By The Oscar winner fled the United States 32 years ago. From AP-
Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, authorities said Sunday.
Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said U.S. authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005.
“There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming,” ministry spokesman Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. “That’s why he was taken into custody.”
Polanski, the director of such classic films as “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” fled the U.S. for France in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl.
Polanski has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges’ refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
What do you consider more idiotic- An adult having sex with a 13-year-old girl or an adult pleading guilty to it and not expecting to serve jail time for the crime?
12:52 pm on September 27th, 2009 1
I saw a special on this some years ago. The Hollywood and usual types you see in the media went the "let bygones be bygones route" of course…some saying the now-woman had said it should be so…but that isn't exactly what she said to the camera in some of the clips in the report —
— but what stuck out was something I'd never heard the media report before or Hollywood bring up:
Besides being 13, he got her drunk first. Even more, this was the first young girl he met in what was supposed to be a photo project of his to celebrate the beauty of youth around the world…….
…Hmmm….I'm just glad he started here in the US – rather than – say – some South Pacific Island or Cambodia — where he probably would have gotten away with it and then moved on to the next youth — and it is interesting that if he'd just been born some years later or held back until later – he could have signed up for our contemporary era's sex tourist packages to rape in the the nations he planned to hit and wouldn't have had to bother carrying a camera….unless he wanted a momento….which he could have uploaded on the Internet for his life-minded fellows to enjoy….
1:01 pm on September 27th, 2009 2
What goes into 13 twice?
Roman Polanski
…but seriously…
"What do you consider more idiotic- An adult having sex with a 13-year-old girl or an adult pleading guilty to it and not expecting to serve jail time for the crime?"
The first one… obviously. So far, no jail time.
Ya' know all those Swiss banks being hassled right now by US tax investigations? This is a chess move in that game.
4:31 pm on September 27th, 2009 3
If I remember correctly, she said that although she hasn't forgiven him, she believes he has suffered enough…I still think he should end up in jail.
Speaking of creepy older men…
http://www.citypages.com/2007-08-15/music/what-s-…
6:22 pm on September 27th, 2009 4
It looks like pill popping drugged out hippie musicians are also kiddie diddlers. No big suprise there. It turns out that one of the icons of the hippie movment, John Phillips of the mamas and papas, was banging his daughter.
Care to guess how many of those pill poppers are democrats?
6:23 pm on September 27th, 2009 5
Manson follower Susan Atkins who had killed Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate died a couple of days ago and now this announced arrest of Roman Polanski.
What I can't understand is, how did Polanski manage to evade the law all these years with the so called technology of cameras and GPS, etc. There is just NO way that one can hide from the law with all of technology that is out there.
Something is just screwy here. I think the authorities DID know where he was hiding all these years. And one has to question as to why did they decide to arrest him NOW and not arrest him from years ago? Not to mention that this is going to cost taxpayers money for a trial that will drag on for years.
This is another example of how there is no such thing as "justice" in the justice system in the USA. Criminals go free while the innocent and victims get sent to prison.
10:24 pm on September 27th, 2009 6
He drugged her and made sex in her butt whilst they soaked in Jack Nicholson's hot tub. What's wrong with that?
11:23 pm on September 27th, 2009 7
David Bowie and his WIFE!! split a 13 year old virgin. This is the gay lifestyle folks, do you love it.
11:33 pm on September 27th, 2009 8
What he did was terrible and he needs to finally face his punishment. My problem is that the media will start feeding into what they believe is our obsession with celebrity scandal. With all the serious problems in the country and the world, this man will be 95% of the news for the next few weeks.
While the victim, who is now married with children, had asked to have the case dismissed and put behind her for the sake of her family, that's not going to happen. And because of our media's tactlessness and lack of discretion, she will be made a victim again.
2:21 am on September 28th, 2009 9
No. They have been trying to get him for years, but it is tied up with jurisdiction and extradition just like with Mark Rich who Clinton pardonned. A small group was asigned to track both and try to work through local governments to arrest them, but with their money, connections, fame, and sympathy with the elitist circles, they could live in up in Europe – Polanski getting lots of top American stars to come over and pay him homage to be in one of his films – and it must have been frustrating for the different feds over the years tasked with nabbing either man. It's not like the CIA could do a Eichmann like Israel did……..
1:22 pm on September 29th, 2009 10
Does Whoopie Goldberg have any children?
