Open letter to Bernard Henri-Levy / Subject: your petition on behalf of Roman Polanski.
Dear Mr. Henri-Levy,
You should be ashamed of yourself to organize this petition: Roman Polanski is a fugitive criminal who raped another human being: he essentially destroyed another person’s life. I have lived with a rape victim and have intimate knowledge of the after-effects of such a heinous deed. What does Polanski’s terrible childhood, Nazi persecution and his wife’s murder have to do with this crime? Do the horrors of his personal past serve as mitigating circumstances that somehow attenuate the severity of his offense? To put it more clearly, does his own suffering give him Carte Blanche to rape/sodomize/drug a 13-year old child? What if it were your daughter, wife or family member? I know that Mr. Polanski did not receive a fair, unbiased trial in the U.S. and that the American justice system failed him initially but the facts remain unchanged. Polanski fully deserves the fairness afforded to anyone accused of a crime but he must nonetheless assume responsibility for his actions: his age has no bearing on the matter. (If Mr. Polanski were asked as to whether he would recommend leniency in regards to a Nazi War criminal, I have a feeling I know what the answer would be). He lived a full life being able to pursue his profession, raise a family and live in absolute luxury for the past 30 years. It is also of no importance that his victim, Samantha Geimer found it in her heart to forgive him and has asked for the case against him to be dropped. That is her personal prerogative and one can only hope that she is more at peace in this way. However, I can’t help but thinking that Ms.Geimer’s stance toward the subject is also motivated by the fact that she does not want to revisit the trauma and public crucifixion that is a rape trial. (An obviously senile Gore Vidal has recently called her a ‘hooker’ for starters..) She has suffered enough and her attitude is understandable. For you to call rape an “episode that happened many years ago.” is an insult of extraordinary callousness and an appalling display of chauvinism. In fact, it is an insult to your intelligence. I sincerely hope that more individuals who initially signed this petition will have the courage to do what actress Emma Thompson just did: remove their names.
