I am surprised.
I am disgusted.

I am shocked, really, that anyone would actually stand up in defense of a man who has been convicted of raping a 13 year-old girl.

As a woman whose life was profoundly altered by being coerced into sexual behavior as a child, I am utterly in a state of disbelief that people are claiming this man deserves to be free.

I am speaking, of course, of Roman Polanski. A man who pled guilty “to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.” after arranging a deal to have his initial charges of “rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor.”

He pled guilty and then fled the country before he could be sentenced, 32 years ago. Last week, after spending a lifetime, living free in France, he was arrested in Switzerland. And there is a small group of people, mostly peers, directors and actors and such, who seem to think he should be let go.

Whoopie Goldberg has said, “It was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”

What the fuck?

This is, after all, 2009. I thought we’d gotten over the idea that children were property, to be exploited for the use of adults. I thought we’d gotten over the idea that rape, under any circumstances, is ever justified. Rape is rape. Children, even if they beg for sex, are not able to give consent and adults are expected to behave lawfully, to protect children, not exploit them for their own pleasure.

I don’t care if the man cured cancer. He should pay for his crime. And, really, he didn’t cure cancer… y’all, he makes movies. Heaven -fucking- forbid we are deprived of just one really good Saturday afternoon of distraction because this guy was in jail when he should have been let free to entertain us with …movies.

Cuz there’s a shortage yanno.

What the hell is wrong with people?

The man raped a child.

Raped.
A.
Child.

He claims it was consensual, but he had to drug her first.
He claims it was consensual, at age 13. A child is conditioned to obey adults, to do what they are told, to seek their approval.

Dude, I can’t even believe I am trying to explain the concept of why drugging and fucking a 13-year-old is a deplorable act, worthy of imprisonment.

It should be obvious.

And the idea of rewarding this man for evading the imprisonment he deserves for 32 years by letting him continue to go free is incomprehensibly wrong.