I wonder if any of the Hollywood big time people signing the petition to set Polanski free would consider it real "rape-rape" if it were their 13 year old daughter who he gave drugs and alcohol to weaken her 13 year old mind in order to rape her?
Being a talented artist gives him no more defense to charges against doing that than it would be to be a talented Republican politician…
…I'd like to hear them speak on how they'd handle this if a Republican congressman or govenor were arrested for the EXACT SAME ACT. I'd like to hear them if the Republican fled the country EXACTLY under the same circumstances as Polanski – and was arrested at the same age as Polanski years later.
I'm sure they'd be signing petitions to set the Republican congressman free, using their status in the society and media to convince American society it wasn't really "rape" rape or that bad a thing….
But the world revolves on horseshit…
9:59 pm on September 29th, 2009 11
One thing, however, that I've heard and read at some of the conservative sites is wrong: Some are calling Polanski a pedophile. That may be true, but it can't be based on the rape of the 13 year old girl.
A pedophile by definition is someone who is sexually attracted to and/or has sex with children – and a 13 year old is not a child.
That does not mean Polanski isn't a rotten bastard who should have had his balls cut off. It does not mean having sex with teenagers is OK or shouldn't be a crime. It simply means his act does not fit the definition of a pedophile – and with something this serious, precision is better than not.
The same point was made in one of Bernard Goldbergs two primary books (Bias or Arrogance, I forget which) about how distorted the news media in America has become by an overload of liberalism:
He said a young news producer had contacted him upset about something that happened to her at work —- The news media kept describing the Catholic priest involved in the sex scandals that were going viral as a story in the society – as pedophiles. She told the people at her work place that that wasn't correct — that the examples raging in the public discourse were ones of priests having sex with teenage boys —- still a crime, incredibly hypocritical, and something I'd see them tortured for if I were king of the world — but not dictionary pedophilia.
She said her effort at precision — brought down the wrath of her co-workers. Why? Because they saw it as leading to an attack on homosexual men and homosexuality. They wanted to militantly defend the use of the word "pedophile" in order to tie the act to what is considered in our society a psychological disease, and did not want it to be seen as all Greek to the people….since the society isn't overall too thrilled with the ancient Greek male preference for teenage boys….
10:44 pm on September 29th, 2009 12
I am starting to feel very uncomfortable.
3:36 pm on October 1st, 2009 13
Your completely correct. Pedophiles are people sexually attracted to prepubescent children. This is usually taken as children under the age of 10~12 (depending on when puberty hits). Hebephilia is the preference for pubescent / developing children. Typically in the age range of 12~14. And the final one is Ephebophilia which is a sexual preference for late teens / early adult children. Usually in the age of 15~16 or 17 (aka jailbait).
Paedophilia is a sickness and those people need to be separated from society. There is no biological imperative towards those children. Hebephilia is a bit of a grey area as their reproductive systems have turned on and biologically they are capable of sexual intercourse, although its still a danger to society as a general rule.
But the ephebophilia is a bit hard to swallow. I don't know about you guys, maybe everyone here was a saint and a choir boy during their youth, but I ~KNOW~ what I was doing when I was that age, and I know who I was doing it with. The biological imperative is in full swing for continuation of the species at that age.
In short, that guy is a danger to society because he definitely falls into the first category. And the cruelty of what he did, the pain he inflicted, the life time scars that girl now has (no more anus or large intestine). That man needs a braveheart style execution, with it being put on display as a reminder to ANYONE who would hurt a child to that extent.
12:23 am on October 2nd, 2009 14
Just as a legal aside, what are the average ages of consent in Western democracies and in states in the US? – Or a better question to fit what this last comment brought to mind – what are the marriage age laws?
It seems to me the way it works, at least in the US, is that when the teens hit the 14 to 15 years age, you move from an issue of mental and emotional capacity in terms of age difference (adult vs immature, undeveloped (physically speaking) mind), to an issue of parental consent…
We don't consider it a "crime" if parents give consent for a minor (legally speaking) son or daughter to get married to an older person (adult) and those two sleep together. Quick google…..Here is Georgia's law:
That is older than I remember. I think they must have changed the law in the last few years…Or dropped it down since this passage was written. On marriage:
So, like I said, here the law, and thus the society as a whole, does view the issue of sex between an adult and a minor differently. It moves from protecting the rights of the individual vulnerable due to mental and brain development to protecting the rights of the parents…
1:15 pm on October 5th, 2010 15
Roman Polanski is a child molester that is for sure*”-