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September 28, 2009
I hope Polanski isn't a metaphor for Poland!
In a painfully thoughtful piece, Hollywood insider Roger L. Simon looks at the Roman Polanski case, and concludes that he is a metaphor for Hollywood: 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.I agree with Roger that what the man did was indefensible. you don't fool around with thirteen year old girls.Exactly. Still, the thirteen year old girl is now middle aged, and she doesn't think he should go to prison. Not that it's her decision, of course. But the victims are normally taken into account at sentencing, and I'm not altogether sure that there ever was a sentence. There seems to have been a plea bargain, but the sentencing judge didn't go along with it. In December, Polanski asked a Los Angeles court to dismiss the 1977 case because of alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. He said his rights were violated in part because the judge presiding over the case at the time reneged on a plea agreement.It's not entirely clear to me that Polanski will in fact be extradited. If he isn't, and if we look at the big picture, perhaps that's the best result. He's 76, and maybe he should just die abroad rather than return to prison in the United States. There's hardly honor in a life spent on the lam. By way of full disclosure, I like Polanski's films, but I do not defend his crimes against the girl in any way. What he did was reprehensible. However, the cynic in me wonders why the Obama Justice Department would seek his extradition right now. For cripes sake, the case is 32 years old. What gives? Might he have failed to contribute to the Obama campaign? Or am I not allowed to ask? The conservative Polish government (headed by an outspokenly anti-gay politician) has been lobbying to get the charges dropped, and President Barack Obama is no friend of his government. But that's completely cynical and highly speculative thinking on my part. Besides, it's wrong to question the motives of a Justice Department which would never allow politics to influence prosecutorial decisions. MORE: I like Megan McArdle's take on this: If the girl had been 15 or 16, I think many of us would rightly say, "let it go, already". But she was thirteen. He plied her with champagne and Quaaludes. And he knew how old she was. Ick (warning: link has a pretty graphic description of anal rape.)Via Glenn Reynolds, who also quotes reader Michael McElwee: Isn't it obvious this arrest - out of nowhere - is a political move by Obama's minders?Any ideas on what might this be a distraction from? Another different child sex scandal, perhaps? What? There's more than one? Forgive my macabre speculation, but perhaps the plan is to drag Polanski back, then pardon him and make him the nation's Pedophile Czar. (Experience counts, right?) MORE: While I was trying to be funny when I cited the above post about Kevin Jennings, I sincerely hope the anti-gay comments to this earlier post on the subject do not represent conservatism. (Sorry, but helping a troubled gay teen is not "pedophilia.") AND MORE: In a very thoughtful post, Joy McCann suggests that there is a middle ground: ...there exists a middle ground between those who want to give Polanski a pass, and those whose attitude is "hang him high." And that would be for Polanski to come back to Los Angeles and receive a reasonably light sentence. I know that saying this will get both sides mad at me, but it is the only way to balance justice against mercy -- a need that Shakespeare expressed in The Merchant of Venice, which (ironically) featured a grasping Jewish character demanding justice in the form of capital punishment of a debtor via a "pound of flesh." The ethnicities have switched, but the tension between justice and mercy remain the same, and both are critical to a humane society that nonetheless enjoys, for the most part, the freedom that goes along with "equality under the law."Read it all. After several days of this, I am beginning to suspect that this might very well have been a distraction, and I am beginning to regret having said anything about it at all. Because, if it is intended as a distraction, I played along. And I don't like playing along. posted by Eric on 09.28.09 at 08:15 PM
Comments
I can't imagine this was Polanski's first trip to Switzerland during the 32 years in exile. I hadn't thought that this was an anti-Polish retaliatory attack by the onion-skinned Obama. But clearly it is, now that you mention it. Why else now? It's the only thing I can think of that would be changed circumstances. It's not Obama is going to be tough on crime. Theory #2: Big Zero's BFF and Weather Underground Terrorist Bill Ayers is also buds with the Manson Family and this is a way to get the husband who was missing from the Sharon Tate crime scene. After all, Ayers's Terrorist Wife Bernadette Dohrn thought the murders were oh-so-groovy and dig-able. One or the other. Rhodium Heart · September 28, 2009 09:21 PM Those last two paragraphs are tres depressing. The paranoid cynic in me applauds, the naive optimist thinks that's too convoluted. I do have to admit I think the naive optimist is right this time. I could see Obama stopping it but not initiating it. Veeshir · September 28, 2009 10:10 PM I see this as a tough call. If we don't extradite then it will be viewed, probably correctly, as favoritism to the well connected and/or rich. I have no doubt that someone of no consequence would be extradited back to us. But by the time it is concluded a trial will cost millions. Los Angeles County will probably get the bill. And conviction is by no means certain. But the crap about his being exile from Hollywood is just that "crap, crap, crap." He wasn't exiled from anywhere, he fled to escape the police. Saying Polanski is exiled is just word play, an attempt to shift the blame from him onto a nation. K · September 28, 2009 10:39 PM I enjoy debating word choice, so I'm going to defend my choice of "exile" to describe Polanski's current status vis-a-is the USA. According to http://www.merriam-webster.com/, exile is defined as (a) "the state or a period of forced absence from one's country or home," or (b) "the state or a period of voluntary absence from one's country or home." No intent to load the term down with the connotation of martyrdom. I'm just using it to denote an extended absence from this country. Rhodium Heart · September 28, 2009 11:47 PM I stand corrected. I didn't know a voluntary absence was exile. The only times I can recall seeing it used in that sense it was qualified, something like "his self imposed exile." K · September 29, 2009 03:16 AM Look, just give me 15 minutes with him. Just me and my sjambok. He'll want jail. Duncan Idaho · September 29, 2009 06:26 AM Post a comment
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Isn't running away a crime as well? Shouldn't he at least pay for that?