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

http://board.mdc2.org/albums/screens/Screenshot-The%20Associated%20Press:%20Swiss%20arrest%20Polanski%20on%20US%20request%20in%20sex%20case%20-%20Chromium.png

lol AP

:-)))

Fuck this guy. I am trading him off of my team in Madden as soon as I get home.

He is OFF the team.

SHAME ON THE SWISS

"But it still seems utterly ridiculous to me for America to still claim his head on a platter."

He drugged and raped a girl. Apparently this wasn't the only incident. It's in a way ridiculous to still go after him but then a crime is a crime. If it were my daughter I'd probably have lynched him 29 years ago.

He drugged and raped a girl. Apparently this wasn't the only incident

BUT HE MADE CHINATWON

yeah I mean I like his movies too but what he did was against the law and he should serve some legal penalty for it.

it's pretty weird that Angelica Houston was there and was like, 'well she wasn't really like a 13 year old, she was like a 25 year old' ok cmon lady.

But I mean hey, it's been THREE DECADES.

the only reason it's been three decades is because he ran away. i think the main thing it illustrates is that becoming a fugitive is generally a bad idea. legal systems don't forgive and forget. what sentence was he looking at then? i think he'd have been better off to have served it.

i can't understand what joan z. shore is whining about. not like the swiss gov't had any choice anyway.

more like joan z. sure is stupid

some of y'all are cap'n save a pedo

New cap'n save a pedo legislation.

it's not his fault a 13-yr-old seduced him

Anjelica Houston is a nonce.

i love how that huffington poster's indictment of the swiss is: laundering nazi gold, denying women the vote, serving a warrant on a statutory rapist.

what sentence was he looking at then? i think he'd have been better off to have served it

According to BBC website:

"He was initially indicted on six counts and faced up to life in prison."

Not entirely surprised he skipped the country on that basis, but as you say the justice system has a long memory.

dude should have resurrected his drag look from The Tenant to escape detection

http://www.pop-pervert.com/files/men_as_women-06.jpg

if the americans wanted to arrest him,they could have done it many times on the past decades.
Polanski didnt hide while being all over the world.
thats why the swiss are weird about it.
my guess is that this arrest story will end as fast as it begun,cause right or wrong - no one seems to give a fuck about that case.

i don't honestly care either way but i thought the us had tried a couple times and failed because he didn't show up where he was supposed to?

"but on the legal facts this is BS"

Whuh?

"what sentence was he looking at then?"

It wasn't entirely clear. Originally the plea bargain called for it to be something ridiculous like probation plus some community service and like six months in a minimum security prison. The judge decided at the last moment that this was crazy for the (anal) rape of a 13 year old and began to try to figure out a harsher (but presumably not anywhere close to life) sentence and then Polanski decided he'd had enough and ran away.

and france has a different extradition agreement from switzerland so they had to know he was leaving france ahead of time. it's not so easy for the us to set up the arrest + extradition that they could have just done it. i don't know. xpost

"if the americans wanted to arrest him,they could have done it many times on the past decades."

They could have? I wasn't aware he'd entered into any country that had extradition treaties with the US.

I always thought Jack Nicholson deserved some measure of opprobrium for knowing Polanski would use his house for pedo fun. What can you say, Jack? It was the seventies.

it's not like catching bin laden...
you gotta give the u.s. more credit than just waiting passively for him to show up where he suppose to other than actively go and take him by force.
plus,theres a thing called the interpol, which was never used.
conclusion: the u.s. don't care.

i haven't researched it but i don't believe they could have showed up and just taken him. it's also a state case. the DA had to ask the us justice dept to make the warrant, which was sent to switzerland to use their extradition treaty. so there's 3 separate governments involved.

"The girl was just a few weeks short of her 14th birthday, which was the age of consent in California."

Pretty sure it was 18 even then.

but on the legal facts this is BS.

― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius)

not a juris doctor iirc

"he'd entered into any country that had extradition treaties with the US"

he was, for example, in Israel.

I don't buy any of the arguments that Polanski doesn't deserve anything he gets at this point. This was a pretty despicable crime (he DRUGGED and then ANALLY RAPED a minor fer crying out loud) and the fact that he's a famous great director and seventy-six years old and once in Israel doesn't mean he should walk away scot free. So whatever happened that resulted in this, good on the Swiss.

^otm

anyone else arguing otherwise is honestly insane

i didnt say he doesn't or does deserve this,
i'm just saying that objectively no one except from the swiss seems to care.
at least uo to this point.

huh? the swiss didn't arrest him all by themselves!

hey man he had a rough half decade

xpost

"objectively"

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-mew-polanski28-2009sep28,0,6506344.story?track=rss

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office learned last week that Polanski had plans to travel to Zurich this weekend, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Prosecutors sent a provisional arrest warrant to the U.S. Justice Department, which presented it to Swiss authorities. On at least two previous occasions, the district attorney's office has received reports that Polanski had travel arrangements to countries with extradition treaties with the U.S. and prepared paperwork for his arrest, Gibbons said.

"But in the end, he apparently found out about it and didn't go," she said.

oy vey, expect to see a lot of this saving o' the p'do
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html

haha [here's a whole bunch of facts that are irrelevant] [therefore, i conclude switzerland is ridiculous]

just to be clear, my comment upthread was meant to be facetious.

arguments for arresting polanski: he committed a serious crime by drugging and raping a pubescent girl

arguments against arresting polanski: it happened 30 years ago!!!!! and, you know, he was in the holocaust!!! and besides, the swiss!!! you know!!! nazi bankers!!!

and chinatown!!!!!!!!!!!

he has already paid so much in lawyer's fees. just let him go.

He did commit a crime, but he has paid for the crime in many, many ways: In notoriety, in lawyers' fees, in professional stigma. He could not return to Los Angeles to receive his recent Oscar. He cannot visit Hollywood to direct or cast a film.

i mean, is this actually something that was written by a human or what?

Part of the transcript.

he can't even visit hollywood! isn't that enough?

also the victim doesn't want him to go back on trial and would rather just let it die

it was the 70s,anal sex with almost 14 year olds was all the rage. lighten up!

I am certain there are many who will harrumph that, following this arrest, justice was done at last. But Polanski is 76. To put him on trial or keep him in jail does not serve society in general or his victim in particular. Nor does it prove the doggedness and earnestness of the American legal system. If he weren't famous, I bet no one would bother with him at all.