn’t talk this point as axiomatic.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:11 am 39. Letalis Maximus, Esq.:So, where are the pics from that photo shoot?
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:21 am 40. Mauther:#24 Lobosolo & #25 Roger Simon:
While the victim has settled and has publicly stated she does not want criminal charges, the matter has moved beyond that stage. I heard an excellent commentator on the radio this morning (on NPR of all places) who pointed out that the laws purpose is not just to punish and rehabilitate, but just as importantly if not more importantly to maintain the public order. Polanski raped a minor and fled justice. While he has verbally expressed regret and has settled financially he has rejected multiple plea bargains over the years, and refused to surrender to any authority no matter how sympathetic. As a fugitive actively flaunting his arrest, it is imperative the government pursue and punish him. Its conceivable that he was emotionally imbalanced by the murder of his wife at the time of the rape (I doubt it, but the case could be made) but he’s had 30 years to come to terms and he’s failed.
If there’s any justice, they’ll put him in the violant juvenile wing and he can be raped by a 13 year old gangmember.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:27 am 41. jvon:I think he’ll receive the minimum sentence possible, even though if any of US did this we’d receive the max. I think part of the reason celebrities act the way they do is because they believe (rightly so much of the time) that a different set of rules apply to them.
I don’t see what possible reason there would be for dropping the charges against him, and I will be absolutely appalled if it happens. Drugging and raping a 13 year old girl is as wrong now as it was in the 70s, and he’s still just as guilty of it. As for the amount of time that’s passed — that is his doing, not the court’s.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:38 am 42. Shelby:Roger, exactly what is it about Polanski’s situation that makes sentencing wrong now? Is it the victim’s forgiveness? (If so, what if she forgave him the day after the rape?) Is it the passage of time? (If so, do you oppose the current prosecution of Nazis concentration-camp guards?) Is it Polanski’s terrible childhood? (If so, don’t all such people get a free pass for everything?) Is it Polanski’s accomplishments? (If so, do we not have an aristocracy immune from criminal liability?) Is it your personal connection to him and the discomfort that creates?
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:41 am 43. Liz T.:As the mother of a convicted registered sex offender who had consensual sex at the age of 17 with his then 15-year-old girlfriend, which produced my gorgeous granddaughter, I have quite a different take on this. My son is white and middle class with no horrific background to garner any pity. He committed a nonviolent crime and will be harassed, ridiculed, and stalked for the rest of his life, as his sentence is lifetime. I witnessed a DA and a judge ignore the victim’s family’s pleas for leniency and no jail time and no registry. I also know from my extensive research into sex offenses, sex laws, and pedophilia (neither Mr. Polanski nor my son fit the definition of a pedophile, by the way; the correct term is ephebophile or hebephile – although my son was in the same age bracket, so that term also does not apply in his case) that statistically, both Mr. Polanski and my son have an extremely low rate of recidivism, contrary to the fear-mongering MSM. My son committed a crime, is still serving his time, and will spend a lifetime without freedom to pursue happiness, without freedom to choose where to live, work, or pray, and without freedom to be alone with his own beautiful child or to participate in her school activities or sports activities. Surely you can understand my questioning your support of a man in his 40s who did rape a teenage girl and society’s eternal condemnation of my son who statutorily raped a teenage girl. Of course, California is governed by a non-convicted, non-sentenced hebephile, so it is unlikely that justice in any sense will be served in any way. Perhaps, in your eyes, it is fair that my son’s sentence take the place of Mr. Polanski’s crime. And perhaps it would bring further poetic exoneration of Mr. Polanski if my son were to be murdered by a registry-hounding vigilante. “Special pleading” indeed.
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:53 am 44. Howard Veit:What makes his actions truly unconscionable is that he “got her in the mood” by feeding her Quaaludes and champaign and then anally assaulting her. It’s interesting that the LEFT is screaming bloody murder, not at him but at us and the victim for daring to demand justice. After all, he’s an artist and artists are entitled…….
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:57 am 45. Delia:Don’t even get me started on Woody Allen.
bleh
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:58 am 46. Dan:If Polanski’s rape of this girl had been filmed, you would be thrown in the clink for watching or distributing it. In fact, I think the penalty is rather severe. Why should the actual perpetrator get a pass, as some have been demanding?
Sep 28, 2009 - 10:59 am 47. Thomas_L.....:It is only because, the now grown-up, young woman in question would like this to be finally over that I think it perhaps should be let go. She has reached a civil settlement with Polanski and wishes to move on. She says she’s tired of it. I think I can understand that. This does not condone his actions or absolve him from responsibility but merely recognizes the situation “on the ground”.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:00 am 48. Joshua:“If so, do you oppose the current prosecution of Nazis concentration-camp guards?”
That you would even dare to compare the two in polite society demonstrates perfectly what I write above.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:12 am 49. Hot Air » Blog Archive » Arresting a child rapist “outrageous”, says columnist with axe to grind:[...] [...]
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:22 am 50. Maureen:You do know that, when it comes to violent and serious crimes, it doesn’t matter whether the victim wants to press charges or not. For the safety of society, there are no takebacks; otherwise, there’d be thugs outside every crime victim’s door, “encouraging” her to drop the charges.
Rapists should be executed, really. Polanski is just darned lucky we’re so nicey-nice about this.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:24 am 51. JFM:you don’t fool around with thirteen year old girls.
Mr Simon, do I need to remind you that this is not a case of “fooling around”? What we are talking about is not “fooling around” but rape
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:30 am 52. bakerp:Have to throw a flag on this one. The only reason Polanski wasn’t hauled back and tossed in the jail in the 70’s was because he mouth the liberal standards of Hollywood and is “OH so creative”. Who cares if he rapes a few little girls.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:31 am 53. blackwell:BAH!
He is a rapist and pedophile and need to be tossed in prison, because crimes like that are not just against the victim they are against civil society. And let’s add that his fleeing also makes a mockery of the system.
So Roger, think we should just forget the Unicorn Killer?
Like the woman from Minnesota, he has time to finish. And he fled, which is itself a crime.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:41 am 54. Diana:Disgusting excuse for a human being!!!
His victim may forgive him for his crime against her; however, she has no standing to forgive his crime against humanity!!!
I have no respect for anyone who stood with him then or now.
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:51 am 55. Beej:you don’t fool around with thirteen year old girls
This is so repulsive that I choose to assume you don’t know the full story and instead have bought into the hype of his defenders.
Holding Man Accountable for Drugging and Anal Rape of 13-Year-Old Child Will Take Too Much $$$$
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:56 am 56. Roger L Simon:Beej, I know the entire story, probably more than you do. I understand fully what happened – the two “photo shoots”, the hot tub and worse. I was using short hand obviously. You should know that. Cool down.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:01 pm 57. bakerp:Roger,
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:07 pm 58. Bonnie_:You can’t paint this any other way. YOU are defending a man that raped a little girl and then fled justice. That is it. Nothing, Nothing can make this look any other way.
