Comments on: She Was an Eighth Grader

By: Shveta

Shveta — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:09:35 +0000

Yes! Thank you. As I posted on Justine’s blog, we have to stop treating celebrities like royalty who are somehow above the law.

But it’s amazing the lengths people will go to not to have to admit someone they like did a horrible, horrible thing, isn’t it?

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:30:19 +0000

All good points, folks. It seems insane to those of us who know the details that anyone would seek to pardon Polanski. But as David E says: “everybody has their reasons.” I think the petitioners’ reasons fall somewhere along the continuum of cloistered ignorance and privileged arrogance.

But I think it’s important that justice be done, no matter how belatedly. Otherwise it sends a horrible message to young girls and boys. We’ve made a lot of progress since 1978 on the subject of sex crimes and gender equality. There’s no need to dip backwards now just because the perp is famous.

By: Evil David

Evil David — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:15:02 +0000

He drugged and then *sodomized* a 13-year-old girl. Some of the things I’ve heard in his defense (”It wasn’t her first time anyway”) are downright stomach-churning. Others (”If the victim forgave him who are we to judge?”) miss the point. This was a heinous crime against the community.

By: david e

david e — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:21:11 +0000

french filmmaker jean renoir once said, in reference to te complicated and seemingly contradictory nature of his characters “everybody has their reasons.” i don’t think the support for or against polanski is generational, or that anything specific can be read into the petition by a bunch of hollywood types. had polanski been a novelist, every other aspect of his life remaining equal, i suspect there’d be a petition from a number of fellow writers in his favor who support him. for whatever reason. whether because of friendships or ideology or simple ignorance.

everybody has their reasons. the NYT story, the apologists, right or wrong, everyone has a reason. should he be returned for sentencing? absolutely. why did it take until now when he was living openly in the world and not hiding like a nazi war criminal? who can say.

sadly, i think the reason people feel they can forgive him is because they see a man who, had he served his time originally, would be free now and making the films he’d been making, and few people would be talking about this crime. his having committed it didn’t prevent others from backing his films, there was no effective blacklisting or boycotting of his films, no embargo against thier being shown here, so i suspect in some minds it’s as if we’re already living in that post-sentencing era.

By: Feliza

Feliza — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:59:21 +0000

Thanks for writing this. Now I have somewhere to send people when their “leave Polanski alone”-type sentiments get me so angry that I can’t put together a sentence.

By: Matt Kressel

Matt Kressel — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:43:09 +0000

I suspect that a lot of those celebrities know Polanski personally and that there is some type of peer pressure going on here to support this petition. Let’s state the facts: 1) Man drugs and rapes woman. 2) Man flees sentence 3) Man must therefore pay. Never mind that this was years ago. Never mind that he’s famous and possibly talented. Facts are facts, a crime is a crime, and this man has to pay. Even if it upsets the stomach of his Hollywood friends.

By: BrerMatt

BrerMatt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:51:28 +0000

Lauren, I think there’s another opinion that may cause these people sign the petition: that is that Polanski’s contributions to society through his art redeem his crimes. These are the same people who gave him an Academy Award while he was a fugitive for the same crime.

To me, this argument is similar to saying Hitler’s talent as a painter redeems him for what he did. (To a different degree, of course.)

I think it says something about the egos of some people in Hollywood that their work allows them to rise above laws or morality. But I think this attitude is one of those negative aspects of human nature. It’s seen in high schools all the time – if you’re part of the In Crowd, you can get away with things that others cannot.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:31:37 +0000

Seriously. All it takes is a few minutes of googling to learn the full horror of his crime. So either the petitioners are lazy, ignorant, or they believe child rape is just fine.

By: Justine Larbalestier

Justine Larbalestier — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:57:46 +0000

This whole thing so enrages me I don’t have words. I’m glad to have you say them for me.