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

"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.

She's certain, you see, so stop harrumphing!

yeah i remember when adrien brody declined to be in "the pianist" because of the stigma surrounding roman polanski and i thought to myself "i wish there wasn't such a stigma surrounding roman polanski. he'll never even get to win an academy award."

don't you harrumph just becuz polanski was herrumping

he had to find some no-name c-lister like harrison ford to accept the oscar for him, isnt that basically the same thing as a jail sentence?

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!!!

also, he's european. that's how they roll over there. in france if you sleep with a 14 yr old girl the president has some cheese and wine with you.

Hey Ann Applebaum do you have a young daughter? How about I rape her??? Please, I just love raping little girls.

http://karlandkinggeorge.com/images/Hackman__The_Birdcage.png

"I've seen this kind of thing before. Aristotle Onassis was just like this. And all the French. Especially Mitterand. And the English. Not Margaret Thatcher, of course..."

One more thing...this 13 year old girl was no virgin. She had had sex at least twice before by her own testimony. What kind of girl goes to a house with a grown man, drinks champagne, gets in a hot tub...etc. Again...not condoning what he did but he's paid his debt in my book.

Posted by: babyfacemagee | September 27, 2009 4:48 PM | Report abuse

Honestly, his movies should all be destroyed.

Report abuse

haha

LIberals have no problem with diddling children...the normal world does......

Liberalism on display is losing support globally ... 2010 will mark the end of a foolish experiment with wishful thinking.

Liberalism is a failed concept..reality bites it in the but daily...see ObamaCare, Obama's foreign policy, Obama's economic policy ...and on and on.

Posted by: georgedixon | September 27, 2009 5:55 PM | Report abuse

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-farr/leniency-for-polanski_b_301269.html

But the story of what Polanski suffered even before the unspeakable trauma of having his pregnant wife Sharon Tate butchered in the spooky twilight of the turbulent Sixties makes me believe that overall, he's as much victim as predator himself.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/09/roman-polanski-still-being-stalked-by-la-county-prosecutors.html

I watched Repulsion a few weeks ago at a friend's house. He told me we had watched it like 7 or 8 years earlier, to my denial. Only after by its end did I realized I had seen it. How the hell does someone forget seeing Repulsion?

I love Polanski's films

and quite honestly don't understand what the fuck yall are on about.

He drugged and fucked a 13 year old girl and now he's being caught up on it thanks to Swiss/US cooperation.

no i know that. i mean cmon what's the fuss on either side.

dude are you fucking serious

Yeah I know, sorry. I agree fwiw, esp as the victim doesn't care anymore