I, too, am sad and sickened by the publicity surrounding this old case. Now I know things I wish I didn’t, about a movie producer drugging, raping, and sodomizing a little girl. Of course it doesn’t reflect well on Hollywood and people in the industry.
Whenever a mom kills her children, I am sickened and saddened and I feel somehow besmirched because I am a mom with children. A movie producer like Mr. Simon, who would never harm a child, must feel the same way when Polanski’s crimes are splashed all over the headlines.
Most moms are good, and most producers just want to create magic on film. Then there are the monsters.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:08 pm 59. Nancy Lopez:Interesting post, Mr. Simon. I don’t get these commenters who think you are defending Polanski. I see you attacking him all over the place on a variety of levels. I guess if you don’t say you want to kill him, that’s a defense to them.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:10 pm 60. Dr. Dealgood:Hollywood Babylon…
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:16 pm 61. ddc:You most certainly and clear are defending what a 44 yr old man did to a 13 yr old. Last I read, California’s age of consent was 17. Have you a problem with that? Pretty interesting indeed.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:16 pm 62. Warren Bonesteel:The “PTB” did this now, only because they wanted to distract all of you from more important issues.
You folks went for it, hook, line, sinker.
I wonder what bills are being passed this week in Congress…with what kind of ‘amendments’?
I wonder what’s going on with unemployment and bankruptcies around the nation? Hmm…when do ya think commercial real estate will collapse? Afghanistan, Iran, the ongoing collapse of the dollar and the global move to replace it as a reserve currency, Little Kim playing mind games with South Korea, the new trade war with America’s largest debt holder, the militarization of civilian LEOs at every level of government. There are any number of more important issues to focus on.
Instead, you’re talking about the arrest of a celebrity pedophile??? Because…it is a Big Story in the MSM that you claim to despise? You hate the MSM, but you allow them to manipulate you with obvious distractions and titillation?
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:17 pm 63. Tina Trent:Liz T., I frankly never believe stories like that unless I see the court records; statistics on recidivism (that you “researched”) are based on convictions and written by pro-defense activists: the prevalence of negotiated pleas, non-prosecutions and extremely low rates of detection render them meaningless. LoboSolo, you’re simply wrong. Polanski is already convicted. Facts matter.
So, too, does the standard of equal consequences before the law. Nothing else should matter: not artistry, nor ethnicity, nor religion, nor unrelated historical events. Nor elite social status. That is the point that Simon first appears to make here, but then he waffles: why is he angry that the U.S. is taking this up — why wasn’t he angry that they didn’t equitably enforce our laws for all these years? He can’t be saying that these extraneous considerations — in this case, mind you — should excuse equal enforcement of our law? Polanski’s identity should be meaningless. End of story.
If you want a law that consigns victims to passive roles as witnesses to their crimes, without any legal right to demand recourse — a value we enshrine as justice — then you have to accept the consequences of consigning victims to that metaphysical role. If you want a justice system that treats all offenders equally, then you have to accept the consequences. Who could possibly not want those things?
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:18 pm 64. bakerp:I don’t think that the American people are so stupid, or so easily deflected that we can’t pay attention to this evil, evil man and the fact that Obama is heading off to Denmark after having met with his commander in Afghanistan ONE time.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:20 pm 65. newton:I’m sure, Roger, that you never excused his behavior. And I see clearly that you don’t take being used by someone using a personal tragedy or two for his own gain – which is, unfortunately, what Polasnki and his friends have done here.
Too many of the Hollywood type think he can use his fame and fortune as “Brownie Points” towards his freedom. That is no different than the way many of them were behaving during their “Free Tookie!” time or for so long in their “Free Mumia!” campaign. Shameful, all the same.
This reminds me of something else that has taken me some time to think about. A few years ago, Karla Faye Tucker (who had become a Christian while on death row) was to be executed for murder. But she didn’t want to be executed. As a former neighbor of mine, a Presbyterian, summarized back then, “I’m a Christian. Please spare my life!” My neighbor felt just as used by her as you do by Polanski right now. Fortunately, then-Gov. Bush was not amused by her, and allowed the sentence to stand.
Gov. Arnold didn’t get taken by the Tookie argument, either. Polanski should get no sympathy here. He ESCAPED before his sentencing, for cryin’ out loud! He was not just guilty: he was a FUGITIVE from the law.
My deepest sympathies to him for having lost his family during the Holocaust. My most sincere condolences for having lost his wife and unborn child to the Manson Family murderers. But for raping an underage girl and running from the law? Sorry, Roman: time to pay the piper.
P.S. Barack Obama better not dare to pardon this man.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:26 pm 66. tehag:“If the victim feels she has already been compensated and doesn’t want to go thru the whole thing again, then let it go”
Sounds good me… as long as every other rapist, child rapist, and NAMBLA member and rapist gets equal treatment: years of “suffering” in France with a “ruined” reputation and then forgiveness after evading responsibility. So: no rape trials unless 30 years later the victim still wants a trial. Bravo! A new legal standard is born.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:28 pm 67. JKB:While not really defending Polanski, the post did seem to want to avoid the truth of the situation, i.e., that during the course of producing child pornography, Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a 13-yr old girl. If we are going to ruin the lives of teenagers who take photos of themselves with their cell phones, we can hardly ignore a confessed child molester regardless of his popularity in Hollywood.
The arrest was probably foolish. Far better would have been to issue the extradition request to all countries ensuring Polanski knew so he would be confined to those countries willing to harbor a confessed child molester. He would also have to fear an emergency diversion to a country that actually respected the rule of law.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:28 pm 68. tehag:“I am angry the French protected him all these years and angry that someone just didn’t put a bounty on his head”
Get angry twice. The French protected Ira Einhorn for decades, too. It’s French tradition to protect criminals who avoid American justice.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:31 pm 69. Thomas_L......:Tehag – Not really. Victims’ statements have become huge parts of these types of things and this victim would prefer to not have to go through it all again. Are you saying that in this case, this victim’s statement should be ignored?
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:34 pm 70. Conceit:After years of reading mysteries, it seems that often the plot is not alone about solving a crime as observing human nature: the motive(s), bystanders at the crime scene — innocent or otherwise — the concept of justice, emotions of those outside the investigation…”Burke’s Law”, so to speak. Now that I have read the above comments and replies: Roger, with this sad subject you appear to have the basis of a Moses Wine book.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:46 pm 71. ddc:“special pleading.”
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:52 pm 72. blackwell:Remarkable. Polanski should be regarded as “Special” on what basis? What exactly makes this pedophile different from the 100 or so registered pedophiles in my neighborhood? It is that kind of “elitest” thinking that let O.J. go free and makes communities errupt into battles zones ala Rodney King. A crime is a crime is a crime, whether perpetrated yesterday or 30 years prior. This is not about Polanski being “weak” as in “we are all weak” it is about his being a rather sick individual to anal rape a 13 year old. Interesting that you would include yourself in “we are all weak.” It is understandable that many commenters have an issue with how you’ve presented your opinion.
