Polanski - Wiki Commons
I admit at one time I thought that Polanski should probably be left alone – I mean it had been over 30 years since his crime hadn’t it? It was just sex right? He’s a famous and fantastic director, non?
Except:
- She was 13 years old damnit!
- He drugged her up to take advantage of her (a 13 year old damnit!).
- You or I, rightly, would be (or have been) in jail. No questions asked.
You can mostly thank the excellent Glenn Greenwald for my change in mind on this. He has been downright “shrill” about the idea that one set of justice does not exist for the landed and another for the rest of us. So what if Polanski is talented? He committed a horrible crime. Time and time again we weigh the crimes of the landed as somehow lighter than the crimes of us unwashed masses. Somehow their “contributions” or celebrity supply a moral “get out of jail free” card, when in fact we should hold them to higher standards (and also should forget their “affiliation” – we usually judge those consistent with our politics differently than those who are not).
Let’s look at this as what it was – some guy raped a young girl of 13 and went on the lam for 30+ years, avoiding the authorities in a very flaunting way, and has never, not once, even slightly paid for his crimes. If it was Johnny Doe, janitor of Creedmore, Ohio (fictitious identity here for sake of argument), we’d be celebrating not thinking, “Aw shucks, that’s not fair!” We’ve got to stop thinking, “Oh, but I like him/her, so I guess it’s not so bad.”
P.S.: If that doesn’t convince you remember a small insignificant phrase from our Declaration of Independence:
That includes Roman Polanski, and in the case of torture, George Bush.
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