Decades ago, film director Roman Polanski was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl and fled the United States before he could be imprisoned. After his arrest last month in Switzerland, outraged film people demanded Polanski be freed rather than extradited to the United States, questioning why Polanski is being pursued now.
How come female film directors didn’t applaud his arrest and demand his extradition? asks Aviva Kempner at the Forward.
I have yet to hear my fellow female directors calling for Roman Polanski to return to the United States to face sentencing for his admitted guilt of statutory rape.
I guess I mistakenly believed that as women and artists we would be genuinely appalled that a man got away with raping a 13-year-old girl. And now we hear that he did not even pay the victim in the civil lawsuit.
Don’t buy the argument that the passage of years since that crime was committed allows him to avoid judgment. It is just a bogus excuse for a talented director being above the law. We are still tracking down Nazi criminals and bringing them to justice.
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