Alleged Violin Thief Is Extradited; Rapist of Young Girl Is Not
The L.A. Times reports:
A “career criminal” who allegedly stole two violins from the home of a Los Angeles Philharmonic musician was extradited from France on Friday to face federal charges after trying to sell the instruments to Parisian shops, the FBI said.
Meanwhile, Roman Polanski, who drugged a young girl and anally raped her, is living high on the hog in France — completely safe from extradition.
Unless evidence emerges that he too has stolen a musical instrument! If that happens, all bets are off!
That’s just Chinatown, Jake. I mean Patterico.
Eric Blair (acade1) — 7/17/2009 @ 10:23 pmI remember the last time this subject came up we had a few Roman defenders drop by.
daleyrocks (718861) — 7/17/2009 @ 10:44 pmThere are people who defend him, and who are not his lawyers?
Unbelievable.
steve miller (11b06b) — 7/17/2009 @ 10:59 pmVery believable.
Sadly.
Christoph (9c7933) — 7/17/2009 @ 11:07 pmVile moral of the story: Violins are worth far more than the innocence of a young girl.
Dana (57e332) — 7/17/2009 @ 11:07 pmPolanski is a French citizen. Most European countries have laws against extraditing their own citizens for trial in a foreign land. When I was young, I read the “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, and I thought we had such a law too. Fifteen years later, I graduated from law school having found out that we did not.
nk a/k/a Sarah (d9523c) — 7/17/2009 @ 11:52 pmWhich has nothing to do with a child-molesting pervert that the incompetent California authorites allowed to escape, but only with a nation asserting its sovereignity, and we might want such a law when Spain tries to try our soldiers for fighting in Afganistan.
nk a/k/a Sarah (d9523c) — 7/17/2009 @ 11:56 pmI think French law says that the country can deny extradition of a citizen. Polanski is a citizen of France. The violin criminal is a citizen of Long Beach. Thus why the violin criminal would face extradition to the US.
This is not in defense of Polanski; just a clarification.
-W
W (ce6cff) — 7/18/2009 @ 12:09 amAuthor of: Mostly Politics
What’s all this fuss I keep hearing about violins in France?…
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 7/18/2009 @ 12:22 amThe question is not “Can France refuse to extradite Polanski?” but “Why would they refuse?” I have to think that anal sex with a child is illegal in France, but maybe not. Or maybe there needs to be three women to refute one man’s testimony now.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 7/18/2009 @ 12:25 amHere is CNN’s interview with the girl.
happyfeet (c75712) — 7/18/2009 @ 12:30 amThis is kind of a sore spot with me. I have no brief for the disgusting pervert Polanski. But we have extradited American citizens to countries where “due process” was a bullet, at the base of the skull, in a prison basement. France may not be doing the right thing in this case, but its law is the right thing in the general case.
nk a/k/a Sarah (d9523c) — 7/18/2009 @ 12:31 amMr Polanski claimed that the victim’s mother set up the whole thing as a “casting couch” situation. Whether that was true or not, having to giove champagne and quaaludes to a 13 year old girl ought to have told him that no, this wasn’t a consensual situation, not even ignoring her age.
But, of course, he’s a celebrity, and the celebrities are forgiven everything and defended on anything; they don’t pretend that the rules are different for them, because the rules really are different for them.
The disgusted Dana (474dfc) — 7/18/2009 @ 5:31 am“Polanski is a French citizen…Which [hast to do] only with a nation asserting its sovereignity…”
It has to do with much more than that. I am old enough to remember the scandal when it happened: Lots of French were saying “so what?” about the rape.
pst314 (dbf8fd) — 7/18/2009 @ 5:55 amPolanski is a genius, so he should be forgiven and allowed back in the US – or at least that’s what the esteemed members of Hollywood keep telling me. I actually like a number of his films, and the grisly murder of his wife may have played an integral part in what happened later – but still, he should have been tried and convicted here.
Dmac (e6d1c2) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:10 amHe was tried (pleaded guilty) and convicted, here. I believe he was sentenced to three years in prison and ran off because of that.
Honestly, I have no brief for the little pervert. I am only looking at the larger picture with Spanish and German prosecutors bringing indictments against our soldiers and even our elected officials.
BTW, France has the Napoleanic Code wherein civil and criminal merge. The girl could have sued him for monetary damages there and if he did not pay, whether he could or not, he would go to jail until he did.
nk a/k/a Sarah (d9523c) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:22 am“Polanski, 43, pleaded guilty to one of six charges facing him, thereby avoiding a trial.”