There is no “film maker” exception in California law for rapists, much less rapists of 13 year olds.
Roman, you’re probably going to have to submit to the unfeeling and unliberated judgment of your artistic inferiors. The unfeeling Los Angeles judiciary you mooned by running abroad and hiding there is waiting for you. The jury pool, many with teenage girls, are waiting too.
We didn’t forgive the Minnesota bomber mom. We didn’t forget about you either. And we shouldn’t.
The rest of us want Mr. “I’m above your law” Polanski tried, punished for fleeing and jailed.
Criminal prosecution serves a goal of deterrence as well: here’s a classic one for every producer, director, whatever that thinks the law does not apply to him.
Looks like all his publicity a few months ago to get the charges dismissed (it failed) was all for naught.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:54 pm 73. DavidN:The whole point to this, near as I can tell, is that you’re not supposed to be able to buy your way out of the criminal justice system, even if you’re a celebrity and everyone likes you. Polanski didn’t serve part of his sentence and then somehow plea for a pardon. He fled the country because the plea bargain he wanted (which included almost no jail time) was rejected by the judge. There’s a principle that has long been established here: you don’t get pardoned after you flee justice. Instead, pardons come if you are either serving your sentence, or about to start serving it, or have already served it, and the executive of the state or Federal government thinks you deserve a pardon (or your wife makes lots of big contributions to the Democratic party and the Presidential library; but that’s another story). Polanski has refused to submit to the criminal justice system of California unless they agree to handle the trial in a fashion he deems appropriate. Anyone see anything wrong with that?
On a related note, they caught him not because of renewed interest or anything. Apparently, if the Swiss authorities know he’s coming, and no one from the LA DA’s office calls them and says “pick him up please”, then he attends the film festival unhindered. This has been going on for a while. Apparently the LA DA’s office is finally connected to the internet, and noticed that he was scheduled to attend this event…so they called Switzerland and made the request.
Sep 28, 2009 - 12:59 pm 74. Sebastian Shaw:I know he suffered horribly first as a child in World War II Europe & then several years later when his wife & friends were brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s family; however, Roman Polanski must answer for his crimes of rape of a 13 year old girl. He has already pleaded guilty to the crime years ago. The coward must serve the time.
I am more angry how the liberal moral relativism is on full display as the Hollywood crowd wants to excuse Polanski of crime of rape. He fled to France for a reason. He has money & wealth, yet still human. He must sever the time. The Hollywood crowd needs to come back down to Earth & live among the mortals they pretend to no longer be. Hollywood, France, & anyone else is unjust in their stance with their protection of Roman Polanski.
Polanski is a brilliant director who has been corrupted by his own wealth & decadence he has lived in for over 30 years.
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:00 pm 75. Noga:“None of this, as my grandmother used to say, is “good for the Jews,”
Why would Jews be implicated in Polanski’s demons and misdemeanors, anymore than they would be implicated by some transgression –in which they played no part– committed by a non-Jewish person?
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:14 pm 76. Lili von Shtupp:Roger, you are missing the point. Polanski tried to get a very lenient plea bargain. Somewhere along the line, the judge thought better of it and imposed a harsher sentence. Judges can and do do that on occasion.
Now, Polanski had the opportunity to appeal this through the courts. He even could have tried to get his attorney punished for legal malpractice if he thought he got screwed. There is a process for that, and he was fully capable of starting it.
Instead….he ran to France, and did whatever he could to avoid getting arrested. He made sure that when he testified in a trial in England that he could do it electronically from France, specifically because he was afraid the Brits would hand him over. Polanski knew exactly what he was doing, make no mistake.
Maybe he got cocky after his Oscar, and thought he could pop over to Switzerland for another award and some fondue. Oh, well.
It doesn’t even matter if the victim wants him to go free. The original charge isn’t the point any more. He ran, enjoyed the good life on the French Riviera, and now has to pay the penalty for being a fugitive. It’s about frickin’ time!
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:26 pm 77. Marlowe:I only thought of Polanski as a Pole when I saw that France and Poland were angry about the arrest. I only thought of Polanski as Jew when I saw Roger Simon mention that this news might not be “good for the Jews.” One possibility is that I’m dense. Another is that I honestly see people as individuals. If it’s the second, then I guess I should be pleased with myself.
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:42 pm 78. Fictional:24. LoboSolo:
“The female in question has already settled out court and doesn’t want persue criminal charges. If the victim feels she has already been compensated and doesn’t want to go thru the whole thing again, then let it go.”
Exactly.
If you can afford to buy a 13 year-old girl from her mother; that should be perfectly legal and acceptable behavior. Like you LoboSolo I don’t get why people are complaining.
Personally I don’t try to buy children for just one night; I tend to buy them for the remaining portion of their minority, and keep them locked in my basement for years… but its the same thing.
But its more a buying individual servings, or buying in bulk. Right? If I’m caught, so long as the girl is beaten into submission so she won’t complain, and the mother was paid enough; I shouldn’t do time.
I’m so glad to see someone supports me.
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:45 pm 79. Roman Polanski, Hollywood Elites, and Victimhood:[...] Roger Simon apparently feels the same way, but he also opened my eyes to an angle I’ve never considered. He apparently fears this case could reflect badly on Jews, from the appearance that Polanski gets a pass because of his personal suffering at the hands of the Nazis. [...]
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:49 pm 80. TrolLegal:“It’s clear and binding legal advice that prevents me from commenting. I’m sorry about this, it’s frustrating for me, but I hope readers understand.”
Sep 28, 2009 - 1:52 pm 81. Sebastian Shaw:Once he’s in jail, Polanski could make a film about license plates or picking up trash on the highway. He could direct it with a much lower budget of zero though. I would find it ironic if he were in the same jail as the remaining Manson family & Charlie Manson himself…
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:08 pm 82. Voltaire:“Get angry twice. The French protected Ira Einhorn for decades, too. It’s French tradition to protect criminals who avoid American justice.”
France protects such cases cuz in the US they would get death penalty and or too heavey jail condamnation, I read that Polanski could have been condamned to 50 years and Einhorn to death penalty.
punitions that aren’t envisageable in our constitution and also by EU standards
Polanski would may-be have been condamned from 5 to 7 years here.
Now, I also read that the girl case isn’t irreprochable, that she pretended to be 18 to get a chance to be remarcked by a films maker, and that her mother pushed her in the deal.
You never kno which tricks some are ready to undertake to get a role !
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:16 pm 83. JFP:Let’s not exaggerate, ok? Some of you are calling the victim a “little” girl. You make it sound like she was five years old when it happened. She was thirteen. Leave the exaggeration to the leftists.
And don’t think I’m being soft on the guy. I think he deserves twice what the average guy would get for this. I assume that as a director he had starlets constantly throwing themselves at him, so why should he go after a girl who was off-limits?
