Roman Polanski’s real “defense”

Bill Bennett notes that 138 film industry types including Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar and Martin Scorsese have demanded the immediate release of fellow filmmaker Roman Polanski. Some European political figures have also criticized the arrest of Polanski. Among them are two French cabinet ministers Frederic Mitterand and Bernard Kouchner.
It’s difficult for me to understand the basis for demanding Polanski’s release. Sure, he was a great film director, but then O.J. Simpson was a great running back.
There can’t be any serious argument that great artists have license to drug 13 year-old girls and then have sex (in this case anal sex) with them. Nor can there be any serious claim that Polanski should be absolved because he was because he was in a downward spiral at the time he committed his crime, which I think was an argument made on his behalf before he fled the country.
Polanski can, of course, argue extenuating circumstances at a sentencing hearing. However, the truth seems to be that he just wants to have sex with young girls. As he put it a few years after he fled to Europe:

If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f___ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f___ young girls. Juries want to f___ young girls. Everyone wants to f__ young girls!

That quote should make good reading at a sentencing hearing.

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