Things I Learned Today:

[carmen_lj]

Rape is okay so long as you are a rich and successful filmmaker.

At least according to the people signing this petition asking for the release of Roman Polanski.

Fucking hell.

The wording of the petition is as disgusting as the sentiment:

His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.

"Case of morals" is the cool new term for rape, I take it. And it's the rape of a thirteen year old girl. So it's irrelevent whether she consented or not (she didn't).

It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.

HOW DARE THOSE SNEAKY POLICE TURN UP TO ARREST HIM SOMEWHERE WHERE THEY KNEW HE'D BE? Next they'll be, like, investigating crimes and searching for evidence and stuff. WHERE WILL THIS MADNESS END?

By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.

Which they can do, as far as I'm aware, it's just that, for some MAD REASON filmmakers are not always above the law. (I mean the history of this case is pretty oh-dear-god, but making out it is a GROSS INJUSTICE when someone is arrested for a crime they've been convicted of and not served the sentence, and then committed several more crimes to escape is A BIT MAD.)

The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.

Yes, dammit! If you're on the run from the law and you can't be safe in Switzerland, where can you be safe?!

And I think we can guess the effects: if people, even filmmakers, commit a crime, they may actually be arrested, even by the Swiss. HORRORS.

This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.

And why will it take away his freedom? OH YEAH, CAUSE HE DONE A RAPE.

Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians - everyone involved in international filmmaking - want him to know that he has their support and friendship.

I fucking well hope not, or I'll never be able to watch a movie again.

If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.

PS. What is this rule of law of which you speak?

(I'm aware of the victim's desire just to not want to deal with any of this any more, but the criminal law is there to serve justice, not the victim, and however much one sympathises with her, it's hardly in the interests of a just and safe society to turn a blind eye to rapists and bail-jumpers.)

Comments

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

This international filmmaker says HANG HIM BLOODY HIGH.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I CANNOT BELIEVE THE ORIGINAL SENTENCE. EIGHTY FUCKING DAYS INDEED.

[danel4d.livejournal.com]

Reading the news today is deeply confusing, as if I woke up in some weird parallel universe. I really can't grasp the idea that Hey, it was a long time ago really and he is a famous director, so if he's not above the law won't civilisation crumble?

I don't understand!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Well, when you are A Real Artist the law is just there to Oppress Your Genius. Justice is for the plebs, man.

[davidbrider.livejournal.com]

I still have difficulty understanding how he's managed to escape arrest for the past 30 years. It's not, from what I can tell, as if his whereabouts have been a mystery.

But yeah, that petition is just wrong.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Lack of extradition treaties, in part anyway. I know the French didn't have one with the US till the nineties and didn't really start enforcing it till 2002.

Plus he's rich and famous, so, yeah.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

US extradition policy is very...awkward at best and very dependent on the country and how bad one wants the US citizen (much easier and more common to extradite non-US citizens from another country of non-residence). Wiki says US has only had an extradition treaty with France since 1996, but I don't know if there were ones before that.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

France doesn't extradite its own citizens, apparently. Polanski also avoided travelling in places and times he thought would lead to extradition, and he got lucky a few times when the chain of information was too slow for U.S. law enforcement to get the other country to arrest him while he was still there.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

It's just bizarre and horrid and wrong.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

A lot. Yes. Eugh.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

You know, I was already horrified, and then I read the list of names.

Pedro Almodovar signed this thing? Tilda Swinton? SALMAN FUCKING RUSHDIE?

(Okay, I get why Rushdie did it; extradition laws kept him safe from the fatwa. But there's using extradition laws to keep someone safe from religious persecution and then there's using them to keep someone safe from being punished for a RAPE. WHICH I'M PRETTY SURE IS ILLEGAL IN FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND, TOO.)

Just...ugh. Fuck 'em all. I like to think rapists should be punished for their crimes, but then I'm only a silly moviegoing proletarian. I couldn't possibly understand.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Seeing Terry Gilliam's name there was pretty fucking depressing for me, yeah.

[cosmic.livejournal.com]

The thing that weirds me out about the arrest now is that he's been in Switzerland before, he apparently has a house in Switzerland. So, yes, I do question the timing. In that why the hell he wasn't arrested a gazillion years ago when he was doing a movie or living there if it's a coutry that has an extradition treaty with the US (unlike the bunch of other countries he's spent a lot of time in the past thirty years)?

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

There's only been an international warrant on Polanski since 2005. Why that didn't stop the French, I don't know.

[jo-mako.livejournal.com]

This! I am getting sick and tired of hearing 'oh poor Polanski!' Dude...fame, and prestige do not get you forgiven from a hideous crime. It just doesn't happen that way.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

They guy has a had a fuck of a lot of tragedy in his life, but I'd bet a lot of money that most Holocaust survivors grew up and somehow managed not to become rapists.

[drho.livejournal.com]

Those special snowflakes of the film community are surprised that convicted child rapists can be arrested at film festivals for fleeing justice. Wow. I'm sure they all have lawyers, so maybe they should realize that judges have the discretion to reject plea agreements. The judge didn't have to agree that 80 days is sufficient for drugging and raping a child, ffs.

I know the victim says she feels more victimized by the media than Polanski, but that says more about the media's treatment of survivors than it does about the legal system. The media should have left her alone and should never have published her name. Nevertheless, the rapist who fled justice is the only person responsible for delaying closure for 30 plus years.