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:22 pm 84. HalifaxCB:What with Acorn (support for child prostitution) to Letterman (rape jokes about 14 yr olds) and now the Left’s support for Polanski, I think they ought to be honest and just change the motto from “Do it for the Children” to “Do it TO the Children”. After all, didn’t Dear Leader make a point that they are, after all, a punishment (and back it up with his infanticide proposals in the Illinois Senate)?
As for the law, well, pshaw. That only applies to the hoi polloi, not celebrities and other important demi-gods. Ask Tim Geithner (tax evasion) and Andrew Sullivan (dope possession). Clearly the kool ones have pecadillos, the right wing complainers should just accept the fact that is just part of relieving the stress of taking care of us (especially because we are obviously all raaaaaacist, that make the job *really* hard). And anyway, if the plebes start getting too uppity, who knows what might happen. Maybe some of the very best and brightest, like Communist Truthers, might have to account for their behaviour. Who really wants that?
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:34 pm 85. Delia:83.,
Rape is about power/control and not sex. Drugging and raping a young teen is revolting.
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:35 pm 86. Concered Dad:Polanski is Polish but he could belong to one of many religions in Poland. Rape is a criminal matter not a civil matter. He was convicted and ran. He should spend time in jail for both.
Raping a 13 year old is the same as raping a 5 year old. Any of those that disagree have any daughters? Would it be ok if he did that to your daughter? If the mother pushed her to have sex with him, she should be prosecuted just like Polanski was. It is still a crime. It is not for France to say what should happen. They don’t have the death penalty for rape. So that is a lame excuse. I have not heard about a father in this. Must not be one.
He is lucky that it was the US. Some countries he would be killed, sometimes without a trial.
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:53 pm 87. Geo:I choose to stand with LoboSolo and company and against the lynch mob on this issue. Tormenting an old man forty years after the event, when there is evidence of misconduct by the state, and victim is calling for restraint is a waste. At age seventy-six he a threat to no one while the resources used to hound him can better be used to work the backlog of murder, arson,and other cases that threaten everyone.
Sep 28, 2009 - 2:59 pm 88. Barrie:Compare the UK Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs.
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:31 pm 89. Nancy Reyes:He escaped from jail, lived as a celebrity, protected in Brazil for decades, but finally was caught and jailed long after his buddies in crime were free men.
He contributed to a massive theft and also the invaliding of a train driver.
UK justice simply vindicated itself in his case, despite the many years and positive publicity. He had to serve his time for the crime. Why not American justice too, Mr Simon?
I’m a physician who has worked with may abused women.
For my patients, often the trial is worse than the abuse: They tell of nightmares of being ridiculed and called a liar on the stand in front of many people.
Since the woman has settled the case ($) and moved on, that part of the case should be ignored.
A larger issue is ignoring the courts. This is where the book should be thrown at him.
As for France’s complaints: Remember Mr. Einhorn, who they also hid after murdering his girlfriend, under the excuse that murder can lead to the death penalty? Is this a pattern?
Finally, sexual abusers are usually serial abusers. Throw this case out, but get a tabloid to investigate the women he has abused since that case, and I bet you’ll find a pattern.
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:43 pm 90. SPANALOT:This on top of Appelbaum has me very much bemused as to how this is a “Jewish” issue.
A 40 year old man drugs and rapes a child and suddenly, there is a need to consider the ethnicity of one of his grandfather?
It appears the bulk of his lineage is Christian.
7 million Christian Poles were murdered during WWII.
Does this value enter into the equation?
The cyphering really eludes me.
What am I missing here?
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:49 pm 91. Barrie:I don’t share your view of the motive of Polanski in The Pianist – to draw attention to his own ’suffering’. The huge theme was entirely valid, and the film beautifully paced and achieved, deserving of the praise it earned.
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:50 pm 92. Les Nessman:The only false note was the symbolic exculpation of the German Soldier near the end. The average ‘cultured’ German in reality fully appreciated the beauty of the Jewish artist, and THEN killed him.
Doesn’t matter if the girl (now woman) does not want this matter pursued. The laws are for society, not just an individual. This is settled law.
Also, I’m suuuuure this was the ONLY time he ever raped underage girls. Riiight. Drugged up pedophiles are notorious for Only Doing It One Time, right?
Also, it was the Seventies, man. Things were just different then. You had to be there to understand. It was a different culture, so you can’t really be judgmental. -(hmmm. Didn’t some people try a close variation of that defense at Nurenburg? ‘Ve ver just following orders! ~ Ve ver just following the times ve lived in!’)
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:52 pm 93. rjsasko:I’m glad that the precedent of the “victim no longer wishes to pursue justice and has moved on” meme is now being put forth as a valid argument. As I recall “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade fame has repudiated her stance and is now vehemently against the 1973 unconstitutional Supreme Court decision. I am glad that abortion is now again illegal in the United States and I look forward to all of those who posted in favor of the “let it go because she no longer cares” thread coming out to support “Jane Roe”.
As for Roman Polanski I would personally give him the benefit of the doubt on police/court persecution if he had fled to Antarctica and kept a low profile. Of course that is not what he did. Hard to cry “poor me” when he opted for self-imposed exile in the Four Seasons. Let him face Justice just like us mere mortals have to do everyday. Maybe we’ll even luck out in not having to sit through any more over-rated Polanski films…
Sep 28, 2009 - 3:56 pm 94. Mary Jackson:Well settling it out of court maybe okay with the girl whose mother sold her to Polanski but it is bad public policy. Mothers cannot be permitted to do this and men cannot be permitted to buy this and children are not mature enough to consent. Of course if some men want the Muslim rule of law go ahead and ignore it.
Quite. Says it all perfectly.
Lock the filty – and overrated – old paedophile rapist up, and throw away the key. And look the other way if something nasty happens in the showers. He can think of it as a kind of art.
Sep 28, 2009 - 4:35 pm 95. LeighB:I think jail would be lovely for him and he can star in Michael Moore’s next movie. A two-fer. Sorta.
Sep 28, 2009 - 4:49 pm 96. Cristina:Mr. Simon,
You have nobody else but yourself to blame for the reactions of the readers here.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:46 pm 97. L Pinkus:To say the least, the article is poorly thought out and written. It reeks of moral and rhetorical ambiguity at every level. To give just one example: Though you say you did not personally know Polanski, you keep calling him by his first name, Roman, as if acknowledging an intimate connection. Roman here, Roman there, Roman everywhere. If you didn’t know him, never met him, why call him that way? Maybe six degrees of separation from an adulated, over-rated film-maker was too much separation for you.
Surely you realize how that would muddy the waters of whatever you were trying to say, which, by the way, escapes me completely.
I got the point about The Pianist–never saw the movie, but I got the gist of it and I believe you, perhaps because I’ve watched enough stylized crap about horrible suffering and degradation.
The rest–”none of this is good for the Jews” (what does that have to do with anything???) plus your being angry at the U.S. authorities for not letting this creep get away with multiple crimes, whatever their motives and even after 30 years–is stupefying.
