Yay - Polanski debate! Let's spice things up even more:
I'm glad he's in jail. I hate when rich old white guys get away with treating women like shit.
I think that it doesn't matter if the perpetrator is a wealthy/powerful man, or a regular average Joe on the street - justice should attempt to be served equitably.
An average Joe on the street would not be able to get away with what Polanski has done. At best, he would have to flee the US as an international pariah, having to change his name, and live in scorn in whatever country he ended up in.
Now let's get controversial...
This is very similar to the case of Bill Clinton and Paula Jones. If some average guy had done what Bill Clinton is alleged to have done, that person probably would have spent time in jail.
That's why I was thrilled to see him impeached for obstruction of justice, and permanently disbarred. (The best, and most forgotten about, part of that whole episode is when the entire Supreme Court boycotted his State of the Union address, including the justice that he had nominated. It was an unprecedented show of disdain from the High Court to a sitting US President. Has not happened in history since or before)
Still, today's spin-meisters have tried to reframe the debate and say that Clinton was impeached by bible/moral Republicans for getting a BJ from Monica Lewinsky - obviously not at all the fact of the case. It was his obstruction of justice into the very serious charges pressed against him by Paula Jones - that he had attempted to sexually assault her.
Whether Paula Jones was assaulted or whether Paula Jones was a complete and total whackjob is irrelevent. Unfortunately, that's the debate people steer you to - but again, it's irrelevent. She could be barking at the moon for all I care, she still deserves access to a fair justice system.
The woman made an allegation and justice was subverted - all because the perp was a powerful and wealthy man. In this case, he got busted red-handed, and that's why I love it. I like that for all the powerful and rich old men who treat women like shit, Clinton got caught obstructing justice so blatantly. To me, he's the symbol of people like Polanski.
I am glad Clinton got busted and can never practice law again, and I'm glad Polanski is going to spend the last years of his life either in jail or in legal battles.
Let's say you had a sister or a daughter and some wealthy powerful man attempted to harm her - whether he was a fancy Hollywood director, the sitting Governor of a US state, or just some random co-worker. You would hope that your daughter or sister was entitled to the same EXACT justice system regardless of whom the allegations were against.
So in this sense, aren't the Polanski and Clinton cases similar?
(just stirring the pot - bored to hell today, anyone care to indulge me?)