The Swiss authorities released child rapist, Roman Polanski, from house arrest upon announcing their refusal to extradite him to the U.S., where he still faces charges on a child rape case from the 1970’s.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was taken into custody in September when he arrived in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival in Zurich. Polanski has been held under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland for several months.
The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" was accused of serving his victim champagne and drugs in 1977 during a modeling shoot in Los Angeles, then raping her. Polanski was originally sentenced to 90-days of "diagnostic study," but when the judge decided to change his sentence, he ran. [……]
While searching on this story, I came across a related quote from Whoopi Goldberg, circa 2009, that appalled me. Now, I am a huge Whoopi fan. I love that lady. But, Whoopi, “rape rape”? Not conscionable. WTF-WTF?
Whoopi: “I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and and when they let him out he was like "You know what this guy's going to give me a hundred years in jail I'm not staying, so that's why he left.”
Oh yes, of course. Duh. Case closed.
What is worrisome about Whoopi's argument is that she refuses to call a 43 year old man having sex with an unconscious 13 year old girl "rape". She may have personal, possibly guilty-parent reasons for not accepting this, but as tangled up as this case is, the fact that it was rape is one of the least controversial things about it. Roman Polanski admitted to drugging and having sex with a child, and in the country in which he did it, that is rape. [……]
H/T Oliver Willis
