Time To Punish Roman Polanski

With the recent revelations about Harvey Weinstein, and his recent expulsions from various organizations related to the film industry, such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and others, the time has come to expel film director Roman Polanksi from all such organizations.

After all, Polanski admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl back in 1977. This was not statutory rape with a consenting minor; this was real rape. Over the years, his syncopants like Rob Reiner and Cahtherine Deneuve, have claimed he got a raw deal from the courts in Los Angeles. All that happened was that the judge, as was his discretionary right, may not have been willing to go along with the easy plea deal struck by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Polanski had reached a plea deal where he would be sentenced to time already served in the jail system, not the prison system; the judge apparently gave some indications that he might not go along with it at final sentencing. That was the judge's right. If it wasn't, then the various attorneys could have appealed it. Maybe they were all incompetent. Who knows?

Polanksi should not only be kicked out of the various professional organizations he belongs to, but the district attorneys and assistant district attorneys who cut any such deal to release him should probably be subjected to new public scrutiny. Some are probably still alive; they know who they are.

The reason bad behavior goes on is partly because of the exceptions we allow. Everyone knows if this had been a black man or a poor white raping a 13-year-old girl, the sentence would have been somewhere between twenty years and life in a real prison, not jail.