If I follow your logic, Jews have bigger fish to fry than “Roman,” ergo Polanski should be able to avoid justice for the rest of his life because Jews ought to focus on that bigger fish. That means the office of the District Attorney in L.A. County is full of Jews who should know better than take on one of their own. That also means that the L.A. Jewish attorneys should stop prosecuting crime in their community, and go for Ahmadinejad, the biggest fish of all, even if that’s outside L.A.’s jurisdiction?
Count me as another who sees LoboSolo’s point. Yes, Polanski is despicable, but it does seem odd that it has taken all this time to get him back. Why now? Why not twenty years ago, even ten? Only now is this possible? I doubt it.
Meanwhile, The victim obviously wants this to go away so she, and her children and husband, can live a private life. Yet many want vengeance on Polanski suddenly at all costs. I don’t like him either, but something weird about the whole thing. Simon’s post captures this well – at least for me.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:53 pm 98. apetra:I guess Obama is behind the new “get tough on sex with underage girls” policy. Congressional Democrats must be quaking in their boots.
Sep 28, 2009 - 5:56 pm 99. Fernando:It’s funny how many of you watched Roman’s movies and are now condemning him. Why not a boycott of such a horrid pervert? The real question regarding jail time is, ‘is he a threat to society?’. In that, he is not, rather he is an acclaimed artist. And yes, it is relevant that his supposed victim, who noone here can prove was necessarily harmed or was truly unable to consent, has forgiven him. HL Mencken said correctly once that morality was jealousy with a halo. Those who are most quick to condemn may very well be those closest to the edge of raping their own 13yo neighbor.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:00 pm 100. L Pinkus:Further to Cristina #96. I can’t speak for R. Simon but what I assume he means… and this makes a lot of sense… is that the whole thing is going to be another distraction from real problems for Jews and everyone else. It is a potential media circus in the Simpson style that is highly unnecessary at this time. Surely that’s a defensible position.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:05 pm 101. Cristina:# 91 Barrie:
If you read the transcripts of Polanski’s trial, you’ll find the same beautiful pacing, timing, and detailing of his abuse of the 13-year-old Samantha. Really. It was smartly and softly done, not the acts of a beast lurking in the bushes. He was full of “art.” Even his sodomizing her came apace, after asking her if she was on the pill: How did she prefer being penetrated?
I hope you don’t have or give birth to a daughter. Creep.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:35 pm 102. Jonathan Rubinstein:Come on. The reason he is being persecuted/prosecuted is because he is a famous artist. No idea what happened but he did not rape the girl. If he was a nobody he would have done his time long ago. He is being persecuted for being famous not because he is a pig which he obviously was.
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:40 pm 103. Delia:102. Jonathan Rubinstein:
“No idea what happened but he did not rape the girl.”
WTF kind of contradictory statement is that?
Sep 28, 2009 - 6:51 pm 104. Dave Surls:“As a director, he was 10 times more wonderful than as a lover.”–Nastassja Kinski on Polanski
Kinski was supposedly involved with the director/kiddie-banger at the age of 15 (or so says wiki).
He likes them young…but, he doesn’t make much of an impression, does he?
Sep 28, 2009 - 7:03 pm 105. Barry Dauphin:Maybe the administration is pressing for his arrest in some convoluted strategy to get the Olympics for Chicago. {Obama promises that he can talk the LA DA into dropping charges but it’ll cost ya’).
Sep 28, 2009 - 7:21 pm 106. pc14:Jonathan Rubinstein–Polanski is not “being prosecuted”, that occurred 30 years ago. He plead GUILTY.
He will come back and be sentenced.
And there is no way that any court can allow anyone to rape a child, flee justice and then return only to have his sentence dismissed. Even liberals know that’s not a good message.
Sep 28, 2009 - 8:35 pm 107. Les Nessman:#99 Fernando
Based on your comments, it’s probably best if you just died in a fire tonight.
Sep 28, 2009 - 8:49 pm 108. Jessica Deal:True story.
An act like this is still an action taken, regardless of whether it took place 30 years ago. Does time deplete morality? I don’t believe it should. In fact, I don’t believe it does. And even more so, does celebrity deplete morality?
Sep 28, 2009 - 11:43 pm 109. Joe Mama:Too bad for Polanski he wasn’t a female public school teacher thirty years ago, and his victim wasn’t a boy on the football team. Today he’d be the education czar.
Sep 29, 2009 - 1:44 am 110. JFM:It’s funny how many of you watched Roman’s movies and are now condemning him.
Well in fact in fact when I learned abou Polanski being a raper I vowed not to watch the Pianist or any other of his movies until Polanski is dead and buried. I don’t want to reward him with single cent of my money.
Sep 29, 2009 - 1:53 am 111. Beldar:I, too, am angry at the U.S. government with regard to Polanski. I’m angry that they did not find a way to get the child-raping bastard captured and extradited many, many years ago. Right now, he doesn’t have enough years left in his natural life to serve a just sentence in prison, but whatever days he has left should be spent looking at gray walls no more than 8 feet away in any direction.
Sep 29, 2009 - 2:42 am 112. Filthy Screw:Interesting, the only comment I make disagreeing with one of the poohbahs on this site and it is removed.
Oh and to the mother of the KD who raped his girlfriend; too bad he broke the law. Maybe he’ll have a better time controlling his impulses in the future.
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:29 am 113. bandit:Polanski is weak like the rest of us.
Speak for yourself. We’re all sinners but that doesn’t make us all pedophiles. But like Ted Kennedy certain “beautiful people” can lieterally get away with rape and killing.
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:40 am 114. JFM:An act like this is still an action taken, regardless of whether it took place 30 years ago. Does time deplete morality?
There are definite good reasons for not judging crimes perpetrated too long ago: many witnesses are dead, others no longer have clear memories, pieces of evidence are no longer available, scene of the crime has experimentated many changes so reconstitution is impossible and so on. Now, I am not convinced this reasonment should apply for people who have been judged and found guilty but managed to flee justice for decades. Not for rape or murder.
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:45 am 115. Thomas_L.....:I’m throwing in my cards. Bad hand. When Whoopi says it wasn’t “rape-rape”, I have to gag. Polanski and Hollywood need to get about 50 years apiece. There’s a whole lot of goofy things being said by both sides but the man did it, admitted it and then ran away rather than face justice. His “exile” was not exactly punishment since he lived the life of a rich and celebrated film director. He was well aware that there were countries, in which he might be arrested, if he travelled to one. While he avoided travelling to the UK, for instance, he thought he was safe in Switzerland. Aware that he was a international fugitive, perhaps the idiot shouldn’t have left France.
Sep 29, 2009 - 6:33 am 116. Paul from Hamburg:Roger,
If you didn’t intend to defend Polanski, then you need to just concede that this was a poorly written article.
“…angry at U. S. authorities for bringing this up after all this time and angry at Roman for not facing the reality of his actions.” This clearly was an attempt to invoke some moral equivalence. It sure sounds like a defense of Polanski.
“Polanski is weak like the rest of us.” More moral equivalence and a further defense of Polanski.
