Poles cool on cultural hero Polanski
In his home country, Polanksi once enjoyed widespread support. Now, public figures scramble to keep his scandal from affecting the national image.
The letter called for the president and government, “to undertake immediate and energetic actions aimed at freeing Roman Polanski, a citizen of the Polish Republic, and preventing his extradition to the United States of America.”
However, in recent days Polish opinion has begun to stiffen against the renowned director, with many newspaper opinion pages calling for him to return to the U.S. to face legal proceedings.
For one thing, the overt support of Polanski did not mesh with parliament's recent decision to approve chemical castration for pedophiles, making Poland the toughest European country on sexual offenders.
Marek Migalski, a European MP for the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party, denounced the artists' intervention in favor of Polanski, writing in his blog: “Would you use the same arguments if your buddy Romek got your 13-year-old daughter drunk and then played around with her?” Jerzy Sawka, a columnist for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, wrote that the affair has made him reconsider the values of actors and directors he had once looked up to: “After the matter of Roman Polanski, nothing will be the same again. I'm listening and looking, and I don't believe the words that are coming from people I once respected.”
As the clamor against Polanski grew, Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, called on his ministers to express “greater restraint” over the director's troubles.
“This is a matter which, obviously involves an outstanding Polish director, and did happen many years ago,” Tusk told reporters. “But this is a matter which involves rape, having sex with a child, and we cannot mix politics into it.”
He added that while it was proper for Polish consular officials to be involved because Polanski is a Polish citizen, “I see no reason why we — that is my ministers or anyone else in Poland — should turn this into a matter of a national character.”
Why is the United States spending millions upon millions to extradite and try Polanski? (he was quietly forgotten.) Are they doing it for the global publicity?
Please check your facts David. Polanski pleaded guilty to the charges but fled the country before his sentencing. He's been avoiding the consequences for his actions for many years. I don't believe he was ever "quietly forgotten." He was playing the system avoiding arrest until recently.
Forcing himself on a 13-year old after giving her drugs and alcohol is serious stuff. This wasn't some movie he was directing. I don't care that he is (or was) an accomplished director. What difference does that make?
Check out the details of the crime here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0928091polanskiplea1.html
David, you smoking heap of smelly Euro-drivel. The girl was 13. Can you count that high? He gave her Quaaludes, sexually abused and sodomized her, even after she pleaded with him to stop, repeatedly. What don't you get about this? Ironically, the support from Hollywood and other "luminaries" has only served to create a backlash that, from the looks of things, has virtually assured that your guy Roman will be sentenced to a much deserved vacation in prison, where he is likely to get a taste of his own medicine. Publicity? No, David, not publicity. In America, we don't let people who drug, rape and sodomize 13-year olds get away with it. Schmuck!
David,
i seriously doubt that it's going to cost "millions and millions" to extradite Polanski, who, as Waldemar has pointed out, has already been tried and convicted.
There are few crimes more heinous than the rape of a child, and if it costs the U.S. taxpayer a bundle to put someone like this in jail, it's money well spent.
Mr. Polanski has been involved with sleaze a lot and this one has come home to roost. Unfortunately, many creative geniuses also have loose morals; perhaps the very same quality that gives them access to unfettered creativity also leads to unrestrained behavior in other areas. As a classic example, Charlie Chaplin also had trouble with underage women and faced at least one paternity suit. Lucky for him (though not the girls he abused), in those days it wasn't such a big deal. I'm only sorry that Polish artists and officials have egg on their faces for speaking in defense of Mr. Polanski without thinking of what they were actually saying.
Ideally, prisons would be places for rehabilitation. Because of many obvious reasons and complexities, rehabilitation remains elusive and so prisons simply restrain criminals from being able to repeat their crimes. But even worse, prisons really seem to exist to satisfy our need for revenge.
It's very sad to me that we nurture this need, justify it and glorify it, as if we've won something in revenge.
The bigger question here is how many other girls has he done this to? Its a proven fact that pedophiles don't stop with one and their enough evidence out there that he surround himself with young 14-16 year old for sometime.
The U.S. tried some 12 times to grab him but countries refused to cooperate.
Ask yourself the question, if this was your thirteen year old daugher that he admmitted to drugging and rapping (read the transcripts with her begging him to stop) what would you do. Personnally, I would have gone after him myself but that what we have a legal system for.
A little music, champagne a chemical castration and maybe a hot tub sound nice ?
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