![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Roman Polanski is a rapist.
He is an artist (with both greatness and total crap on his record) and he is a man who has survived horrible things. However, those two things do not equal a free pass to do horrible things to someone else. Lots of people are talented, and lots of people have lived through shit. We don't excuse them from any crimes they may have committed afterward, what makes him special?
To make it worse, many famous and talented people are arguing for his release on just those grounds...because I suppose famous and talented people should be held to different standards (or no standards at all apparently) for their "art". The French petition for his release actually says the charges against him are about "morals" and not the legal fact that he committed rape. (As one of the articles below this states, perhaps French girls are more mature at thirteen than American girls, but the legal age of consent on both countries reflects that difference. And furthermore, he wasn't in France, he had been living in America for years, and as the girl's testimony at the time said, he had plenty of opportunities to stop, she asked him to stop more than once, and he didn't. He was forty-three at the time, btw.)
Others are talking about how old the case is. Remember, if he had stayed for his sentencing this all would have been over with thirty years ago. Now his victim has to go through all of this again, with more worldwide attention, because Roman Polanski not only raped her, but ran away from the punishment for the act he committed.
She has to deal with this, all of the time, and he's been living in France, and is now being hailed as a great artist. I don't hear those celebrities talking about what she's been through. The victim just wants it to be over, and if those celebrities were pleading on her behalf, perhaps I'd understand. But they aren't. They make me sad, and pissed off. But mostly sad.
Why Chinatown Doesn't Matter
The celebrity petition to have him released aka, why most celebrities are still morons and we should never ask their opinions on anything.
Maybe he ought to try apologizing instead of whining for his release. I notice he still hasn't. In fact, there's this. everyone wants little girls?
He is an artist (with both greatness and total crap on his record) and he is a man who has survived horrible things. However, those two things do not equal a free pass to do horrible things to someone else. Lots of people are talented, and lots of people have lived through shit. We don't excuse them from any crimes they may have committed afterward, what makes him special?
To make it worse, many famous and talented people are arguing for his release on just those grounds...because I suppose famous and talented people should be held to different standards (or no standards at all apparently) for their "art". The French petition for his release actually says the charges against him are about "morals" and not the legal fact that he committed rape. (As one of the articles below this states, perhaps French girls are more mature at thirteen than American girls, but the legal age of consent on both countries reflects that difference. And furthermore, he wasn't in France, he had been living in America for years, and as the girl's testimony at the time said, he had plenty of opportunities to stop, she asked him to stop more than once, and he didn't. He was forty-three at the time, btw.)
Others are talking about how old the case is. Remember, if he had stayed for his sentencing this all would have been over with thirty years ago. Now his victim has to go through all of this again, with more worldwide attention, because Roman Polanski not only raped her, but ran away from the punishment for the act he committed.
She has to deal with this, all of the time, and he's been living in France, and is now being hailed as a great artist. I don't hear those celebrities talking about what she's been through. The victim just wants it to be over, and if those celebrities were pleading on her behalf, perhaps I'd understand. But they aren't. They make me sad, and pissed off. But mostly sad.
Why Chinatown Doesn't Matter
The celebrity petition to have him released aka, why most celebrities are still morons and we should never ask their opinions on anything.
Maybe he ought to try apologizing instead of whining for his release. I notice he still hasn't. In fact, there's this. everyone wants little girls?