“I called him the ‘emblem of special pleading’ and tried to take it beyond what I assumed we all thought obvious – you don’t fool around with thirteen year old girls.” First, “Emblem of special pleading” sounds nice, but is really quite vacuous. Second, trying to “take it beyond the obvious” also sounds like defense of Polanski. In a case the like this, the obvious is all that matters. Everything else is just an excuse.
Sorry Roger, I like most of what you write, but this one should have gone back into the ether.
Sep 29, 2009 - 6:40 am 117. Clayton E. Cramer:Read the transcript of the victim’s testimony–and ask yourself: Should Roman Polanski be anywhere but a prison cell? This isn’t someone he fell in love with, without bothering to find out her age. The champagne, the Qualuudes, asking her if she was on the Pill, so he decides to anally rape her instead–while she keeps telling him “No” (in between passing in and out of consciousness)–this is a predator who needs to be caged.
Sep 29, 2009 - 6:48 am 118. Flipside:I get it now….Liberals think it’s torture to play loud music, deprive sleep and pour water down someone’s nose but it’s ok to serve alcohol, drug, rape/sodomize a child. Hummm, maybe Andrew Sullivan can become our next Chief Interrogator with new captures placed at Gitmo.
Sep 29, 2009 - 7:11 am 119. Genghis:I don’t know, Roger. I believe that Elie Weisal also suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis. AS did Simon Weisenthal. As did countless tens of thousands of others. So Polansky certainly wasn’t unique and the experience doesn’t excuse his behaviour. And as for your comment ‘not good for the Jews’……that is ludicrous. To begin with, who asked? During his career was Polansky referred to as ‘that Jew’? The guy did a bad thing. He escaped facing any punishment. Many things can be forgiven, but sexually taking advantage of a thirteen year is not one of them. Neither his previous suffering nor his talent excuses him.
Sep 29, 2009 - 7:12 am 120. Doc:The victim feels as if she’s been duly compensated and doesn’t want this dragged up again, but the press and all you who are oh so brave to say you’re against sex between a man and a girl but likely ogle little girls and rant behind the monitor so as to appear tough and blameless.
I find it humorously sad that the so-called conservatives herein rant FOR the U.S. government to be able to reach across borders to snatch former citizens from other sovereign nations, but then again, the first Republican destroyed the union so why am I surprised?
Jesus, the God you people (like the Pharisees) claim to love spoke through His disciple in Luke 6:31 through 6:36 and condemned each of you as hypocrites.
But hey…thanks for playing!
Sep 29, 2009 - 8:12 am 121. Webutante:Several points.
First, any emblem of special pleading, especially after we think we’ve suffered enough, comes from self-pity and/or self-righteousness. None of us are immune to such thought patterns and they should never give us a pass from facing the consequences of our illegal actions.
Second, if every family or every child pled that a trial would harm the child, pedophils and sex offenders would rarely be brought to justice. I do think toning down the media circus in some ways might help though it’s probably not possible in many sensational cases like this.
Last, I think there two legal issues going on here: the need for legal closure in a criminal court—in spite of the private settlement with the victim many years ago; AND Polanski’s fleeing the country before sentencing. This is not acceptable resolution and should not be excused in any court of law.
I have to agree with some of the other commenters here about making this about persecuting Jews. It’s a bit racist and you surely know better. There is such a thing as racial pride and racial pity. This case should not be made about race or nationality or anything else. He broke the law by drugging and raping a child under the age of consent. Then he fled the country before he faced punishment. That’s all there is to it. But that’s certainly enough.
Sep 29, 2009 - 8:30 am 122. carla:Sorry Roger. this was a witless article. Your attitude reminds me of Norman Mailer aand some other literati, who lobbied to have a convicted murderer paroled becuase he had such literary talent. It was a pity that he murdered again after he was released, but that’s the price of talent, eh Roger?
Sep 29, 2009 - 8:32 am 123. JFP:Anyone know what Duke University’s faculty thinks about this case?
Heh.
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:25 am 124. NCBob:Here, Polanski is exactly like Obama. Both have a talent that is worshipped by one or more elitist groups and those groups have the power to cause sufficient members of folks to be overwhelmed by their appointed celebrity.
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:38 am 125. pedro:Once the captive media and Hollywood declare a person to be a “star,” the law has little importance.
Polanski is a criminal, a convicted rapist who escaped to avoid punishment. Sure, other celebrities like Clooney, Fonda, Whoopi, Streisand (the usual suspects) may stand up for him pointing out things like the unfairness of two lefthanded jurors at his trial, but they are only protecting their own interests.
Is anyone tracking the coverage that ole Roman is getting in the captive media on this one?
Was Mr Jack N. in Inglewood watching the Lakers while Roman raped the 13 year old girl at his crib?BTW I LOVE CHINOTOWN with Faye D. BABY:)
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:48 am 126. genghis:DOC:
‘the first Republican destroyed the Union’? Is that how you assess the Civil War? Well, that says a lot about you, despite spouting scriptures. And ‘the victim was duly compensated’? She got the part? Sort of the Michael Jackson gambit? And that some of us find the crime revolting brands us as voyeurs? Possibly a bit of projection operating here, eh Doc?
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:56 am 127. ddc:I don’t think so. Sticks and stones, Doc. I hope they keep you at least a mile from schools and playgrounds.
For those of you who watch “The View,” apparently Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t think it was rape at all. Oh no she didn’t! Oh yes she did.
Whoopi Goldberg on Polanski Crime: “It Wasn’t Rape-Rape”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/whoopi-goldberg-on-polanski-crime-it-wasnt-rape-rape/
Hollywood, protecting its pedophiles. I wonder if they’d also protect the pete the pedophile janitor in the public school in the next town the same way?
Sep 29, 2009 - 10:36 am 128. Tertium Quid:What if he was a priest? Who among the friends of Roman Polanski would defend him?
http://burketokirk.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-if-polanski-was-priest.html
Sep 29, 2009 - 10:37 am 129. Avitar:Did he drug and liquor up a thirteen year old? I am about the age of the girl in question and my classmates were willing to do a much to find a man who would provide liquor and drugs, including sex. Some states girls the statutory rape laws did not apply to girls who “slept around” Other states like California had “no choice laws where the boy can be much younger than the girl and he is guilty still of rape. The legal; theory is that sex is so much more serious for a woman than a man.
The prosecutor in the case negotiated what he considered an appropriate slap, even if it seems light to those unfamiliar with the details of the case, to deter Polanski from doing that again and the California court system violated their agreement
Sep 29, 2009 - 11:18 am 130. Ol'Dumbass:She was 16, I was 18. We had drugs and sex.
She went home, I got Five to Life which means I’m a Parolee until I die. (Almost 50 years so far.)
Leave that sumbitch locked up.
Sep 29, 2009 - 1:36 pm 131. Dave Surls:“…the California court system violated their agreement…”
That’s not correct. Polanski was flatly told that he could be sentenced to state prison when he entered his guilty plea.
