Give the Tortured Soul a Break

The Tawdry Saga of Roman Polanski

At times things will occur which spark bizarre reactions--bizarre because extreme or inexplicable. The recent arrest of lionised and celebrated cinema director, Polanski on a decades old charge of the rape of a minor (admitted) has been one of those things. What various luminaries and pundits have said about it has been a revelation of the depths of depravity amongst various elites in the West.

If you would like a summary of the facts of the crime committed so long ago, you can find it at the Patterico blog. Patterico works in the Los Angeles DA office, so he provides authoritative information on the actual historical case. (Be warned: this was a gross crime. The court summaries of testimony do not make for pleasant reading.)

Miranda Devine provides a sanitised summary:

Polanski has been a fugitive from US justice since he skipped bail after being charged over the rape and sodomy of a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson's Los Angeles home in 1977.

According to the girl's sworn testimony before a grand jury two weeks later, he lured her to the house with the promise of photographing her for French Vogue and plied her with champagne and Quaalude before attacking her, despite her repeated requests for him to stop. He pleaded guilty to statutory rape - having sex with a minor - before fleeing the country.

The Hollywood and entertainment industry has been split (thankfully) down the middle. There are those who have rushed to condemn the arrest of Polanski in Switzerland, pending extradition back to the United States, whence he skipped bail in 1978 and fled to Europe where he has lived ever since. Neither France nor Poland have co-operated with US judicial authorities in seeing that he returned back to the US court.

His defenders have been luminaries such as Whoopi Goldberg ("It was not rape-rape,") and Woody Allen.
Steve Lopez, a columnist for the LA Times and a card carrying left-wing coruscant, has little time for those with whom he is usually aligned:

But I wish the renowned legal scholars Harvey Weinstein and Debra Winger, to name just two of Polanski's defenders, were here with me now. I'd like to invite Martin Scorsese, as well, along with David Lynch, who have put their names on a petition calling for Polanski to be freed immediately.

What, because he won an Oscar? Would they speak up for a sex offender who hadn't?

To hear these people tell it, you'd think Polanski was the victim rather than the teenager.

And then there's Woody Allen, who has signed the petition too.

Woody Allen?

You'd think that after marrying his longtime girlfriend's adopted daughter, he'd have the good sense to remain silent. But at least Soon-Yi Previn was a consenting adult.

I'd like to show all these great luminaries the testimony from Polanski's underage victim, as well as Polanski's admission of guilt. Then I'd like to ask whether, if the victim were their daughter, they'd be so cavalier about a crime that was originally charged as sodomy and rape before Polanski agreed to a plea bargain. Would they still support Polanski's wish to remain on the lam living the life of a king, despite the fact that he skipped the U.S. in 1977 before he was sentenced?

The Zurich Film Festival has been "unfairly exploited" by Polanski's arrest, Winger said. Thanks, Deb. And so sorry the film festival was inconvenienced by the arrest of a man who left the United States to avoid sentencing for forcing himself on a child.

Weinstein, meanwhile, issued an open letter urging "every U.S. filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the U.S.," arguing that "whatever you think of the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time."

So-called crime?

Yes, the one Polanski admitted to in court.

Then there has been the unbelievable apologia from Anne Applebaum, columnist for the Washington Post. Now, we have a great deal of respect for Applebaum, whose monumental Gulag: A History is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the twentieth century. But according to Applebaum it turns out that Polanski deserves special consideration because--wait for it--he is a victim of the Holocaust. Applebaum called the arrest of Polanski outrageous, and writes:

He can be blamed, it is true, for his original, panicky decision to flee. But for this decision I see mitigating circumstances, not least an understandable fear of irrational punishment. Polanski's mother died in Auschwitz. His father survived Mauthausen. He himself survived the Krakow ghetto, and later emigrated from communist Poland.

Soooo. His holocaust trauma led him to be panicky and flee while on bail. OK, well now he has had tons of time to overcome his panic. Surely, Applebaum should be encouraging him to do the right thing and go back and face up to his already admitted crimes. Let him plead his holocaust mitigation to the judge. She, of all people, should understand what happens when people are placed above the law.

In Europe the reaction has been equally perverse--at least in some quarters. The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner called Polanski's arrest "sinister". The French Culture Minister said it revealed the ugly underbelly of the United States. One gets the impression that these great ones think that Polanski should be cut lots and lots of slack because he is an artiste--and in a class above ordinary humans.

One law for all, governors and governed, elites and commoners, rich and poor, patricians and plebeians. The sovereignty of law, not people is a fundamental principle of Christian liberty and political belief. The apologists for Polanski show just how far this belief has been eclipsed. The opposite reaction has been salutary. We thank God for His common grace.