[BITList] Polanski for the united states

[David Harvey]

Hugh et al,

I agree with you re the bankers, the Retirement Village Board I sit on have $2M tied up in Lehmann Bros. (It was 'invested' with another merchant bank, Lehmann's took them over) but we are still being paid our interest on that $2m @ 6.5%.

Re Polanski. I have said before that I do volunteer work in the court for the victims of crime, mostly in the field of assault and family violence  with the occasional murder thrown in. I see cases of sexual violence on a pretty regular basis. I had a real shocker only last Thursday week and the 12 y.o. girl will never recover physically or probably mentally and her 14 y.o. brother is probably in the same boat. (In this particular case the magistrate had a real problem dealing with the case as part of the case was outside his jurisdiction, but he had to do something and I admire the way he solved the problem, after a lot of thought on his part). But I stray.

I have no truck for the likes of Polanski and cannot understand the uproar over his arrest. Even if the 13 y.o. girl in question did not object - how could she after being plied with alcohol and drugs, and she was no doubt initially in awe of where she was - she was well UNDER THE AGE of consent (he had the gall to say 'young woman'). The law is there to protect immature children and HE BROKE THAT LAW. Doesn't matter how the lady in question feels now, she has put it behind her, good luck to her, but the little girl I mention above will never have that luxury.

To let him get away with it would set a dangerous precedent for other child molesters and murderers, not only in the USA but across the world. In these days of globalisation if a precedent is set in one jurisdiction in is cited in another. A case last year in which I had some small involvement the lawyer cited a recent case in the High Court in the UK and the judges here wanted to hear more and took it into account.

As to why so long after the event, we don't know the history of that, nor do I care. He was a fugitive and maybe they just couldn't catch up with him, does a treaty exist between US and France? how watertight is it? etc etc., Look at the trouble we had in Australia in the case of Christopher Skase (another 'banker') and getting him extradited. I was master of a Government ship at that time and it looked for a while as though we would be sent to Spain to pick that particular bastard up. And he, Polanski, got out of the US because of a corrupt judge in the first place.

Let him rot in jail.

Dave
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