It’s in the court records.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0928091polanskiplea8.html
Sep 29, 2009 - 1:55 pm 132. nat turner:Dear Roger
Sep 29, 2009 - 2:31 pm 133. river:Come over and eat these ludes and some brandy ,a lot of brandy . I will exploit you in ways you will not like . You will not want to press charges because 1. you will be too embarrassed 2. no one would believe all that could happen 3. you are a forgiving sort
“I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she’s white…”
Sep 29, 2009 - 2:56 pm 134. jim:Sorry, but the LADA’s office has been working long and hard for decades to extradite Polanski. This isn’t the movies – they can’t send a team of rogue USC and Pepperdine law school grads to kidnap and bring him back to the US. They had to know his movements in advance, go through the state dept., and then get the cooperation of the other country. Not so easy. Polanski had the habit of not showing up where he said he would be.
Sep 29, 2009 - 3:03 pm 135. Nate:It is the pinicle of leftist hypocricy to state that since a woman who was raped no longer wants to press charges, (becuase she has been well compensated) the charges against her rapist should be dropped. What happened to their paramount ‘equality under the law?’ What happened to the smallmindness of statues of limitations? The image that comes to mind is of the Ancien Regime noble ridding over a little child, and throwing a coin out the window for the family. (I sometimes wonder if those sorts of things even happened or this was just Robespierre’s propoganda.) In either case, the noble is from another faction and his actions find favor with the Gauche.
Sep 29, 2009 - 3:13 pm 136. Jim:“The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedinly small.”
Roger, If he raped and drugged your 13 year old daughter would you feel the same way?
Sep 29, 2009 - 3:37 pm 137. Barrie:Refer #101. Catrina, you obviously haven’t read my condemnation of Polanski, which is stronger than Simon’s as I want him to serve his time.. You also fail to understand that a bad man can create some good art, as I believe he did in The Pianist. How about Richard Wagner too?
Sep 29, 2009 - 5:37 pm 138. Barry Dauphin:Your personal abuse is stupid and insults me and my two fine daughters too.
Please apologise here to maintain the tone of this site..
The rules forbid what you did:
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
The more that the Hollywood elite talk, the better. Let them reveal who they are to the public and what they really stand for. The average person understands what the concept of raping a girl means and how the perpetrator should face justice. This is exactly the kind of out-of-touch reaction that any of them will wish they had never opened their mouths about. I mean with Woody Allen on your side…
Too many Hollywood folks often preach to the great unwashed masses. If they stand for protecting Polanski, perhaps they can stand to be out of work. With the rise of other forms of entertainment, they are slowly losing their economic and cultural clout. Let them talk, for they bury themselves with every Whoopi Goldberg pronouncement and every Harvey Weinstein petition. They pave their own road to oblivion. They are nothing more than entertainers with no special knowledge of how the world works and no moral authority. There are other forms of entertainment. Good grief, when 70% of the French public believes Polanski should face justice, even Monica Belluci should get it. But let them drink the Kool-aid; couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
Sep 29, 2009 - 6:44 pm 139. zefal:The US as been trying to catch him outside of france and extradite him for years. Just because they haven’t been successful until now shouldn’t make a difference.
There’s a guy who was convicted of raping and brutally beating a woman who fled when the judge let him out on release between is conviction and sentencing. He fled to france. The US as been attempting to catch him since. He was at one point confident enough to go to Britain for his work and the US almost nabbed him there. I assume they are still watching him in the hopes of catching him. I saw this on a news magazine show almost 20 years ago.
Not to mention the nazis who we continued to go after for half a century and would still be pursuing if it wasn’t for their mortality catching them in the end.
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:37 pm 140. Oh, Roger. Which Jews Is It “Not Good” For? | Little Miss Attila:[...] seriously: R.L. Simon on the utter sadness and desolation one feels about the Polanski [...]
Sep 29, 2009 - 11:58 pm 141. Lamar:Was the young lady satisfied? Did she enjoy the experience? Isn’t that an important consideration. You all seem to be focusing on a technicality. Did Polansky enjoy himself? Or was he just acting out some repressed scene from the dark days of Nazi brutality?
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:34 am 142. Class Clown:At last, he will finally pay for that cameo in Rush Hour 3
Sep 30, 2009 - 6:08 am 143. genghis:I understand tht Woody Allen is on of Polansky’s Hollywood defenders. How appropriate. From one pedophile to another, with love. Any comment, Mia?
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:19 am 144. pachuco:Thanks for the insider’s view. Also for the take on the Piano. It
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:31 am 145. Lynn:would be helpful if someone in the know would lay out the sequence of events in the criminal action and his flight, as there is much confusion.Applebaum says he had a trial(he apparently pled guilty)others say he feared the judge would sentence him to 50 years, when the MAX for the offense pled to was 3yrs. It’s obvious he thought he should not be punished at all. If this whole thing brings out some others who he had sex with at young ages, then he’s cooked.
Well the United States might have wanted to send him a message and it probable benefited him because if he had become lackadaisical and thought all was forgotten, he knows better now.
As for justice and the law, I do know that justice is not always served equally even here in the United States where we pride ourselves on “equal” justice for all. Sometimes people do get away with things, sometimes money talks, paperwork gets lost, witnesses forget, and law enforcement turns a blind eye. Some people get away with it, that’s a fact.
Does that mean Polanski should be exonerated? Nope, but the fact is he had money, he could run, enough people sheltered him from the law and he was able to practice his craft and apparently be celebrated by his peers.
Update: Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn’t a rape rape. So there you have it, proof that some do get away with crime, it helps to have money and friends in high places.
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:39 am 146. aloysiusmiller:I reread this and many of the comments. I had some e-mail exchanges with roger Simon yesterday (initiated by him) and while I acknowledge that he doesn’t condone Polanski’s comment he is logically inconsistent in suggesting that its too late to inflict the consequences of the bad behavior on Polanski.
It amounts to excusing the behavior. Sorry Roger. You’re on the wrong side of this one. Polanski, copped a plea to a conveniently reduced charge then he ran away. He is a rapist.
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:56 am 147. carla:LYNN:
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:01 am 148. Ddc:I wouldn’t catergorize Whoopy Goldberg as ‘a friend in high places’. Whoopy is pretty scuzzy. And, as oft revealed whever she opens her mouth, she’s a foul mouthed, unthinking WPOS lacking soje vital Betz cell connections within her squirrel brain. OhMyGod….does this mean I am a racist??????????
Anyone who would be so apologetic for a man like Pulanski does not care about girls and women in general. Look inside Yourselves and you’ll find the mysoginist.
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:31 am 149. Doc:@126. genghis
Yes, the first Republican destroyed the Union. This is what I *know* about the “civil war”.
This is how history assess’ it.
Here, educate yourself before casting aspersions:
http://halebobb.com/DiLorenzo/lincoln1.htm
The victim won a civil suit and was compensated with money. One hopes she used the money for counseling, but she has come out in the press asking prosecutors to let sleeping dogs lie. It’s not that “she liked it” or any such nonsense, but that it’s a part of the past, and the person the state is alleged to be standing up for, The Victim, (not society,) wants the state to back off.
