Bahoot? Kersplat!

Yeah, that ones very handy. I wish you could do it on windows rather than having to copy/paste the location.

add to people who died, who died: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/14/jim.carroll.obit/

ddt

I hate pretty much everything anybody ever elected for office anywhere in California does, but I will be so happy if they get that fucker Polanski. I don't even care if he stays behind bars, but I would love to see him get sent to prison during his hearing and have them lose some of his paperwork.

Couldn't agree more.

It is a completely bizarre situation. The guy admitted that did VERY VERY bad thing ( 13 year old girl, champange, qualudes, Jack Nicholson's house...) then fled when he got wind of the fact that the judge was not quite as "down with all those wacky fun times free love Hollywood types". Spends DECADES staying technically out of reach of extradition (though even that is highly doubtful) then gets nabbed in SWITZERLAND?!? Land of neutrality? Land of oddly structured banking that sorta could use a a friend in a US prosecutors office...

Add how do so many people have sympathy for this guy? Yes, Manson's posse went all "kill the pigs" on his wife. Yes he has made some cinema fans very happy. But if this guy was not a hip white guy he would have been in a prison where very bad things would have made his life very much shorter and more brutal...

A background piece in a Dutch newspaper speculated about the fact that his arrest was probably the result of his own lawyers pissing off the prosecutor. Apparently they've been trying to get him acquitted but did so in a rather clumsy way. I cannot find the original article as the paper's website is currently down, but I'll try to post the translation later on.

Are you talking about his original arrest in the 70s? He admitted to sex with a 13 year-old. He drugged her and raped her while she begged him to stop. There is nothing wrong with him being arrested. If you are talking about his current arrest in 2009, then it is still his own fault. He believed that because he was famous and a lot of people liked Chinatown that he could live his life without facing the penalty he ran from. We put the request to the swiss in 2005. If he wasn't so concerned about stroking his ego and accepting his film award in person, he would still be in France looking to convince the next Nastassja Kjinski he could make her a star.

Stan,

I think the judge wasn't down with him serving 60 days psychiatric sentence after drugging a girl, raping, and sodomizing her.

What amuses me about this is the fact that he's trying to get out on bail in Switzerland until the extradition issue is settled.

Uh... how the hell could his lawyers even TRY to suggest that to a judge without getting laughed out of court.

"Yes, Your Honor, I realize that the purpose of this extradition is to return my client to the country from which he jumped bail and fled 32 years ago but he swears he's not going to run away AGAIN..."

Yeah, I just don't get the support for a child rapist. Except from Woody Allen, of course. "It seems inadmissible ... that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him," Yes, THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ANY OF US. "The French culture and communications minister, Frederic Mitterrand ... expressed solidarity with Polanski's family and said "he wants to remind everyone that Roman Polanski benefits from great general esteem" and has "exceptional artistic creation and human qualities."" Like RAPING CHILDREN. I'm just glad Michael Jackson isn't alive to see this.

Hmm... been away for a while. So time to jump in the fray. There's nothing noble about the way the LAPD is handling this.

If you read any of the news stories about this, you'll find that the victim wants the business done with. She's nearly 50 and she's sick of having her name and photograph in the media spotlight. She got cash settlement years ago and she's not famous. What would be more traumatic? I think having my name out in public over and over would be. People talking about you at the supermarket. So the media continues to rape this woman as does the law, which has decided to pick up on this now for some puzzling reason. And again, not to excuse Polanski, but shouldn't the fucking LAPD have the sensitivity not to do this the same week that the killer who butchered his wife while she begged for their unborn child to live died, bringing all that shit up again?

And then there's the famous LA court system, which truly fucked up the whole thing. It's beyond belief.

OK, here's the text. I just ran it verbatim through Google Translate, so parts of it might be gibberish...



text version | original version | print version full page
NRC Handelsblad 29.09.2009, page 1
Xxx xxx
Polanski himself be lured from arrest
Polish filmmakers against 'witch hunt'

Those who wonder why just when Roman Polanski was arrested for a case 32 years old, should watch the actions his lawyers took.
Our editors
Rotterdam / Warsaw / Paris, 29 sept.

