Jennifer Plesko

I read the news for a living, so I’ve basically become a walking newswire. Hubby doesn’t have to read the news because each night at dinner, I basically end up starting every sentence with “I was reading this article today…” or “Did you hear about the guy in the place who did the thing?” I’m sure he totally loves it.

One of the stories I’ve read a lot about in the last couple of weeks is the Roman Polanski case, and it continues to appall me. I couldn’t believe how many people are rushing to his aid and protesting the injustice of being held accountable for his actions. I know film-makers, actors, and politicians are typically not considered among the moral pillars of society, but wow. Of course, among the people we have France’s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand who admitted to being a sex tourist paying for sex with young boys in Thailand and Indonesia. And there’s Woody Allen who married his stepdaughter. When they spoke up, Polanski was probably all “Sshhh! Dude! Be cool!”

Then Whoopi Goldberg protests, “It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.” She went on to say, “We’re a different kind of society, we see things differently. Would I want my 14-year-old having sex? Not necessarily, no.” Really? Would you want a 40-year-old man to give her champagne and Quaaludes and sodomize and rape her while she continued to protest? Oh, but she’s thirteen. She doesn’t know what she wants. She probably seduced him with her sexy thirteen-year-oldedness. As Polanski himself said in 1979, “Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!” Charming.

I do want to give Chris Rock props for speaking out against Polanski on The Jay Leno Show. He pointed out, “People are defending Roman Polanski because he made good movies 30 years ago? Are you kidding me? Even Johnny Cochran didn’t have the nerve to go, ‘Well did you see O.J. play against New England?’”

I don’t understand all the arguments that are being made. Well he’s suffered enough having to be a fugitive for all these years. Yes, poor baby. He had to live a charmed life in Europe where he continued to make award-winning films and tons of money. But he didn’t get to come to the U.S. to accept his Oscar and he was really hoping for one of those sweet swag bags. How about his victim who has had to live with not only being a rape victim, but being blamed for basically being a killjoy? No wonder she’s trying to keep this case from being brought back up again. She doesn’t want to relive the hell she’s had to go through over the last thirty years.

Well even the victim has forgiven him. That is very big of her. But our justice system isn’t meant to excuse crimes because the victims forgive their perpetrators. Victims typically have to eventually forgive and move on just to survive. People who commit crimes still have to be legally held accountable.

He’s had such a hard life what with being a Holocaust survivor and dealing with his wife’s murder. Yes, surviving the Holocaust is nothing to sneeze at. And neither is finding out your wife and friends have been slaughtered by the Manson family. But really? How does that give you a free pass to commit any crime – particularly one as severe as child rape?

He has tried to weasel his way out of this situation and dodge accountability for a very long time; it would serve him well to step up, be a man, appear before the court, and stop acting like he doesn’t deserve punishment. The fact that he appears to be so unrepentant just makes it all the more repulsive.

I came across this story just yesterday. Let’s see … rape, sodomy and other sex-related crimes with a 14-year-old girl. And no one’s signing any petitions on his behalf. Maybe he should’ve gotten a few award-winning films under his belt before he tried that.