Cite:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26136402-954,00.html
and
“My views as a victim, my feelings as a victim, or my desires as a victim were never considered or even inquired into by the district attorney prior to the filing. It is clear to me that because the district attorney’s office has been accused of wrongdoing, it has recited the lurid details of the case to distract attention from the wrongful conduct of the district attorney’s office as well as the judge who was then assigned to the case.”
But the people, you, just want to see dirty laundry.
Your ad hominem attacks change nothing.
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:40 am 150. Lynn:carla: Apparently Whoopi is just one of the celebrities who object to Polanski’s arrest. They believe that the fact he was apprehended in a “neutral” country that he “assumed” was safe made his arrest especially objectionable to them. Over 100 have signed the petition demanding he be released.
Also a film has been made about the case putting to question some alleged improprieties by a judge and prosecutor or jurist.
The film is called: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
except by a thirteen year old child that is.
When I said high places, I was being factious.
Here is a critique about the film and some background of the case.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:22 am 151. genghis:http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/02/19/roman_polanski_documentary/index.html
DOC
You’re the best. Even I can’t think of anything funnier than what you’ve already written. Alas, it is a unmitigated crime that we’ve permitted the American system of education sink to this level and produce those such as Doc. Farce and tragedy.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:11 am 152. genghis:DOC
You’re the best. Even I can’t think of anything funnier than what you’ve already written. Alas, it is a unmitigated crime that we’ve permitted the American system of education sink to this level and produce those such as Doc. Farce and tragedy.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:11 am 153. Dana Mathewson:You’ve got it right, Roger.
As far as “how much he suffered during the Holocaust,” I’m sure we don’t denigrate that. However, I have a friend whose father (whom I met once) spent years performing slave labor for the Nazis. He certainly suffered! However, he never at any time raped anyone — woman or child. I guess the difference was that he never made any movies either.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:11 pm 154. Dave Surls:“But in the end, there is something about him that is a metaphor for Hollywood –”
No argument there. I suspect that most people in Hollywood also feel that they ought to be above the law.
Sep 30, 2009 - 1:43 pm 155. woody:Yo Ro. Not to worry. My experience has been, the more outrageous my behaviour, the more they love me. So, hang tough. There’s a whole lot of young wannabes out there.
Sep 30, 2009 - 3:17 pm 156. Ro:WOODY:
I know, I know. But if they put me away, I’m gonna be screwed. There are a lot of angry neanderthols in prison with a chip on their shoulder. You been talkin to Mia recently?
Sep 30, 2009 - 3:21 pm 157. ldd:Sep 29, 2009 – 11:58 pm 141. ” Lamar:
Was the young lady satisfied? Did she enjoy the experience?
You sound just like a pedophile.
They too, only focus on the sexual deviant pleasure of the of their disgusting acts.
Oh yeah, a thirteen year old start struck kid being raped, forced to have anal sex with this man old enough to be her grandfather would just love that…right….you’d have to be some kind of stinking lowlife asswipe to hold this twisted view.
Not do I find that Roger was defending this creep in anyway.
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:14 am 158. lyo:As far as the “Jew” angle, well that’s Roger’s view; he’s allowed his opinion or his personal feelings about it, no?
Interesting Mr. Simon, referring to your grandmother’s comment that none of this “is good for the Jews.” While I am sympathetic, I am not sure I see how Mr. Polanski’s being held accountable to the legal system hurts fellow Jews–rather the opposite, it would seem to me. His NOT being held accountable would seem more damaging.
Perhaps those in Hollywood as well as the “weak” rest of us would benefit from reflecting on the Prophet Jeremiah’s words to ancient Israel…
“Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD.
This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Jeremiah 6:15-16
Mr. Polanki, it would appear, does not feel shame, nor do many in his industry think he or they should. Personally I would like to “find where the good way is, and walk in it”. To call evil, evil and good, good. A person is accountable for their actions not only in the US legal system but in the economy of eternity.
Oct 3, 2009 - 2:33 pm 159. JJ:LeighB, he has already been convicted, so the charges cannot be dropped. As far as I’m concerned, he should rot in jail for a very long time.
Oct 4, 2009 - 8:50 am 160. Wyatt:OK – so let me get this straight.
All of you who have supported Roman Polanski and have basically said what he did was not “rape rape” and he did nothing wrong to the 13 year old girl he had sex with and he should not be prosecuted – right?
OK – now that we have that straight – I guess (according to you) it’s OK to give 13 year old girls alcohol and drugs and have sex with them – right?
Cool – let’s start with your daughters!
Oct 4, 2009 - 1:47 pm 161. Squander Two:Sorry, but whether the victim feels Polanski should be prosecuted is immaterial, much as I sympathise with her. The justice system is not there to serve victims. If it were, we wouldn’t bother prosecuting murderers — after all, what do their victims care? The justice system is there, ideally, to deliver the people’s conception of justice. That the people frown on drugging and raping thirteen-year-olds is why the perp should be punished. That the people frown on skipping bail and fleeing the country to avoid sentencing is why the perp should be punished. And it wouldn’t even occur to anyone to have this debate if Polanski were an electrician.
And, Roger, just how amoral do you need to be not even to have a strong opinion on whether justice should be served in this case? The man drugged and anally raped a thirteen-year-old who spent the entire time asking him to stop. But, hey, it was a long time ago, so who cares, right? Your update says you’re taking it for granted that it’s obvious to everyone that this is a Bad Thing — but it’s clearly not all that obvious to you: you say that you have no strong feelings about whether Polanski should be punished but that you’re angry at the authorities for doing their job and trying to punish him. That the attempt to punish elicits anger in you while you can’t even decide whether the crime itself deserves a punishment does not exactly scream to your readers that you condemn child-rape by film-directors.
If you really haven’t got any strong feelings on the matter, perhaps you should try thinking about it again.
Oh, as for whether it’s “good for the Jews”… I followed this link from a Jew-hater’s blog. The disgust I was feeling anyway reading that crap was augmented by surprise at seeing how approvingly they linked to you, of all people. They clearly think this piece proves their point.
And to think we read your stuff because you’re not like the other Hollywood types. Not making that mistake again.
Oct 4, 2009 - 8:37 pm 162. Brion:Polanski has been tried and served his sentence for the 13 year old girl incident. He was not convicted of ‘rape’ but ‘unlawful sex with a minor’. See “Wanted and Desired” and get the full facts of what exactly was going on in Hollywood (a much larger villain then Polanski) in terms of the corruption of the Judge – a bigger and worse crime if you ask me. I guess Mr. Simon thinks directors shouldn’t reflect some of their life experiences in their work. Hummmm, ok. But Mr. Simon’s really going out on a limb if he thinks Polanski is asking to be ‘excused’ by making the Pianist. Ok, that’s just stupid.
Oct 22, 2009 - 10:38 am