About The Roman Polanski Controversy

Before you read this letter which I wrote to someone concerned about the apparent crime allegedly perpetrated in 197- by Roman Polanski allow me to qualify myself:

I find the mere idea that someone who is legally an adult would ever harm a minor (or another adult for that matter) abhorrent! It is totally unacceptable and inexcusable, albeit sometimes easily explainable, that anyone would go against the rights of another human being. The horrors of child abuse, of power-crimes against vulnerable children and minors in general, crimes which not only harm their actual direct victims but which endangers and harms society in general, crimes which destroy young people's willingness to even trust otherwise benevolent adults, need to be properly dealt with by all of responsibly liberal and progressive society! There is nothing normal, right and acceptable about those who harm others. The same goes for all crimes involving forced physical intimacy. Minors cannot make the right decisions and adults have no business being physically intimate with minors of any age! The law, however imperfect, is well intended when it comes to age-related protections. What minors going through puberty do with other minors goind through puberty is another issue entirely! Nor should these crimes be used as an excuse to commit another crime by conservatives trying to stop truly consentual intimacy between mature adults. GLBT RIGHTS ALL THE WAY! And the general public misperception about GLBT persons...that they may be more prone than so-called 'straight' people to harm minors...is also absolutely wrong and used to perpetrate hate crimes against responsible adults! Regardless of one's social identity, GLBT or Straight, Traditional or Kinky, the percentage of people who abuse people, who harm minors and society, is roughly the same!!!

Dear (name confidential),

.....

As for Polanski; I would not be concerned if he was facing Her Majesty's courts here in the UK, but the US system is not what you think it is (even though Pres. Obama and V.P. Biden are also hoping to reform and improve it). If you are opposed to all forms of unethical torture, physical and psychological, then I doubt you would wish that unto anyone whose specific sick (and though explainable, not excusable) behaviour was in great measure the result of the unusual series of horrors Polanski went through. Being a child in a Holocaust Concentration Camp, your mother brutally murdered before your own eyes, and then within thirty years having your wife brutally murdered by Manson's fellow Psychopaths! His victim must have her rights respected. She seems to want it out of her mind and this may actually haunt her more than help her exact her right to just revenge. I think this case is very complex indeed. Nevertheless; I am not stating this because of any bias over his creative talents and accomplishments. If I were the Judge I would order him to make a realistic movie about the horrors young and vulnerable people suffer from monsters and from sick people. Yes; there is a distinction between those whose inhumanity is a monstrosity and those who suffered temporary insanity or chronic severe mental illness. This is about the principle: torturing people, no matter what, does nothing to further the cause of justice and makes us a dangerous lot if we do allow torture! I prefer the Norwegian Justice System. The US currently, even with Obama, still has what is really mostly truly a CRIMINAL Justice System! Neither victims nor culprits get justice! Mostly lawyers benefit.

I think your general anger and sentiment is justified, and Polanski should not get preferential treatment on account of his celebrity status. And I think he should be held accountable in a European court. But if it really does further haunt and harm Samantha (n. Gailey ) Geimer then we should take her feelings more into consideration. If she wants to have him forced to face his guilt (if he really has lied about his side of the story...he claims it was consentual...I tend to doubt him on this) then let him be exposed in European courts...not in the US.

In general I tend to stand by the side of the actual victims of crimes and not on the side of those who perpetrate them...even if there is evidence of a horrific childhood...but the ultimate criminals in this case are the Nazis, Fascists in general and Society at Large for being so intolerant of normal GLBT identity and normal mature consentual intimacy!!! If society would encourage sxual freedom between mature adults then I think these atrocities against children and minors would be less likely! There is a link!

Respectfully, best,

JP

As for what I advise the world to do: put these sick people (I'm not talking about an incidental case involving someone who is not proven to be a serial threat) in closed adults-only communities where only other adults live and where loving, consentual, respectful adult-to-adult intimacy is actually encouraged! And when someone seems 'cured' they should have special adults-only villages, away from mainstream society, where they can live and work. If they want to visit regular villages, cities and other places then they should be escorted by overseers who can insure they don't harm anyone!