Roman the Rapist

[WriteDown]

He had sex with a 13-year-old girl. He got her to go to Jack Nicholson's house by promising that she would be in a photo shoot. When she got there, he fed her a Quaalude and alcohol -- champagne for a 13-year-old, how enticing -- and then he raped her.

Roman Polanski was on his way to a film festival in which he was to be honored for his life's work when he was arrested last weekend. Some 100 European big shots have released a statement in protest: "Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him."

I've got news for the big shots: International cultural events are not safe havens for criminals, nor is there any reason they should be. A criminal is a criminal, even if he is "one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers." There's nothing "inadmissible" about it, guys.

His lawyer in France is even more strident: "There is no reason, either in law or in fact, nor on the terrain of the most elementary justice, to keep Roman Polanski in prison for even one day," Herve Temime told reporters.

Maybe I can help Mr. Temime a little bit here, with some law and some facts, and some elementary justice.

The reason to keep him in prison for far more than one day is that he's a rapist who fled from justice. Actually, that's two reasons, and each is sufficient.....


She nails it.

(forgot the link to the article! http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20090930/cm_uc_crsesx/op_3911465)

[ZombieHorde]

1. This is the first I have heard about any of this. Do other people know about Polanski? nt

[subcomhd]

2. I know. I can't believe that nobody has posted about this.

[question everything]

24. Read more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x485098

which, promptly got a U as soon as was posted.

[DailyGrind51]

3. If he was "Father Polanski", we would ALL want him locked up with a 300lb cell-mate!

Being and "artist" should not make him unaccountable for his criminal acts, either!

[sharp_stick]

4. Damn why am I just hearing about this?

Don't you think somebody, anybody on DU would have posted a thread about this already?

[question everything]

25. Oh yes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x485098

and was Ued and scorned.

[subcomhd]

5. Uh, Mr. Connery. the category is "therapist."

[Gwendolyn]

6. I disagree. Arresting people at such international cultural events is not a good thing at all.

Particularly when there are other avenues open to the police, as there were in this case. Numerous ones, as Polanski spent the entire summer in Switzerland. It was as much a heavy-handed show of governmental power over the arts community as it was to catch a criminal.

Has nothing to do with the "big shots." Literary, film and art festivals often promote works/discussions that may be provocative or controversial in nature. It's generally accepted that these events are places where new and different ideas are celebrated, at the very least, tolerated. Today the government plows through a cultural festival to get a Polanski. Tomorrow it'll be a political "criminal" they're after. Bye bye freedom of speech.

[WriteDown]

7. So art festivals should have a "sanctuary" policy

for rapists? How about murderers? What about just plain child molesters?

[Gwendolyn]

8. No of course not.

The sudden discovery that a famous actor is a serial killer and culminates in a breathtaking arrest at such an event is what it is.

In this case it was completely unnecessary, as the man had been living under their noses for two months before the festival. Deliberately messing with the event and flaunting a big show of power when there were other, far less dramatic avenues open to the government, says a lot. And nothing good. That's why i don't really blame the people like Debra Winger who are shocked and appalled by this Swiss/American political play.

[rvablue]

10. How do you know he was "living under their noses?"

Maybe he wasn't.

Maybe he was moving from place to place or at an unidentified location, but they got word he'd be at the festival. I haven't seen any details describing this.

And I wish for once and for all, someone could explain to me how arresting someone who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl and then fled the country EQUALS a "political play."

[WriteDown]

12. See post 10. nt

[WriteDown]

11. They got him when he got off the plane.

Here's the LONG timeline:

Feb 1978: The US Extradition Services Section opened a file after confirming that Polanski was living in France.

Dec 1986: Royal Canadian Mounted Police were consulted after information that Polanski may be visiting Canada.

May 1998: The arrest warrant was verified as still active after information was received that Polanski may travel to Germany, Denmark, Sweden or Brazil.

June 1994: A provisional arrest warrant request was made to France.

Oct 2005: An Interpol Red Notice was submitted to Thailand because Polanski was supposed to be visiting.

July 2007: Israeli authorities requested extra details when Polanski visited but by the time the information arrived he had left.

Sept 2009: Information received that Polanski was scheduled to appear at a film festival in Zurich, Switzerland. An application for a provisional arrest warrant was prepared and then executed by Swiss authorities


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/roman-polanski/6245119/Roman-Polanski-timeline-of-US-attempts-to-capture-director.html

[Gwendolyn]

18. I've seen that timeline.

It seems unlikely to me, and many others, that a world power such as the US has consistently been foiled by one man on the lam, particularly when he's been openly traveling back and forth to Switzerland for so many years.

