he raped a child
no matter how much time passes
it will never be ok
I don't care if that grown up child said it's ok
it will never be ok
he drugged and raped a child
it will never be ok
Agreed 100%.Rape is rape and fleeing the country is fleeing the country, Eff this dude, if he was anyone else, book em', even if it was somewhat remotely consensual or whatever, he did settle out of court with her or something convoluted and pointless, but he didn't serve his time and he fleed the country to avoid his charges, fucking wuss. (I may or may not flee the country, but I wouldn't live a public lifestyle taunting the US or any government.)
im not particularly in the mood to debate the merits of sending a 76 year old man to jail for something he did 32 years ago that was very obviously wrong and despicable, but I think there should be a distinction made on him "serving his time". He did in fact serve his time as agreed upon by the courts at the time. He was scheduled to serve 90 days under psychiatric evaluation, and was released early after 42 days. He signed a plea agreement that said he would undergo the evaluation, and there was even a provision allowing him to first travel overseas to finish his current project, and in return he would have 5 of the 6 charges dropped against him, with an expected period of probation after release. Despite the probation officer, examining psychiatrist and the victim herself all recommending against jail time, the judge and the district attorney renegged on the deal and decided to send him back to prison, then order him deported. in other words, there was some sweetheart celebrity treatment here by the state at the time, basically dropping all the charges and letting him freely leave the country before his jail term, and an early release, which frankly shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who follows any celebrity trial. i think the original deal was awful generous to Mr. Polanski, but that falls on the attorneys. The fact that the court basically voided the plea deal to the vocal arguments of everyone else involved is an epic bungling of the legal system at the time. either they should have had the balls to prosecute him to a harsher penalty and not offered the deal, or they should have abided by the terms of the deal itself. Polanski essentially fled the US to avoid jail time of questionable legality. I think it's disingenuous to say he didn't serve his time. He certainly shouldn't have fled, but there's just so much done wrong on each side of this case.And he fucking didn't serve his time for the crime he committed. He's a fucking doucheface who should go to jail.
They had the victim on Larry King a few weeks ago, and she seemed to look at the whole thing rather realistically, I thought. She basically said that Polanski did a really terrible thing, but the fact of the matter was that he served his time, she was amicable to the plea bargain, and still the judge decided that he should return to jail despite protests from everyone involved, because the judge was concerned about how he would be portrayed in the media. She said she didn't think he should be sent to prison at this point, as he served the time originally agreed upon and had settled the monetary part of the case, and has been a model citizen since then (aside from fleeing the US, but again, there were reasons for that). While my personal view is that Polanski probably should have been in prison for at least a few years for what he did, that should have been done to start with and not 32 years later trapping the director in a "gotcha!" sting operation to bring him up on charges that are now rather questionable to begin with.
so yeah, is the dude rather scummy? definitely. is that the heart of the issue of him being arrested this time? no.
1. Polanski did not serve time for the crime of raping a child. The 42 days were part of the court-ordered 90 days for a psyche evaluation, to determine competency, which is standard practice. The actual sentence was not imposed, because Polanski fled before it could be.
2. The fact the victim recommended time served 32 years ago (or even today, for that matter) is irrelevant. At the time, the victim was a minor, and legally has no say. Many victims of molestation will not prosecute out of fear, or even a sort of "Stockholm syndrome" reason. Society should not burden a victim with the decision to prosecute high crimes such as this, to begin with.
3. A DA can offer whatever sweet deal S\He wants, but the simple fact is that it is up to the judge to impose sentence. A judge is not legally bound by any plea agreement a DA makes with the Defense. Such an agreement is merely a recommendation by the DA upon sentencing.
4. Yes, the main reason he was apprehended for was fleeing justice. But why did he flee? He fled to avoid sentencing for having raped a minor, and the warrant was then issued for his arrest.
5. The Justice System, indeed society, has a responsibility and obligation to carry out justice, regardless whether the crime of rape was 30 days or 30 years ago, and to say collectively that such crimes will not be tolerated.
6. Age of the defendant, their citizen status, or celebrity should not and has no bearing on carrying out the sentence. Nor should the length of time it has been since he committed the crime, to which he plead guilty, I might add. When Polanski fled 32 years ago, it only postponed sentencing for his raping a child, plus Polanski committed another crime by fleeing the country on top of that. Just because it has been so long, has nothing to do with the fact he broke the law, and must now face the consequences. To allow Polanski to essentially escape justice a second time would only set a bad precedent and encourage more criminals to simply flee the country prior to sentencing.
7. I have absolutely no problem with the "gotcha sting operation" as you call it. How else was he to be captured? France does not extradite, and for 32 years, Polanski has been free to make movies in France, where he was safe from extradition. It was Polanski's own hubris and ego that made it possible to be caught, when he thought he was going to accept a lifetime achievement award.
8.We will never know how many other children Polanski has or has not raped since fleeing US justice, while in France, or any other countries he may have visited. However, playing the law of averages, when a person is sick enough to molest even just one child, the likelihood and potential is there for that person to do it again, especially when that person has wealth and a certain amount of power and celebrity, like Roman Polanski. He may or may not have done anything wrong since, but now that he is in custody, we do know he can't molest any children right now.