Roman Polanski, or pardon me but your poll is in my neck.

he's suffered the adulation of the French

Sort of weird (though, I guess, unsurprising) how "Hollywood Liberals" act as a union, closing ranks around one of their own. Like a police force in response to an allegation of brutality. Sucks, though, that as an American liberal, this is one of the cards your team gets dealt. Suppose a lot of conservatives felt that way about Bush, Palin, etc...

hey Cheney just shot that guy in the face by mistake!

cheney didnt even know the guy was 67!

lets be realistic here he knew going in u dont fuk w/cheney

he was totally asking for it by sticking his face in front of that shotgun anyway

I heard his mother encouraged him to do it, she thought it would help him get ahead in politics

I think Peter Fonda's point was that if you aren't doing the most important thing ever, you shouldn't be doing anything. No effort should be put into law & order other than catching Osama Bin Laden. Then the whole military, police and intelligence apparatus can switch over to Polanski. Maybe another target first, regrettably it's not clear from the quote. I think that's what he's saying.

Bad news for 13 year old girls then

i think the important thing to do now is celebrate the arrest of osama bin laden

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/20/alg_garza-champagne.jpg

http://www.phototravelpages.com/wallpapers/fireworks_niagara_1600.jpg

Polanski has also been living in caves on the pakistan/afghan border since he fled justice

http://www.lumpen.com/magazine/92/OBL.jpg

http://www.breadsite.org/psheet3/o%20happy%20day.jpg

so, this whole thing is fucking ridiculous. SHE WAS 13, bro. Its called statutory rape because, no matter how much you and she want it, its ILLEGAL. In the eyes of the law, she CAN'T consent. Her minor status renders incapable of doing so.

Funny we should talk about the Hollywood shock troops reaction - my officemate's grandfather was assistant director on "On the Waterfront" with Kazan, and he has some interesting stories about Kazan and his shunning by the Hollywood crowd.

these people just have too much access and too few well-thought out opinions. Shut up.

even if the age of consent was 13 it was rape

the statutory thing is a distraction

OTM.

not really because that's what he ended up pleading guilty to, isn't it? more like the existence/non-existence of consent is a distraction.

i mean in the surrounding discourse--people defending polanski, or at least condemning his arrest, latch on to the statutory thing in some kind of last-ditch "it was just called rape because she was young!" thing. when the transcript makes clear that she said "no," over and over and over again.

u should defend him , harbs

not to tell everyone what they already know, but the justice system is deeply screwed up in this country, and if you have any kind of clout, you get a better deal, from apprehension all the way to sentencing. just because one of "yours" gets a taste of what it is to be in the game and have that kind of clout for once, it's no reason to cheer.

harbl, rapist lawyer

It seems the mystery is, why now? That they couldn't have taken him in before seems extremely dubious to me.

when the transcript makes clear that she said "no," over and over and over again

Not often enough to convince Whoopi Goldberg

no thanx i'll leave it up to anne applebaum xpost

Call Harbl, Esq. when you've suffered enough

It seems the mystery is, why now?

Oh yeah, any ideas?

Funny we should talk about the Hollywood shock troops reaction - my officemate's grandfather was assistant director on "On the Waterfront" with Kazan, and he has some interesting stories about Kazan and his shunning by the Hollywood crowd.

Um ... he deserved worse than shunning.

extradition laws--they've tried to get him a few times before

i mean in the surrounding discourse--people defending polanski, or at least condemning his arrest, latch on to the statutory thing in some kind of last-ditch "it was just called rape because she was young!" thing. when the transcript makes clear that she said "no," over and over and over again.

― fleetwood (max), Thursday, October 1, 2009 1:39 PM (2 minutes ago)

yeah but the thing is these people are idiots who don't understand laws to begin with

Hm. This is interesting.

more like the existence/non-existence of consent is a distraction. This is true. There is no POSSIBILITY for consent in this scenario. At least under California law at the time.

With regard to a 40+ having sex with a 13 year old, I have no problem whatsovever for the imposition of a statutory age of consent of somewhere older than 13.

also, can we get the Swiss to arrest Kissinger?

Maybe you guys should apply the same outrage to the president saying we have to "move forward" rather than prosecute Bush-era crimes.

it was 16 iirc

It's election time in L.A. County, so that explains the renewed interest in capturing Polanski. But you know what? I don't care at all about the motivations behind reinstating the warrant 31 years after the fact. He's just as guilty now as he was then.

Whoopi Goldberg is a respected jurist

Obama's presidency isn't old enough to give consent yet, Morbs.

i don't think anyone is outraged

It seems the mystery is, why now? That they couldn't have taken him in before seems extremely dubious to me.

more like "lol you really want to go out of your way to defend him?"

also, can we get the Swiss to arrest Kissinger?

this would be kinda awesome. except that there's no warrant for Kissinger's arrest lolz

X-post - It could also have to do with the recent movie re: Polanski, which goes to GREAT lengths to paint him in a very sympathetic light w/r/t his personal history, the Tate murder, the judicial screwing around with the case, etc.

Look - no one is saying that he hasn't led a difficult, roller coaster life - Holocaust, wife murdered, etc. But he raped a 13yo. Fuck him and his difficult life.

Morbs, you're making the same dumbass arguments that the actors are - the lack of punishment for some egregious crimes doesn't mean we should ignore them all. I think Kissinger's head on a pike would be lovely - but it's not going to happen, and that in no way excuses a child rapist from punishment.

he has to be in a country that will extradite and will arrest him on behalf of the US

Uh yeah, but doesn't he own a home in Switzerland? I assume he's been there at least once in the last 31 years.

Switzerland doesn't allow for extradition

there's no warrant for Kissinger's arrest

There has been (not from America obv), and there could be more.

I am not excusing rape; I'm an agnostic on what should happen to RP at this point.

they had to know ahead of time to have the warrant ready. i would say this is explained upthread but i think this is just a repeating thread all over

(whoops excuse me, i guess it's France that does that--not sure about Switzerland)

this would be kinda awesome. except that there's no warrant for Kissinger's arrest lolz

I've read that Chile is very close to issuing one.

"Polanski featured in a national database listing people wanted abroad for crimes, but his name was one of thousands. Stefan von Below, a cantonal police spokesman said officers do not "actively hunt" down people unless they know exactly when and where that person will be.

So until someone tipped off Swiss authorities that the director would be landing at Zurich airport on September 26 en route to a festival honouring his work, Polanski was largely free to lay Swiss roots. After four decades, they'd grown deep."

Still something odd going on here