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The Los Angeles Times is Sicker Than Polanski
by American Phoenix | September 28, 2009
Apparently, Roman Polanski still has apologists both in the media and Hollywood. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about this. I am nevertheless outraged that there are those who think the drugging, statutory rape, sodomy of an underage girl isn’t a big enough deal to warrant justice, even if long delayed.
We live in an age that is so thoroughly post-modern that you can find an obvious literary antecedent for nearly every seamy media storyline. The same goes for the Polanski case, which is full of echoes of “Les Miserables,” the classic Victor Hugo novel about Jean Valjean, an ex-con trying to turn his life around who is being obsessively tracked and hunted down by the Parisian police inspector Javert.
Goldstein, Patrick, The Big Picture: Roman Polanski still being hounded by L.A. County prosecutors, Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2009
Really? Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a thirteen year old girl and then pled guilty to a lesser charge. The relevant portion of the victim’s grand jury testimony can be found at Patterico’s Pontifications. Before that he seduced Nastassya Kinski, then fifteen years old. And then Polanski fled justice.
Jean Valjean’s crime was stealing a loaf of bread because he and his family were starving to death. Hugo’s novel continues to relate the story of how French society turns Valjean into an even worse criminal and then how Valjean, touched by the forgiveness and charity of a Catholic bishop, turns his life around. Either Patrick Goldstein thinks his audience hasn’t read Les Miserables, and so won’t fully understand the comparison, or he thinks these kinds of crimes aren’t a big enough deal worthy of punishment. It’s probably both. Goldstein continues:
Hugo’s story is a tragedy, as is the life story of Polanski, who was a fugitive as a boy and is now a fugitive as an old man. Whether the L.A. County district attorney office has its way or not, it is not a story that can have a happy ending. I think Polanski has already paid a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions. The real tragedy is that he will always, till his death, be snubbed and stalked and confronted by people who think the price he has already paid isn’t enough.
Exactly what price has Polanski paid? So far he’s spent a grand total of 42 days in jail - the kind of time one does for a non-violent misdemeanor - not child rape. Where’s the infamy? He got a standing ovation for his film The Pianist which won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2002, although Jack Nicholson, at whose home the crime was committed, didn’t look terribly pleased. Polanski has been working and living a life of luxury in France for the last 31 plus years, completely unencumbered by his crimes.
Goldstein also suggests that California’s current financial crisis and prison overcrowding problem should be reason enough not to imprison Polanski.
With the state Legislature forced to make dramatic cuts in the prison budget and a three-judge federal panel having recently ordered California lawmakers to release as many as 40,000 inmates in response to the scandalous overcrowding of the California state prison system, it seems like an especially inauspicious time for the L.A. County district attorney’s office to be spending some of our few remaining tax dollars seeing if it can finally, after all these years, put Roman Polanski behind bars.
I can’t think of many better uses of our tax dollars than to spend them seeking justice for the victims of child rapists, uphold the rule of law and to protect the public from further harm. Certainly, I wouldn’t advocate releasing child rapists over non-violent offenders.
Polanski’s victim, now in her forties, says she has forgiven Polanski. There’s no reason to disbelieve her. She wants to get on with her life. Who could blame her? Certainly the public pressure on her has been enormous and she most certainly would like it to end. But is this a sufficient reason to let Polanski off the hook? It’s true that Polanski survived the Holocaust and also the tragic murders of his wife, Sharon Tate, and their unborn child. But why should these indisputable facts somehow give rise to a “get out of jail free” card? Why should Polanski go free when so many other pedophiles have been convicted of the same charges and have done or are doing prison time? Perhaps Goldstein is suggesting this because Polanski is famous, wealthy and looks good in a tuxedo. Sadly, this is just one more piece of evidence that the current sick post-modernist culture does not value the rights of children more than the rich and powerful.
Update (September 29, 2009): Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., with whom I agree on very little, nails it:
Imagine if the Knight of Columbus decided to give an award to a pedophile priest who had fled the country to avoid prison. The outcry would be universal. Victim groups would demand the award be withdrawn and that the organization apologize. Religion reporters would be on the case with the encouragement of their editors. Editorial writers and columnist would denounce the knights as another example of the insensitivity of the Catholic Church to sexual abuse.
And they would all be correct. And I would join them.
But why is there not similar outrage directed at the film industry for giving an award to Roman Polanski, who not only confessed to statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl but fled the country prior to sentencing? Why have film critics and the rest of the media ignored this case for 31 years? He even received an Academy award in 2003. Are the high priests of the entertainment industry immune to criticism?
Reese, Fr. Thomas, Father Polanski Would Go to Jail, Washington Post, September 28, 2009,
H/T: InsideCatholic.com
Topics: California, Classics, Culture of Death, International, Law |