(no subject)

This is a little blip in the whole Roman Polanski brouhaha, but it needled me so that I couldn't help but write about it. It's in the second person, which is the classic Open Letter to a Strawman tense, but the attitudes are real and the counter-argument given sincerely.

You can hate Roman Polanski all you want.

You can curse his name, you can vow never to watch anything of his ever again, you can make a dartboard with his face on it. He committed a serious crime, he drugged and raped a young girl, and then he made a plea bargain but ran away before he could stand and face the full legal consequences. (Considering the attitudes towards plea bargaining in serious criminal cases, that's double cowardice right there.) Be as righteously indignant as you want on this one, if you want. The man is a criminal and there's no reason why he doesn't deserve whatever punishment is handed down to him and whatever anger you may have for him.

However.

( Leave the victim out of it. Please. )