[shobogan.livejournal.com]

The legal system can still treat them pretty horrendously, too, mind.

[nonelvis]

There are so many people whose names I respect who signed that petition.

Well, I used to respect them, anyway.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

yeah. i get that he has friends and colleagues who all see a different side of him but it all comes down to -- he did a horrible thing, and it should have consequences. a (not very close) friend of mine date raped a (much closer) friend of mine this summer, i told her that what she had done was fucked up and she told me that i didn't understand everything that was going on at the time and that the friend she assaulted wasn't "the only one who was feeling vulnerable". um, okay, but that doesn't actually change the fact that *you* sexually assaulted someone.

i don't know if the extradition is actually going to serve justice in any meaningful way, given the nature of the justice system, the fact that polanski has already spent decades being a rich, respected film maker, the fact that his victim just doesn't want to deal with the situation anymore, etc -- but being outraged that a convicted child-rapist and bail-jumper has actually been extradited in order to serve his time, because you know him, or he makes "great art"? no. just, no.

[shobogan.livejournal.com]

What the fuck rape is not okay no matter who you are that should not need to be said what the fuck.

Ahem. This - this probably shouldn't surprise me and yet it does. It's just so blunt.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

this probably shouldn't surprise me and yet it does.

Hollywood and the film world don't give two shits what happened to a young girl so long as the important white man gets off scot-free, and anyway she was asking for it and it wasn't his fault. News at 11.

[amaresu]

I so don't want to read that petition because then I'm gonna have to stop seeing things or get rid of things I own. But I shall look.

I'm disgusted by the film industry right now.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Polanski's extradition is an act of friendship between the U.S. and Switzerland. It's an act that says: We won't let your criminals hide on our soil. It's based on a treaty, for crying out loud. But apparently now that's grounds to accuse the U.S. of masterminding some kind of evil conspiracy. (Of law enforcement! Oh noes!)

I've ranted way too many times about this case, including in a journal entry I posted about 2 minutes ago, but seriously, fuck you, entertainment industry. Except Luc Besson, who actually said that justice applies equally to all people and that includes Roman Polanski.

He raped a 13-year-old. He raped a 13-year-old. He raped a 13-year-old. How can they fly straight from that to calling it a "case of morals", like this is just American prudishness rearing its ugly head? If that's sexual repression, sign me up.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

Except Luc Besson, who actually said that justice applies equally to all people and that includes Roman Polanski.

Oh thank criminy. I was worried I was going to have to throw out my Fifth Element DVD.

[eido.livejournal.com]

If only in the name of this friendship between our two countries, we demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski.

o_O I have VERY serious doubts the whole of France would be on board in supporting kiddie rapists in the name of art. Stop trying to make this some international incident you ignorant assholes! It's about human decency and this guy isn't only guilty but admitted it, then ran off like the coward he is knowing how guilty he was.

Maybe I'm not an artiste so I just don't get it, but are these dangerously blase petitioners going to lose that much sleep because the director of "The Pianist" is (rightly!) behind bars? This makes me weep for all the brilliant talent out there that can barely get their feet in the door and, you know, don't drug and rape children. All the time and resources being squandered on this asshole. I think I'm going to have the taste of bile in my mouth the rest of the night.

[abates.livejournal.com]

I'm still boggled about the whole 30 years thing. I guess he was just really careful about where he traveled.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the people who signed the petition didn't even bother to find out the facts, just signed it in a kneejerk response to The Man oppressing a fellow artiste. Which only adds stupidity & laziness to the offense of signing it.

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

This seems very likely. Maybe I'm just not cynical enough, but it really does seem easier to believe that people would put supporting a friend above bothering to find out what their friend's actually in trouble for, rather than being fully aware that Polanski raped a 13-year-old girl, got caught, and fled the country to avoid serving time for it... and still wanting him to be let off the hook because they know him personally/he's a famous directorman.

Personally, I would find it easier to forgive the people who signed it if they were ignorant of the facts and signed out of that sort of severely misplaced attempts at solidarity. Lazy, ignorant stupidity is a lot less damning than thinking celebrities should be above the law and/or being okay with the rape of young girls.

[mhr-kara.livejournal.com]

this whole thing is so surreal........how he had evaded getting arrested/tried for the rape for so long is just........unbelievable.... *shakes head*

[melengro.livejournal.com]

My only reaction to that petition is 'well, Milan Kundera, yes, I could have guessed that from torturing myself through The Unbearable Lightness of Being'.

This is my only reaction because it is the only possible reaction that does not involve MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF HORROR AND RAGE.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

in a case of morals.
Worse - my French is v dodgy, so I may be wrong here, but the actual word used is 'mœurs' which I believe connotates something closer to 'mores' or 'manners'.

Like I say, correct me if I'm wrong, but ew.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Not quite.

'Moeurs' can also be translated as sexual morals or individual sexual behaviour / attitude towards sex.

'Une affaire de mœurs' is massively icky either way. Unless rape counts as 'just sex' in France...

[londonesque.livejournal.com]

This has all made me so angry, I just need to step away from the internet. I'm so disappointed at how many people I used to respect have signed that petition, it makes me sick.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

What really pisses me off about the text of the petition is the blatantly sophistical spin of Polanski as some sort of political refugee, being arrested to be silenced, rather than being arrested for, you know, rape.

...okay, it's one of the things that really pisses me off about it.