It was the question after the arrest of Roman Polanski, this weekend in Switzerland: why now? Indignant European politicians, with his sympathetic colleagues and friends and probably the Polish-French filmmaker, all they wondered why prosecutors in the U.S. right now is still working on the 32 years old Polanski sex case against.

The answer probably is that Polanski's own lawyers have been that the American interest in the affair have re-fueled.

Formally, Polanski has a fugitive since 1978: that year he admitted guilt in fornication with a thirteen year old girl and left the United States to never to return. So he took for granted that he is not the 2003 Oscar for his film The Pianist could collect it.

All the while competing countries Polanski wide extradition treaties with the U.S.. Thus he not testify in London in 2005, when he aanspande a lawsuit against Vanity Fair. The magazine had found Polanski, libel committed by a piece of his life in the lust issue to rake up.

It was possible that the extensive international press reports that the process attracted American attention, writes the British newspaper The Guardian today. Later that year the Americans suddenly justify a global arrest warrant against Polanski. The United States would certainly twice since then have attempted to address Polanski: in Thailand and Israel. Always he sprang the dance.
Filmer has known

Polanski known end 70 years of fornication debt in exchange the prosecutor to charge the more serious crime of rape was withdrawing. The punishment would be limited under the deal to Polanski's 42 days in custody and following therapy. The victim (13) was agreed. The judge in the case concerning the settlement, however, broke open. He would not have wanted to appear weak in front of a star, it was reconstructed a few years ago in convincing the documentary: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
Filmer has known

Polanski's lawyers began a process to the charges against their client for the world to get well. In the course of justice (see box) had much to say, it was argued. Yet with limited success. In February 2009 a court in Los Angeles suggested that there is sufficient evidence that justice was improper time went, but an indictment against a fugitive can not be deleted. Polanski had really come in person because, in the U.S. itself.

The lawyers went into action. And, writing American newspapers today, prosecutors in California may have incited greater resolve to tackle Polanski. According to The New York Times, this summer with two sessions showed that the case against the filmmaker falters. The Los Angeles Times reports that the prosecutor is sure of his case, but Polanski's lawyers argued that justice was never serious about his arrest: So why do not they let the matter rest? Anyway, the action of Polanski's lawyers the Public Prosecutor instigated.

The commotion among some France and Poland had not eased. Especially in his native Poland is the great indignation. Polish filmmakers, including Polanski's friends and contemporaries Andrzej Wajda, came all at once with a joint statement Sunday. They find that their fellow victim of "a legal witch hunt" and that he should be released. But one sentence rather call it also "morally reprehensible" that Polanski had sex with a thirteen year old girl.

It illustrates that the generally conservative in Poland are a clear split: Sex with minors is a big taboo in the country, last week was a controversial but politically broad law assumed that the forced chemical castration of pedophiles possible.

This is combined with the worship of the artist and world renowned Pool Polanski. "I think anyone who, like me, deep admiration for his films with me will agree that a sin should be forgiven," said Radek Sikorski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The commentator of the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, called it hypocritical. "The same laws for everyone," he writes today. "I see no reason why Roman Polanski would be answerable and accountable not a footballer or plumber is."

Polanski's home in France is not a great excitement arose about the sharp reaction of Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, the hunt for Polanski yesterday blamed "a certain America that inspires fear. Thierry Fremaux Organizer of the Cannes Film Festival was one of initiators of the petition for the release of Polanski, who is supported by, among others, Bernard Tavernier, Wim Wenders, Stephen Frears. They are like Mitterrand outraged that Polanski was arrested as he came to Switzerland for the film festival in Zurich. He celebrated in the country in recent years arranged private holidays. His coming to the festival, however, was known well in advance so the Swiss Prosecutor's American colleagues could match.

