Polanski Begs Obama for Mercy

[grassfed]

Why did French President Nicolas Sarkozy hand-deliver a letter last week to President Obama from fugitive director Roman Polanski asking for leniency?
Eric Pape on Polanski’s private plea for clemency.

In an astonishing act of backroom international diplomacy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from fugitive Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski to President Barack Obama last week on the sidelines of the international anti-nuke proliferation summit in Washington, according to a small and little-noticed article embedded in the prestigious French political magazine, L’Express.

Talk about dropping a stink bomb. The Polanski letter, which is not directly quoted in L’Express’ article, is said to suggest that the two months the aging director spent in a Swiss prison—in addition to the 47 days that he spent in detention in California in 1977—should suffice for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse he pled guilty to. (Polanski is now under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland while authorities seek his extradition to the United States.)

Polanski’s letter also suggests that extraditing the Polish-born filmmaker (who became a French citizen in the 1970s) would do little more than feed the appetite of the American media that he believes just wants to humiliate him.

It is unclear what Polanski or President Sarkozy, for that matter, think Obama might be able or willing to do for a man who has acknowledged giving a Quaalude and champagne to a 13-year-old girl who he then sodomized.

Politically, pre-conviction clemency for Polanski might spark outrage along the lines of the infamous Marc Rich pardon (and it could only be ordered by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger), and personally it is difficult to imagine the American president helping a man who used drugs and alcohol to manipulate a girl who was only a few years older than the Obamas' eldest daughter into sex.

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[LetsgoWings13]

1. i dont think he served enough time for what he did.

[Grand Taurean]

2. Roman can go to Hell!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Obama lacks the authority to do anything. State court, state charges

He could exert political pressure on the Gropenator, but I am not sure POTUS can commute a state charge.

[customerserviceguy]

4. He'd be stupid to even think about trying

The President has more important matters than to get a perv out of a problem that the asshat made for himself decades ago. I guess the French president hasn't got anything better to do, though.

[emilyg]

5. Rot Roman.

[Daveparts still]

6. Polanski

should have married her like Woody Allen did.

[salguine]

7. That brief time in detention was enough? If this guy had drugged and sodomized

a child of mine, I'd have his fucking head mounted on a fencepost in front of my house.

[Crabitha]

8. Am I mistaken in believing that the girl's mother basically sent her to

Polanski hoping she'd get a part in a film? Not that I'm condoning what he did, but your statement that had he done that to your child simply means you're a normal caring loving and protective parent. I may be wrong but I seem to remember that the girl's mother threw her at him. Do you know if that's true?

[salguine]

9. I don't know. What I do know is, if that were the case,

then she ought to be in the cell right next to his. There are no circumstances that would mitigate or diminish his guilt in this case.

For the record, I'm not a parent myself, not yet, anyway. But if I were.

[onpatrol98]

10. Silver Platter

I don't care if the mother offered her on a silver platter, he shouldn't have touched her.

:grr:

It doesn't absolve him of guilt. Perhaps it implicates the mother, but it doesn't absolve the rapist. I know you're not defending him, but I'm surprised at the number of people (Hollywood Types...I don't know) that are eager to defend him.

[BirminghamExaminer]

20. I too am surprised at how many Hollywood types are willing to forgive him

and it makes me wonder if that sort of thing (a mother pushing a child into someone's lap that way) is an implicitly accepted thing there. It reminds me of several British friends I know who have complained about buggery in public boarding schools (equivalent of our private schools) that they themselves suffered and yet they send their own children there and it's implied that it's an accepted cultural more.

I don't understand it at all.

[Submariner]

11. What a whiny little weenie

He's lived a life of luxury and he has a persecution complex? Two months + 47 days detention and he thinks that's enough? Obama needs to just ignore this letter, and let the courts extradite his ass so he can spend 20 years or so at the Pelican bay lockup.

I look forward to seeing the MSNBC weekend lockup series showing the Polanski episode about his prison sex life with Bubba.

[roscoeroscoe]

12. agreed

remember robert heinline's discussion of responsibility and freedom? in his science fiction novels, his characters wind up searching for a world where you can walk down the street naked if you want, but on the other hand if you happen to 'accidentally' run into a kid while you're drunk, the punishment would be to... have a cop smash into you with a car. of course, in a heinline world, any crime like polanski's would earn you a trip to the gallows.

reading 'starship troopers' when i was a kid was a big influence. i've always felt capital crimes should be punishable by death. of course, that's easy before we found out a few years ago about all the guys on death row thanks to corrupt trials and faked-up evidence...

[Recursion]

13. Let the guy "suffer" in his Swiss villa

My heart bleeds for poor Roman.

[naaman fletcher]

14. wow, 13 posts

And the whole "I like his movies so let him go, it was so long ago" crowd hasn't shown up yet.

[grassfed]

15. why wd someone unrec this?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

16. See post 14

There are some on DU who support Polanski and his actions. Disgusting.

[proteus_lives]

17. It is vomit-worthy.

It still blows my mind that people support him.

[proteus_lives]

18. Fuck Polanski.

He's a kiddie-raper and belongs in prison.

[Jefferson23]

19. Shame on you Sarkozy for even delivering the letter. Obama should

send it back to Polanski torn up in little pieces.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. Why it is good I am not the President:

I would have held a press conference, acknowledged that Polanski sent this letter, then burn it in front of the cameras while laughing heartily.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. Dear Roman...

fuck you. EOM

[northernlights]

23. like the President doesn't have more important things to do with his time

than intervene on behalf of a self-important little rapist. :nopity: