Personally, I think drugging and raping 13 year old girls is wrong.

Polanski, who drugged and raped a 13 year old girl

Call me crazy, but drugging and raping a 13 year old is kind of a bad thing. It’s kind of like…well, DRUGGING THEN RAPING A 13 YEAR OLD. There’s a lot of misinformation and urban legends surrounding Roman Polanski, but one thing is certain: he’s admitted to drugging and then raping a 13 year old.

Sure, Roman Polanski has had a hard life. His wife was murdered, and he grew up in Warsaw during the Second World War. He has had some bad circumstances in which to live. This isn’t lost on me—that’s a shitty hand to be dealt. What I also understand is that he hasn’t been in trouble since drugging and raping that 13 year old girl. That’s quite an achievement for someone who drugged then raped a 13 year old girl.

One thing about the drugging rape of the 13 year old girl that I used to believe was that the girl lied about her age. Hey, you know, it happens. So then Roman Polanski shouldn’t be punished for drugging and raping a 13 year old girl, he should be punished for drugging and raping a….wait a minute! That’s kind of bad no matter how you put it.

The kicker to the whole “she lied about her age” defense is that Roman Polanski asked the girl’s mother for permission to photograph her. So, unless we’re talking about a man who drugs and rapes 13 year old girls, but has maintained some kind of Victorian ethos about asking the mother for permission to photograph an adult daughter, Roman Polanski knew damn well that the girl he drugged and then raped was a minor.

Another urban legend out there is that Roman Polanski served his time, but a vicious, vengeful judge wanted to make an example of a celebrity who drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. It is true that Polanski served some time for the rape. He put in a solid 42 days of a 90 day psych evaluation for the rape, then once released from the psychiatric evaluation, he fled the country. According to a Washington Post article (September 20, 1977), Polanski “…was ordered imprisoned for a 90-day psychiatric study to help the judge decide his sentence.” That wasn’t his sentence, that was an evaluation. Polanski fled not because of an overzealous judge, but because his actual sentencing was coming up (for drugging, then raping a 13 year old girl).

Now that Polanski is in custody, there are going to be articles of support for him, and articles decrying his actions. There is going to be a lot of revisionist attitudes, and those old ‘Roman Polanski was the real victim’ bullshit arguments. One has already been put up on HuffPost. John Farr (some unknown hack who reviews movies for a living) wrote a piece calling for leniency for Polanski because he’s been ‘rehabilitated’. If by that he means living in the lap of luxury and completely avoiding being punished for drugging and raping a 13 year old, then yeah, he’s completely rehabilitated.

Please, for all that’s right in the world, think about this case. Think about a 13 year old girl being fed champagne and quaaludes by a 44 year old man. Think about how he led her to a bed, refused to stop when she repeatedly said “No!”, performed oral and anal acts upon her person, and think about his complete lack of spine. Think about how he fled the country to live in luxury. Think about it all.