I'll just slip on my matching tin foil beret and scarf, and go ahead and speculate that it all ties in with the Swiss recently getting spanked over their decades-long protection of tax evaders and other assorted white collar criminals. They owed big time. The result was this circus side show.

[WriteDown]

19. Its easy when other countries don't help....

The other option is of course secret rendition from another country. Otherwise, there is not much that can be done.

Unless you have evidence to the contrary, the timeline is the timeline.

[Gwendolyn]

20. Sorry, I was unclear. I don't doubt the timeline.

But it's been released by the government in answer to new outrage over the fact that Polanski has been walking around free all these years. Therefore it wouldn't make any mention of incompetence, or even apathy. It's odd that Polanski owned a home in Switzerland for many years, traveled back and forth, and before the Zurich festival, spent a summer in that country and yet, the best they could do was raid an international film festival. It's great that he's been apprehended, but that event will be tainted for a few years, and I can definitely see how that would piss people off.

[rvablue]

22. Why will it be tainted for years to come?

Are there other child rapists in regular attendance at this film festival?

If not, anyone trying to gin up that spin is full of it.

[Gwendolyn]

23. I think it will have some effect on that festival, in that people will remember...

what happened there this year. The insider community is not that huge. I've been getting emails about this all week, from people within my local community as well as the union I belong to. It's hot news, and some of it is hand-wringing. In the same way that people are just waking out of their stupor to go on overwrought DU rants about the crime, even though it was a still a crime last month and two years ago, and no one gave a shit.

But some interesting points have been brought up, such as where are the boundaries, with reference to one country's rapist being another country's political criminal. Again, I don't blame people in the industry for being emotional about how the arrest occurred, any more than I blame you for suddenly finding your emotional outrage after 30 years. It's human. But they have a personal investment in the running of the festival thing, whereas you basically have none at all, internet postings aside.

[rvablue]

26. If this has caused them hand-wringing, they might want to engage in some self-reflection.

Sounds like a lot of drumming up of drama.

And, my outrage hasn't been found after 30 years.

I stayed out of this Polanski thing for days after the arrest. I tend to come here to talk about stuff that affects and defines society at large -- like elected officials and policy.

What compelled me to finally -- and heartily weigh in (sans "rage," as you assume) is the very loud contingent of apologists on this board that have used every page in the book to argue against this arrest -- including the false premise that somehow this arrest of a child rapist who fled justice will somehow squash free speech or other civil liberties.

It's a bogus argument. No matter what labels you try to smack to those who call you on it or the way you spin it.

And as far as my involvment in film festivals or other cultural events, you have no idea what you are talking about. Don't assume, as well, you make an ass out of u and me!

[Gwendolyn]

28. Apparently you struggle with reading comprehension.

No one on this thread has argued that the arrest of a child rapist will squash free speech.

I also haven't made any call on your involvement in any cultural events. I don't know you and don't really care. I'll hazard a guess though, that you have nothing to do with the Zurich event. If I'm wrong, plse do set me straight.

In the end, I'm free to advance a small tangent from the only accepted DU post at the moment, which is to just repeat over and over again what a douchebag Polanski is. One or two people might find it of interest. You're free to get all excited over what I've written and be as dismissive as you like. I would say that sums it up.

[rvablue]

34. I give you an A+

at passive-aggresiveness and obfuscation. Bravo.

You're a real talent.

Reminds me of a bad day at Berkeley.

[WriteDown]

29. It should be a boom to the festival...

They could celebrate the fact that Polanski was captured at their festival. Of course that would make sense.

[rvablue]

35. One would think that intuitively....

alas, somehow they've interpreted the arrest of a child rapist as being a threat to their free speech rights.....pretty scary.

[Gwendolyn]

38. Maybe, but so far it's looking more like this...

"French sales company Wild Bunch has pulled Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky out of the Zurich Film Festival in protest against Roman Polanski’s arrest en route to the festival last Saturday (September 26).

Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval told Screen that the decision to pull the film was met with consternation on the part of the Swiss who would have preferred that the parties involved come to protest on site. For Maraval, the upset is not a question of Polanski’s standing with the US courts; it is more a question of a film festival being taken advantage of in the name of international politics."

