If you’re from Hollywood – rape who you like (updatedx2)

by | Sep 28, 2009


It amazes me how dramatically the left loses its moral compass whenever controversy surrounds someone artistic ‘genius’ they want to suck up to. Take Joan Z  Shore, of Women Overseas for Equality, who has used the Huffington Post to issue a fatwa against Switzerland for arresting Roman Polanski.

I suggest, in the finest American tradition, we protest this absurd and deplorable act by smashing our cuckoo clocks, pawning our Swiss watches, and banning Swiss cheese and chocolate. And let them yodel all they like.

Putting aside Ms Shore’s childish xenophobia (so reminiscent of the freedom fries nonsense), her reasons for defending Polanski against “disgraceful” persecution are that (i) the 13 year-old victim’s mother was a fame-grabbing harpie; (ii) “the girl was just a few weeks short of her 14th birthday, which was the age of consent in California.”

Faced by this blame-the-victim bilge, it’s worth reading the original Grand Jury testimony in the case. Here’s a brief extract:

Q: What happened then?

A: […] he said, “Oh, I won’t come inside of you then.” And I just went – and he goes – and then he put me – wait. Then he lifted my legs farther and he went in through my anus.

Q: When you say he went in your anus, what do you mean by that?

A: He put his penis in my butt.

Q: Did he say anything at that time?

A: No.

Q: Did you resist at that time?

A: A little bit, but not really because… (pause)

Q: Because what?

A: Because I was afraid of him.

Polanski was 44 at the time. His defence: the acts were consensual (thus his guilty plea to unlawful sex with a minor). Ms Shore isn’t alone in finding that convincing. The BBC quotes a parade of moral retards who think consent makes it OK for him to have buggered a girl 30 years his junior, a girl who says she was drugged into compliance.

Maybe, maybe, Polanski should have been left to rot in France, especially as Samantha Geimer, his now grown-up victim, is desperate not to have to have her life turned upside down again (or face the scorn of faux feminists like Ms Shore).

But please – go and read the 36 pages of her testimony before you ask me to feel sorry for this paedophile and pervert.

Update: Ever since I published this post, I’ve been worrying that the HuffPo piece may actually be a cunning parody. After all, who apart from a satirical character would go by the name Joan Z (!) Shore. Seemingly, though, she is a real person and author of a book called… wait for it: Saging – how to grow older and wiser.

Update II: It’s worth contrasting Polanski’s treatment with the story of Sara Kruzan, who was ‘broken in’ by her pimp aged 13, and killed him at 16 after three years as a prostitute.

Where will she be when she’s 76 (Polanski’s age today)? Without a pardon, either still in prison or dead – sixty years into her life sentence without the chance of a parole.

Wonder if anyone in Hollywood is campaigning for her… After all, she’s one of 227 Californians in jail having received this monstrous sentence while still a child.

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.


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