The French support for Polanski was echoed by the conviction that the filmmaker disproportionately long haunted by the affair because he is a star. Worldwide barred the serious crimes ever, writes daily newspaper Libération this morning. In a petition among others intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy speaks of a "political and legal intrigue democracies like Switzerland and the U.S. unworthy".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2009 07:29AM by tliet.

Ack... anybody have a google wave invite? smoghat@gmail.com... i didn't get mine.

She is never going to be any less famous. Her name will be attached to his forever. Should we stop because the victim wants it to stop? Perhaps. But how do we know she wasn't coerced? Wouldn't that just enable anybody to pay off their victims to keep them quiet? And wouldn't it just invite witness and victim intimidation if law enforcement stopped because a victim "forgave" the attacker? And call me insensitive but there are millions of people whose parents died in the holocaust and plenty of people who had their pregnant wives killed and didn't decide that catharsis came in the form of drugging a thirteen year old ad having sex with her while she said no. And the timing of it had nothing to do with the Los Angeles DA. They put the request in a long time ago. Polanski was so shaken up by the death of that butcher that killed his wife he decided to comfort himself by accepting a film award.

This piece does the best job I've seen yet of putting it into proper perspective.

Good article, CS.

I have to admit ignorance here but the only news report I saw said something like "arrested for sex with an underage girl". Until reading here today I did not realise he also drugged her, raped and sodomised her. The girl doesn't want him prosecuted simply because the media attention is upsetting her, which is a big difference from "forgiving" him.

I don't care about his fancy films, he should rot in jail.

Ultimately the thing that bugs me about the whole thing is that this is all that passes for news today. National Health Care? Anybody remember that? Stupid news. Put him in jail if need be, but let's get back to the news.

That's been the problem with the coverage of this so far, Tony... especially outside of the United States. The story has been about the "Big, Bad United States" pressuring Switzerland into arresting this nice old man who, "made a little mistake 32 years ago." That last part is a direct quote from one of the stories I read.

The bottom line is this... Roman Polanski is a convicted rapist, a convicted child molester and a criminal fugitive. Yes, his wife was murdered long ago... but if the culprits had managed to flee the country for 3 decades, how sympathetic do you think he would be right now? He has kids of his own, too... how supportive would he be if someone did the same thing to them and then fled?

seems like y'all are agreeing with the left-wing moonbats on this one (http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/word-polanski-apologists).

(not saying i disagree at all, but still recommend "knife in the water" as a great film -- watch it if you get the chance.)

ddt

A friend of mine said one thing about this in the bar tonight; the 1970s were a totally different era. What was (semi) permissible then would result in a life sentence today. Definitely not agreeing with what he's done, but one has also to think about what is going to be gained by putting him into jail for the rest of his life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2009 10:53AM by tliet.

Quote

A friend of mine said one thing about this in the bar tonight; the 1970s were a totally different era. What was (semi) permissible then would result in a life sentence today. Definitely not agreeing with what he's done, but one has also to think about what is going to be gained by putting him into jail for the rest of his life.

Was it really permissible to give drugs and alcohol to a thirteen year old and then stick your penis in her butt while she said no? Unless she redacts her grand jury testimony, that is what happened (Polanski hasn't denied giving her alcohol and drugs or having sex with her. ) This is not the same as sixteen year old who got a BJ from his fifteen year old girlfriend and the parents called the cops. It's amazing that his victim has showed him any forgiveness, because that shitbag hasn't shown any remorse. I like it when the justice system doesn't treat the rich and famous differently from the common man. (To paraphrase a similar comment) If Polanski didn't make movies, he would be Roman the bus-driving rapist, and not a martyr for self absorbed assholes like Harvey Weinstein.


ddt,

I am not looking for a (D) or an (R) when I read what people have to say about Polanski. I never said he didn't make some great films, but all this stuff about how he has "suffered" the last 30 years is laughable. Really, find one quote of his where he apologizes for what he did or even the pain he has put her through. About the closest he has come is something along the lines of the "Bitch set me up" defense.