I sometimes get tense with cases in which statutory rape laws are used in prosecuting one teenager for sex with another. I think that’s wrong. But there’s a very good reason for statutory rape laws, which is an adult preying on a child, and that’s what these laws were written for.
In the case of Roman Polanski, I’ve been amazed at the number of people who normally would have been ready to throw the book at any other rapist, yet think Polanski somehow shouldn’t be punished for his crime.
His victim was 13 years old. He was in a position of authority. He got her drunk. He raped her. He should be in jail. What possible excuse is there for any other result? Artistic genius? I’d laugh if the idea were not so sickening.
Yet Richard Cohen of the Washington Post thinks Polanski fled a “miscarriage of justice” because the judge was about to throw the book at him. That’s precisely what the judge should have done.
(HT: Dispatches, whose comments in Dumbass, Immoral, and Irrational Quote of the Day are well worth reading.)
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