TruthNews Commentary, July 14, 2003

Since the Academy Awards were held during the middle of the Iraq war, we didn’t pay much attention to them. However, now that the 3-week war has been over for four months, we’ve had a chance to go back and read the list of winners. We didn’t recognize many of the names -- who the heck is Adrian Brody, who won the Best Actor Award? However, one name did catch our eye, and that was the winner of the Best Director award.

The winner of the Best Director is… (sound of envelope being ripped open) … Roman Polanski. For those too young to remember, Polanski fled the country a quarter of a century ago after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year old girl. Following his arrest, Polanski spent a month and a half in jail undergoing psychiatric evaluation. After being released on bail, he made a plea bargain deal with the prosecutor, hoping to get off with time served. But when Polanski heard that the California judge in charge of the case was going to renege on the deal and sentence Polanski to prison, the director skipped bail and fled to France. Apparently rape and child molestation are not illegal in France, because the French have refused to extradite the fugitive to the U.S.

Polanski has made several films since fleeing the country in 1978. We have no idea what they are, because we’re not in the habit of going to see films made by fugitive rapists or child molesters (or French directors for that matter). At one point, it appeared that Polanski would show up in person to pick up his Oscar award. But the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Polanski would be arrested if he entered the United States. "He’s a convicted felon and a fugitive, and that’s not going to go away," District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "You don’t get a pass for longevity." She said that Polanski faced a sentence of up to 50 years.

What’s interesting about Polanski’s award is that no one seems to care that he’s a convicted rapist. Well, maybe everyone else is like us and doesn’t know that he won, but that seems doubtful. Even Polanski’s victim, now 39, went on record as saying his film should be honored for the "quality of the work" and should not be judged by "what he did to me." Well that’s very forgiving of her, and it’s exactly the same principle that some Catholic bishops have applied to wayward priests. Rather than having the child molesters thrown in the slammer, the bishops have taken the view that homosexual priests should be rehabilitated and judged for the "quality of their work."

In some ways, it’s easy to feel sorry for Polanski. The famed director, now 69, narrowly survived the holocaust as child, and his mother was murdered by the Nazis at the Auschwitz death camp. In 1969, Polanski's wife, actress Sharon Tate, and unborn child were murdered by Charles Manson. The latter may not be considered a crime by pro-abortion advocates, but Polanski was no doubt deeply affected. So if Polanski wants to cop an insanity plea, he has better justification than most. But other holocaust survivors haven’t resorted to child molestation. And other criminals, including Charles Manson, have suffered abused childhoods and rough lives, and we still hold them accountable for their acts. (We don’t mean to imply that Polanski is as bad as Manson; however, a hundred years ago, they would both be swinging from a rope.) In any case, Polanski did not go for the insanity plea but opted to skip bail and flee to France. Of course, one could argue that the 25 years Polanski spent in France is equivalent to 50 years in San Quentin.

So what can we make of all this? A fugitive rapist is honored by the motion picture industry, and the nation yawns. Michael Jackson is accused of child molestation, and no one cares. Bill Clinton is allowed to stay in office after admitting that he committed perjury in a sexual harassment lawsuit, and women’s rights advocates are his biggest defenders. Is it any wonder that bishops don’t seem too worked up about child-molesting priests? Is it surprising that the Air Force doesn’t get too excited about sexual assault cases at the Air Force Academy? If society doesn’t want to punish the perps, why should the bishops and the generals?