Roman Polanski Finally Arrested.

[The Yosemite Bear]

can we just call Yannie "Failure at Reading Comprehension"?

After all this point and others were covered in the intial article.


edit: The way I see it, the story will go down as such. Extradition hearing, since the sentancing judge is gone with rumours of misconduct, we will probably have a retrial, with California's history of Celebrety nullification, we will spend a bunch of money on nothing, or the Govenator will just pardon him.... (so as not to cause the Already shaky CA economy the cost of a overhaul of his case, and paying the cost of his incarceration)

[[R_H]]

did you not read the damn thing. France and Switzerland said no Go back then.

Switzerland also didn't have an extradition agreement with the USA back then.

[Darth Yan]

Oh. on rereading the forum it does make more sense. I also talked with my father about it, when I mentioned the extradition process, he said it was a load of horseshit, and his arguement as to why was pretty convincing.

[Thanas]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

Cohn-Bendit (a Green politician here in Europe) maybe a kiddy fiddler.

What is your evidence for this?

[[R_H]]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

Cohn-Bendit (a Green politician here in Europe) maybe a kiddy fiddler.

What is your evidence for this?

The allegations that arose after his book was published? With the kindergarteners and all.

[Thanas]

I'll need something more than a vague allusion. What precisely is your evidence for this?

[Kamakazie Sith]

Oh. on rereading the forum it does make more sense. I also talked with my father about it, when I mentioned the extradition process, he said it was a load of horseshit, and his arguement as to why was pretty convincing.

Can you share this argument?

[[R_H]]

I'll need something more than a vague allusion. What precisely is your evidence for this?

"Es ist mir mehrmals passiert, dass einige Kinder meinen Hosenlatz geöffnet und angefangen haben, mich zu streicheln. Ich habe je nach den Umständen unterschiedlich reagiert, aber ihr Wunsch stellte mich vor Probleme. Aber wenn sie darauf bestanden, habe ich sie dennoch gestreichelt. Da hat man mich der Perversion beschuldigt." - "Das Da", 8/1976

There's also a similar quote in his book "Le Grand Bazar"

Il m’était arrivé plusieurs fois que certains gosses ouvrent ma braguette et commencent à me chatouiller. Je réagissais de manière différente selon les circonstances, mais leur désir me posait un problème. Je leur demandais: “Pourquoi ne jouez-vous pas ensemble, pourquoi m’avez-vous choisi, moi, et pas les autres gosses?”. Mais s’ils insistaient, je les caressais quand même.

In English

'My constant flirt with all the children soon took on erotic characteristics. I could really feel how from the age of five the small girls had already learnt to make passes at me. It's hardly believable. Most of the time I was fairly defenceless.'

'It has happened to me several times that a few children opened the flies of my trousers and started to stroke me. I reacted differently each time according to the circumstances, but their desire confronted me with problems. I asked them: "Why don't you play with each other, why have you chosen me and not other children?" But when they insisted on it, I then stroked them. For that reason I was accused of perverted behaviour.'

[Thanas]

Those are pretty flimsy grounds I'd say, especially the german phrasing of the quote. Without knowing more details about the incidents in questions, I'd rather not make any judgement on it.

[[R_H]]

Those are pretty flimsy grounds I'd say, especially the german phrasing of the quote. Without knowing more details about the incidents in questions, I'd rather not make any judgement on it.

Mitterand is under pretty heavy fire for what's in his book (he wrote something like "gosses"), and Cohen's talking about children in the kindergarten age group. I haven't be able to find the excerpt from Mitterand's book, but it would be interesting to compare the two.

[Thanas]

Mitterand openly wrote about paying child prostitutes. How are the two comparable?

