Listening to this roaring American furor over Roman Polanski needing to get what he deserves reminds me of the enormous public outcry about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" on the Super Bowl halftime show a few years ago. Ohmygod, Americans caught a glimpse of a bare breast. The horror...the horror...
There is an entry in Wikipedia to record the public atrocity.
The incident was called Nipplegate--and the outraged public, the press coverage, and the barking of the watchdogs went on and on and on. "As God as my witness," a matronly Scarlett O'Hara might have proclaimed, "America will get its decency back again."
I am rolling my eyes, while another show of Desperate Anything is played on the television.
It is most assuredly true that Roman Polanski should not have raped a 13-year-old girl. (Neither should Jerry Lee Lewis have had sex--and married--a 13-year-old who was also his first cousin once-removed. Was she the one who died and everyone thought he murdered?) It is also true that justice should've been served a long time ago.
But who is seeking justice here--and why--and why now? There is plenty of speculation about this, and I doubt the most accurate reason is any of those being publicly touted. The law is the law is the law. Oh, really? Many people believe O.J. Simpson murdered his wife and Ron Goldman, and he walked out of an American courtroom scot-free.
The person who might possibly like for justice to be served the most is the victim herself, but here was her reaction in January. From the MailOnline:
Samantha Geimer, now 45, lashed out at prosecutors in LA, accusing them of victimising her again with their focus on the lurid details of her ordeal.
Yesterday she filed a legal declaration asking that the charge against Polanski be dismissed in the interest of saving her from further trauma as the case is publicised anew.
'True as they may be, the continued publication of those details causes harm to me, my beloved husband, my three children and my mother,' she said. 'I have become a victim of the actions of the district attorney.'
....Ms Geimer said she believes prosecutors are reciting sexually explicit details of the case to distract from their office's own failure to handle the case properly 31 years ago.
Apparently, Ms. Geimer wants shed of the angry mob that wants Polanski publicly hung. But if there's one thing Americans like, it's the sound of their moral outrage.
October 4th Update: A must read: The Polanski Case--in The New York Times by Ronald Sokol.
Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To see more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com.