October 3, 2009

• who deserves to be punished

  I haven’t really been following the issue that closely but this is pretty much the best story I’ve read on the whole Roman Polanski thing and the ridiculous coverage it’s been receiving: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/ 

  Honestly I don’t care that much about Roman Polanski at all. Really he’s irrelevant to me. I haven’t even seen a single one of his movies. But I DO care about what seems to be a growing conception that being smart, being clever, being famous, being important, or being successful somehow immunizes you from the need to be held accountable in accordance with the law.  It seems like people will defend you, reflexively without analysis or evidence just on the basis of the fact that you happen to be rich or powerful and above all ‘likable’ whatever that means. It’s just ridiculous.

  So of course that means Bush officials can’t be investigated for torture or warrant-less wiretapping or a host of other crimes. The CIA can’t be investigated for the same. The companies that were complicit with wiretapping and their officials are equally immune. Indeed we have to pass laws to protect them from prosecution! The contractors WE hired in Iraq accused of murder, rape, and torture see not a drop of their funding even reduced, let alone prosecutions.

  Likewise international law seems to be totally ignorable. US officials can’t be called into account for international war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and neither can Israel for actions in Palestine. Nor will any other state be held into account for any of its atrocious crimes against community if they are deemed too “powerful”, too “dangerous”, or too “important”. But of course the little States can get stepped on all the time.

  Or how about grotesque failures that directly result in death and suffering? Nobody but nobody is held accountable for failures of intelligence or security that lead to 9/11, nor for international behaviors that provoked it or failed to prevent it.   Or for that matter, how about the financial collapse? The regulators, the lawyers, the CEO’s, the executives, the politicians that acquiesced and failed and brought about this mess… they don’t even get fired. In many cases they don’t even get a pay cut. Many are rich off bonuses and investments. Some were even promoted to positions of even greater power and influence.  None were forced to face a jury of the peers and few were brought before committees and forced to explain themselves. They were just… bailed out. Meanwhile more and more people lose their jobs and their homes. More and more people are left on the streets.

  Yes Roman Polanski  should be punished in accordance with the law for the crime he committed, plead guilty to, was convicted of, and fled from the law for.  Just like EVERYBODY should be punished for the crimes they committed and are convicted for. Equally. Fairly. If evidence later arises that exonerates him, then let him then be exonerated. But until then his punishment should be the same as anyone else in his situation at that time. His wealth or fame shouldn’t give him a get out of jail free card.  He should have been punished thirty years ago. Heck for all we know he might have ended up an even better director after he got out of prison.

  Polanski is such a really weird case to me. Even his most ardent defenders aren’t arguing that he didn’t commit the crime. This is really different than the cases of other fugitives who have been defended. Generally people argue for wrongful conviction believing the person to be innocent. In this case nobody seems to think so or is willing to say so. Nor do they seem to be arguing that during sentencing he should be offered compassion because it’s been so long and the victim doesn’t care.

  No. They’re arguing because he’s who he is, the crime he committed somehow isn’t as “bad” as it otherwise would be and therefore we shouldn’t even bother to hold him accountable. That’s incoherent. It’s exactly the same defense torturers and terrorists use. When *we* slaughter and torture it’s not so bad! Why? Because we’re the GOOD GUYS!

  If we decide to offer him a compassionate stay of punishment or reduced sentence, because he’s “changed” or honoring the victims wishes or because it’s been so long or whatever, that’s fine. But that exact same standard has to be applied equally to every other child rapist. It can’t just be something he gets because he happens to be the great Roman Polanski or because he happened to be rich and connected enough to be able to sneak away. It can’t just be because he has so many media figures willing to defend him regularly on television. It can’t just be because we happen to not like the people being most vocal about his need for punishment or the country where he happens to be being to be tried. That’s not the way the Law works. That’s not the way Justice works.

  Sometimes one wonders, where the heck is the law? So many people get away with so much. Is it just lazing about doing nothing? It certainly seems so at times.

  But no… the law is busy busy busy. I’ll tell you what it’s up to.

  - Sending massive forces to disperse pitiful gangs of protesters with brutal force outside of the G20 summit.

  - Continuously arresting and prosecuting petty crimes of things like marijuana possession, mostly amongst the poorest community.

  - Launching numerous investigations into ACORN, a pathetically small and poor organization.  The entire amount of money ACORN received in the last 20 years is equal to the amount of money Halliburton received every single day for contracting in Iraq.

  - And of course, hunting down those eeeeviiilll illegal immigrants and tossing them back across the border, or worse, just punishing them, without trial by taking away every right and privilege they have, to the point that we treat our convicted felons with more humanity.

  Do you see the problem?  Why is it the poorest and the weakest who are the ones who get investigated, tried, and punished while the rich and the powerful get off scott free? I’m not saying ACORN shouldn’t be investigated, or that illegal immigrants don’t deserve some reasonable kind of punishment or fine for their transgression. Even with stupid laws that harm no one that I don’t agree with and that probably shouldn’t exist, like marijuana possession, I don’t think the crimes should simply be in all cases ignored. 

  But there simply HAS to be some allowance made for relative severity. Resources need to be spent first and foremost on the crimes that matter and dealing with the people who committed the worst atrocities and the things that create the greatest harm to our society, no matter who did them. Until the wealthiest, most powerful amongst us are held to the exact same standards of justice and principle as the rest of us, we will continue to persist in a nation, a world of hypocrisy. The law will have little or no meaning.

  And so it doesn’t. Is it any wonder then that so many from the rich and the famous to the poor and destitute act which such casual disregard for either the spirit or the letter of the law? And can we really blame them?

  The system is simply broken.

  • 3:11 pm
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