Polanski free, Swiss reject US extradition request

[billy]

so because he's been able to elude the authories after pleading guilty for a long time he doesn't get sentenced?

how lame is that.

source:

[billy]

i personally think he should have been returned.
if it would have been joe blogs he'd have been on the next the plane.

[mrmod]

When you have sex with a 13 year old that makes you a rapist. It shouldn't matter if you're the greatest film director or the nicest guy in the World. The law is there for a reason and this was a serious case of taking advantage of a minor.

In my book, someone who has drugged a 13 year old and then have sex with her against her consent deserves to go to jail even if he's been pardoned or not.

I mean what kind of example does this set? If you're big in Hollywood, you can do as you please cos it's easy to evade the law. Isn't that what happened with a girl in the other thread? Drug and drink driving, had to appear in some centre or other and missed lessons and then cries for getting 90 days? People can go to jail for years because of drink driving and she gets 90 days only? Well, hardly fair.

[billy]

i can like altezon sometimes say yep someone beat the system
fair do's but in general the famous seem to get lots more leeway
than the man in the street. that polanski didn't do time is a joke on justice.
what's really annoying is all the stars who drape themselves over him
in the hope he'll give them a part. personally i think they should give him ten
\years or should have given him ten years at least.

[addy]

I don't think you have to be american to be unhappy with this decision... common decency dictates that polanski should be in jail for what he's done.

As velvetfog pointed out, polanski got away with it not (just) because of economic privilege, but because of another veneer of privilege he has from being a good director and thus a cultural treasure or whatever the hell. Basically, its all these pompous, self-important people taking it upon themselves to say that its a "waste" to let a talented man rot in jail. Yeah, well I'd prefer a waste to an injustice

[billy]

i'd prefer wasting him as well.
it just seems that some people are above the law.

maybe the swiss are just giving the USA a bit of payback for their banking practices, i don't know
but i do know he still deserves to be behind bars.

[mrmod]

He's a rapist, that's all there is to me. But justice has got her eyes open, as it's obvious.

[billy]

yeah, she needs to get her blindfold back on
instead of peeking at whose up on a rape charge.

[mrmod]

His life story is particularly nasty. But rape is rape. Laws are there for both the famous and the vulgar. If we let one of them get away with it, it might give precedent to similar cases .

[billy]

well that's all damn well and good but it isn't up to victims of
known and proven crimes to say drop it. if it were, the judicial
system would be even more corrupt than it already is.
the law if it has enough evidence is duty bound
to prosecute if it (the law) knows a crime has been committed.
polanski pleaded guilty. therefore the law must within good conscience
and fairness take him to court and sentence the fucker if it's at all possible to do so
the swiss on this matter are juts being twats over the changes and proposed
changes in their banking laws. (jmo)

[billy]

i can't but agree with you .
doesn't make it right though.