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/other-festivals/festival-news/wild-bunch-pulls-chanel-from-zurich-after-polanski-arrest/5006276.article


"Organizers of the 5th Zurich Film Festival certainly couldn’t have imagined that they would be at the center of an international incident drawing the attention of the worldwide media. With only a half decade under its belt and a lineup that includes 60 international titles, the festival has nonetheless attracted high-profile names in recent years, including Oliver Stone in 2007 and Oscar-winner Costa Gavras and Sylvester Stallone in 2008. Actress Debra Winger, who heads the jury at this year’s ZFF, underscored the unusual circumstance the event has found itself in during a press conference in Zurich, saying, “This fledgling festival has been unfarily exploited and whenever this happens, the entire art world suffers.” While other guests such as Morgan Freeman are expected at the Zurich fest (Freeman will receive the festival’s “Golden Icon Award”), the sudden arrest of Roman Polanski en route to the festival four days ago has cast a heavy shadow over the young film event, which continues through October 4."

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2009/09/30/polanski_arrest_was_a_huge_shock_zurich_film_fest_head_tells_iw/

[Brickbat]

32. Maybe Polanski should have thought of that in the first place, because every time I hear his name --

and I'm talking before the events of the last week -- I think "guy who rapes kids."

[seabeyond]

33. he was barely on my radar. all i knew was guy that raped. didnt even know his movies.

you are right

[Odin2005]

37. Well, you just dropped my opinion of "people in the industry" by a lot.

Fuck them.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. It was not a national priority, it was a state level action and a cold case

US law enforcement is quite a bit more disjoint that anyone realizes.

[Gwendolyn]

40. Oh I suppose there is definitely some level of incompetence at play.

But Polanski did spend the summer in Gstaad, and yet, they couldn't get their act together until the eve of the festival?

"Though Polanski has traveled through Europe in the decades since, he has avoided countries with a strong extradition treaty with the United States, including Great Britain. But the director, who lives primarily in Paris, has been known to frequent Switzerland, and he reportedly spent a significant amount of time at his home in Gstaad, Switzerland this summer. His pending American arrest warrant, in fact, was never even considered by organizers of the Zurich Film Festival when they first learned of his detention over the weekend."

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2009/09/30/polanski_arrest_was_a_huge_shock_zurich_film_fest_head_tells_iw/

[ProgressiveProfessor]

41. Not so much incompetence, but lack of attention to a cold case

The award made the trade rags in LA most likely, his vacation plans most likely did not. There is no conspiracy here against the arts etc, its pretty much typical treat of a cold case.

People tend to forget he is a convicted sex offender, he did plead guilty.

[rvablue]

9. Good god! Are you serious.

Polanski wasn't arrested for a "provocative or controversial" idea, lecture, film or any other cultural element.

He was arrested for being on the lam for decades after having admitted to drugging and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl.

Why conflate this with civil liberties? Why?

[Gwendolyn]

15. Yes, I am serious. Read my posts.

I didn't say he was arrested for any controversial idea, but events like writer's/art/film festivals and conferences, especially when they are international in nature, are generally considered to be neutral zones where such ideas are welcome and protected. As I posted last night, many writer conferences will always keep an empty chair on display at the events to remind people that there are still artists and intellectuals around the world whose voices are silenced.

You're letting your emotions run wild. I've commented only on the way the arrest was executed, not about his crime at all. You're conflating two different subjects.

[rvablue]

21. "Neutral zones" -- WTF?!?!?

So convicted violent felons can hide out at film festivals and be free from arrest.

And, I'm not conflating. You are. Analogizing Polanski's arrest with that of some author who was arrested for what he/she wrote is asinine, no matter what the venue.

[Odin2005]

39. Wow, simply wow, your reasoning is ridiculous.

Polanski is not some artist persecuted by a authoritarian government. He is a child rapist that happens to be a film-maker. Your conflation of a fugitive rapist and political dissidents is INSULTING!

[seabeyond]

17. of course she is. nt

[roguevalley]

13. I want bush and cheney frog marched out of the olympics. the

bigger the venue for a criminal, the better.

[CakeGrrl]

14. No, it's "Hello, criminal who's eluded justice for over 30 years"

Who just happens to be at a public event. It's not some wholesale statement against the arts. It's the apprehension of a man who evaded justice for years.

[tammywammy]

27. He wasn't at the event

He was in the airport. He arrived in Switzerland to attend the festival, but he wasn't actually AT the festival yet.

[rvablue]

36. Oh please....

don't mess up her dubious argument with the truth......

[seabeyond]

16. hoooo yah. assholes, all of em. nt

[Generator]

30. Ironically it reminds me of catching old Nazi's

The bad deed is still there, haunting you and it never goes away. The ghost on the shoulder. He's old-he's accomplished-he's not raped again (as far as we know) but you know he did it-and he never payed. It's some karma there.