What did that wonderful patriot once say? Oh yes, “Guilty as sin, free as a bird…” (Bill Ayers).
Source:
http://www.vachss.com/mission/roman_polanski.html
[note: fished from spam filter]
Richard Romano (3d310e) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:46 amI stand corrected – memory’s a little faulty, I mostly remember the Manson cult and the murder of Sharon Tate.
Dmac (e6d1c2) — 7/18/2009 @ 8:19 am“But we have extradited American citizens to countries where “due process” was a bullet, at the base of the skull, in a prison basement.”
You mean John Demjanjuk to Germany? (– when just a few years earlier the Germans refused to extradite Mohammed Ali Hamadei, TWA 847 hijacker and murderer of Navy officer Robert Stethem.)
Cowardice and duplicity are not strictly French traits.
beer 'n pretzels (932ce1) — 7/18/2009 @ 9:18 amIIRC, Polanski raped the girl vaginally and anally both. He interrupted himself while committing the first to ask if she were on the pill. When he concluded she was not, he stopped and began raping her the other way.
At least, that’s what I think the testimony of the girl was on The Smoking Gun.
jim2 (43170c) — 7/18/2009 @ 9:25 amSix or eight years ago, Polanski received a standing ovation (in absentia, of course) during the Academy Awards ceremony.
It has since occurred to me that many (if not all) of the “stars” who were seen cheering Polanski on that particular evening have never displayed anything except complete and utter disdain for President Bush.
Somehow, that makes me feel better about being a conservative.
Bubba Maximus (456175) — 7/18/2009 @ 9:53 amPolanski is overrated as a director.
There is no defending him on the criminal charges. What was criminal is he almost skated on facing any punishment at all, then when the public pressure had the judge leaning towards sentancing prison Polanski revealed his true colors (yellow) and fled.
Joe (17aeff) — 7/18/2009 @ 10:16 amWell, I’m glad they recovered the violins, as they are treasures for not only those that legally possess them,
AD - RtR/OS! (ff0870) — 7/18/2009 @ 10:32 ambut of the World at Large.
B-b-b-but, he directed “Rosemary’s Baby”! And “The Pianist”! He can’t be a child molester! And even if he was a kid toucher, his art is too good or something! Ummm…look over there!
*Quickly runs away.
Typical Hollywood Moral Idiot (4fabb2) — 7/18/2009 @ 1:15 pmSounds like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart is supposed to be a foreign exchange student but ends up being held hostage in a French winery.
He escapes, but then the gendarme ignors Bart’s pleas about the kidnapper til Bart tells him that they are putting anti-freeze in the wine. “Anti-freeze .. that’s a serious crime”.
Zywotkowitz (fd1f05) — 7/18/2009 @ 3:18 pmBlog posts about sex and violins always get my attention.
*ducks flying tomatoes*
Evil Pundit (42e904) — 7/18/2009 @ 3:25 pmDon’t forget the cheese eating surrender monkeys protecting Philly killer Ira Eichorn for the longest time. Our esteemed rino/lib Arlen Specter played a role in Eichorn escaping justice. I think he was more recently extradicted back to US but am too lazy to check it out. Of course Eichorn may well have been set up and had nothing to do with his girlfriend’s body being in a barrel in his house.
aoibhneas (55634c) — 7/18/2009 @ 3:48 pmPersonally, I am still more than a little upset at the thousands of American soldiers and sailors the French killed in WWII while working for the NAZIs.
I makes sense that people like that would try to keep a child rapist from justice.
tyree (707587) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:33 pmI think the Charlemagne Division fought in Russia, tyree.
nk a/k/a Sarah (b57bfb) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:42 pmCould it be that Hilzoy feared for her blogging legacy if she garnered praise from the right on her sanity?
True north (2d12d8) — 7/19/2009 @ 8:44 am#28 – whachoo talking about? Yes, the Vichy French forces in North Africa fought U.S. troops when we invaded. But we came in shooting. And while there were some U.S. casualties, “thousands… killed” is huge exaggeration: total U.S. dead were less than 500. A lot more French were killed, many in pre-emptive airstrikes by U.S. planes. They weren’t “working for the Nazis” at the time; they were being neutral with a small Axis tilt.
Rich Rostrom (f3a9de) — 7/19/2009 @ 8:51 pm