Thread: Roman Polanski...

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I'm not really sure where I stand on this one. On the one hand, he broke the law. And teh law is the law, and it's the law for a reason.

On the other hand, the victim filed to have charges dropped, and I think that counts for something. The crime would never be known of if the victim had not reported it, and, to some extent, I think this crime is between the perpetrator and the victim. A possibly parallel example is assisted suicide. Technicly, I suppose it's murder, but if you can be 100% certain that the person who dies wanted to die in the way that they died with the help of the person who killed them, should the person who killed them be punished?

I guess my point is, it's a crime against an individual, not the public, and since the laws are in place to protect the individual, I think the individual should have the right to wave that protection. At least I think that's what I think...

I've given this issue a fair amount of thought since the thread was first posted. At the time it happened I was boiling mad and would have recommended death by baseball bat. I remember thinking at the time that the girl's mother must be a piece of work to leave her kid with Polanski unsupervised.

Anyway, he gave a 13 year old girl drugs and alcohol and then he had sexual intercourse with her as well as committing sodomy. Even if 'consent' by a 13 year old could be rationalized the drugs & alcohol negate that.

It was a long time ago but it is not excusable IMO regardless of what the victim of the abuse says today. In no way should society condone the behavior and letting him off the hook would be tacitly saying that it wasn't that big a deal.