OK. I’m going to spend a few words on the Roman Polanski case.
Briefly, in case you haven’t followed the story, Mr. Polanski is a filmmaker who’s made such movies as "Rosemary’s Baby," "Chinatown," and "The Pianist" (for which he won an Academy Award).
What this means is that he’s pretty good at his trade.
And, if that was that the limit of his visibility on my radar, I’d just move on to the sports section to see how my beloved New Orleans Saints were doing and all would be right in my world.
But that’s not the case.
You see, back in 1977, the then 44-year-old Mr. Polanski got himself arrested for having raped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl to whom he’d fed booze and drugs.
Which means he’s not anyone I’d want anywhere near my daughter or granddaughter - no matter how good his films might be.
Anyway, he was originally charged with the crimes noted but, in an agreement with authorities, later pled guilty to unlawful intercourse.
Apparently, part of the agreement included the provision that his jail time would end with the 42 days he’d served while being psychiatrically evaluated and that he’d be on probation for a year thereafter. This all fell through, though, when he found out that the judge was likely to ignore the agreement and throw him in jail for several years.
He then hightailed it to France and has been living and working there ever since - leaving the scales of justice completely out of balance.
But a good thing finally happened. For whatever reason, he was recently arrested in Switzerland and he now faces extradition to the United States.
More details regarding all of this - including a pretty graphic summary of the crime - can be found via a quick search on the Internet.
I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going debate all of the nuances of the laws he broke, the deal he struck, the sentencing he faced, who the judge was, what that judge or the prosecutor did, or what will be the outcome of all of the maneuvering (political and otherwise) that will surely occur between the United States, France and Switzerland.
What I do know is that I am a dad and a granddad who wears both titles proudly and understands the dangers young women face in the world we live in.
Further, I really don’t have a whit of sympathy for men (they don’t deserve the title) who hurt or abuse young women...or, for that matter, anyone. That they should know better is a given. That they do it is obscene. That they should be (harshly) punished is a given.
So, for what it’s worth, here’s what I think about the Polanski situation.
Get his sorry butt back here and put him through the legal wringer. I don’t know what the outcome would be, but I’d pray for a settling of accounts.
You see, what Mr. Polanski did was (in the truest sense of the word) wrong. Legally, morally, and inexcusably wrong. Further, if the word “perverted” doesn’t fit here, it doesn’t fit anywhere.
It doesn’t matter that he makes movies. It doesn’t matter that he’s ducked judgment for all these years. It doesn’t matter that many Hollywood types are aghast at what’s happening (see Whoopi Goldberg’s blitherings: “It wasn’t rape rape” - whatever the heck that’s supposed to mean).
What matters is that he might finally pay an appropriate price for what he did - and holing up in France for all of these years doesn’t even begin to fit the definition of the word “price.”
I have some opinions as regards what should happen to 44-year-old men who do things like this to 13-year-old girls. Most aren’t publishable, so let’s just say that, should Mr. Polanski ever face a jury, he should pray that there aren’t any individuals like me on that jury.
Finally, I think that Mr. Polanski should thank his lucky stars that he’s never bumped into a father who’d give a pound of flesh to be left alone in a room with him for five minutes had he ever done anything similar to that father’s daughter.
Yep, I’d likely be looked down upon by Mr. Polanski’s defenders as nothing more than a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.
And you know what? You can bet that that’s something I’d be distinctly proud of.
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