[Darth Yan]

He said the spirit of the arrest was unusual, since it's not like polanski hid where he was going. I mean that 2002 film the pianist won the oscar, so they could have easily called the country where it was filming, and arranged an arrest there. Then again he admitted that he didn't know too much about the case. He just felt that the whole arguement used here oversimplified things. Also, what did the petition say exactly? Did it criticise the fact that they waited 32 years, or did they say "Polanskis a great artist therefore he doesn't deserve this?" Cause if it was the former, I could see people finding it unusual. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

[DaveJB]

Polanski usually makes his films in France or Poland, neither of which has ever been too willing to extradite him to the US.

[fgalkin]

He said the spirit of the arrest was unusual, since it's not like polanski hid where he was going. I mean that 2002 film the pianist won the oscar, so they could have easily called the country where it was filming, and arranged an arrest there. Then again he admitted that he didn't know too much about the case. He just felt that the whole arguement used here oversimplified things. Also, what did the petition say exactly? Did it criticise the fact that they waited 32 years, or did they say "Polanskis a great artist therefore he doesn't deserve this?" Cause if it was the former, I could see people finding it unusual. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

The petition essentially said that they shouldn't have arrested Polanski, since it's merely a question of morals.

And, they didn't wait 32 years to get him- the US has been trying to get him extradited for all that time, it's that a country that was formerly safe for him to go to, suddenly decided to extradite him to the US.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Darth Yan]

why the about face?

[Master of Ossus]

why the about face?

Switzerland finally signed an extradition treaty with the US between now and the last time that Polanski visited the country. Can you please read the thread, now?

[Scottish Ninja]

Was it that? I thought it was that he had announced he was going to Switzerland in advance, giving the US the chance to ask Swiss officials to arrest Polanski when he arrived, since countries with extradition treaties don't necessarily have standing arrest orders for such people. Normally he doesn't publicize his travel plans and with no one in the US knowing that he is in Switzerland, he never gets caught.

[Thanas]

No, the swiss only acted so fast this time because they want to cozy up to the US.

EDIT: Or at least that is the opinion of large swaths of the european press.

[Stofsk]

I wonder how long the extradition process will take? It takes a fair few months even at the best of times.

[Big Orange]

An update. There are alleged health and stress related problems cropping up for the confined Polanski (well he is 76):

Polanski moved for medical tests
Director Roman Polanski, who has been held in a Swiss jail since September pending possible extradition charges, has been moved for medical tests.

His French lawyer Herve Temine told the Reuters news agency Polanski had been "taken from prison for medical attention. I don't know where he is."

He added he did not know when the film-maker, 76, would return to prison.

Polanski was arrested in Switzerland last month over his 1977 conviction for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

He left the US in 1978 before he could be sentenced and has never returned.

Mr Temine said Polanski was depressed and tired when he visited him in prison last week.

The director was arrested when he arrived in Switzerland on 26 September to collect a lifetime achievement award at a film festival.

US authorities have up to 60 days to make a firm extradition request.

Folco Galli, spokesman for Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice, declined to comment on whether Polanski had been moved to hospital or on the state of his health.

BBC

[KrauserKrauser]

Excuse me if I don't shed any tears for his plight.

Best thing for all of us is the old rapist up and dies in custody and solves our problems for us.

[PeZook]

The media here piss me off. Every report about him ends with a little reminder that "Roman Polanski is accused of having sex with a minor."

I'm sorry? I thought he was convicted for raping a minor.

[SCRawl]

The media here piss me off. Every report about him ends with a little reminder that "Roman Polanski is accused of having sex with a minor."

I'm sorry? I thought he was convicted for raping a minor.

Well, to be perfectly fair, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse. He claimed that it was consensual, but the evidence (and common sense) lead us to believe otherwise.

Perhaps I'm over-interpreting the semantics here. Polanski effectively pleaded guilty of statutory rape, but is this the same thing as raping a minor? My preference for this would be to reserve the latter expression for non-consensual sex with a minor.

[Broomstick]

Technically, he "plead guilty to sex with a minor".

[PeZook]

Technically, he "plead guilty to sex with a minor".

Ah, so he wasn't actually sentenced?