Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Good morning, Washington. No doubt many of you have been following the news of longtime fugitive and admitted sex offender Roman Polanski's recent arrest in Switzerland. For many — including some at our hometown paper — the case has revealed a confounding moral dilemma: should we punish those who break the law even when we sort of like them? Truly, this is a question with no easy answers, as two area governments are discovering for entirely different reasons:
D.C. Considers Giving Funeral Attendees a Pass on Parking: Councilman Michael Brown has introduced legislation that would exempt funeral attendees from parking enforcement for five hours, according to WJLA. Critics have called the five hour window too long, and pointed out that many of the church congregations likely to benefit from the legislation have largely suburban memberships.
Montgomery County Cops May Have to Pay Speed Camera Tickets: The Examiner updates us on the ongoing argument between Montgomery County and its police officers. A lower court found that four on-duty officers who were caught speeding by automatic cameras did not have to pay the accompanying fines. The county is seeking to have that overturned. Be sure to check out the comment left at WJLA's site by Fraternal Order of Police representative Walter Bader, who claims that the real issue is the county's improper transfer of liability from the vehicle owner (the county) to the driver (the officer). See, normally the ticket goes to the vehicle owner, who can then offer proof that someone else was driving, who may then be ticketed. Since the county knew who was driving, they skipped straight to ticketing that person, which Mr. Bader appears to consider improper.
Briefly Noted: Metro announces plans for more cameras on buses, trains and elsewhere... License of gun shop connected to D.C. Sniper to remain revoked... Accused Holocaust Museum shooter being evaluated for competence to stand trial in N.C.... Naked man's body found on playground of P.G. County church... D.C. parents protest city's decision to remove students from Virginia special ed academy... "Oh my God...the PTA has disbanded!"... String of burglaries hits Southeast neighborhood... City fires school database vendor...
This Day In DCist: One year ago we checked out the big names at the book festival and D.C. Vote released a music video.
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Once again I'm going to hop on the creepy sex-offender-hater bandwagon and say this: I don't give a f*ck if you're a movie director, a muscician or POTUS--if you sexually abuse another individual you will get no sympathy from me, regardless of whether you're a Holocaust survivor whose wife was brutally murdered at the hands of the Manson family. Tough shit.
And since when is there a statute of limitations on sexual abuse with a minor? He drugged her for christ's sake! I don't care if the victim has forgiven him or not; he did the crime and he should have to pay for it regardless of his stature in society.
Brilliant screen name.
Im amused that these are the same euro-morons who think that its ok to go try Pinochet for crimes committed 40 years ago in another country....
I'm no apologist for Mr. Polanski, but cmon. Your comparison is meaningless. Pinochet presided over the torture and murder of thousands of people.
So only big crimes count? Glad to know that roofie-ing and raping 13 year olds has a statute of limitations
Where did I say they shouldn't be bringing him back here to serve time? YOUR comment, on the other hand, strongly suggested you don't think Pinochet did much of anything wrong. It's a retarded comparison in the first place that has nothing to do with the case at hand. That's all I'm saying.
Im not saying Pinochet did anything wrong, but what he did occured in Chile, not Europe but they sought to extradite him anyways in the "interests of Justice". Here they refuse extradition in the "interest of Humanity". Both geezers, both admit to their crimes but a very different standard applied. Thats what I was trying to point out.
Tom brings up a good point: should we prosecute R Kelly for peeing on 14-year-old girls, even though "I Believe I Can Fly" won a Grammy? No. He should be prosecuted because "I Believe I Can Fly" f**king sucks. That, and I had to listen to morons screeching that f**king song on the bus for months. F**k. At the very least, the punishment should fit the crime wherein he is trapped on a bus and peed on by people screeching "I Believe I Can Fly" off key.
Huh, go figure. For all this time I thought that the lyrics were, "I believe she was five"
You plead guilty in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. You *serve* the agreed sentence. And then you get word that the judge is going to renege on the plea agreement, and use your "guilty" plea to send you to prison for decades. Do you run? I sure as hell would.
America's "justice" system is a steaming corrupt inhumane pile of crap, with a nice lynch-mob-mentality cherry on top. When Polanski fights his extradition all the way to the European Human Rights Commission (and he *will*), he will argue exactly that. And he will prevail.
He didn't serve the sentence - his time served was part of the required psychiatric evaluation.
Wasn't that supposed to be his sentence? I'm missing some info here, but wasn't the deal that he plead guilty, do the psych incarceration, then he's basically off or at most a very light sentence? Then didn't the judge use the fact that he fessed up in psych counselling to basically fuck him royally?
Seriously, if anybody has some actual details on this I'd be happy to hear.... But that's always been my impression of what happened.
Not justifying what he did originally. But the reason he has some sympathy is the judge really did fuck him over, with the full backing of the justice system.
I've always thought that admitted pedophiles who slip 13-year-olds roofies so they can anally rape them should definitely not be prosecuted if they're really nice and make cool movies and send flowers to their mothers on Mother's Day before they slip them roofies and anally rape them.
It's not like this case was an anomaly. Roman got into Sharon Tate's pants when she was 15, did the same with Nastassia Kinski, and a whole slew of nymphettes for the past 40 years. Dude's a serial molester, albeit a rich, well-connected one. Sure, his trial was a kangaroo court sham and the victim wants the prosecution to end. That doesn't change some basic facts involving roofies, teenage anuses, and Roman Polanski's wang.
Polanski is a child rapist and a fugitive from justice. Lock his ass up.
Age of consent in France is 15, y'alls. Gay or straight. Time to get me some of that cheese-eating surrender monkey booty, a Royale With Cheese, and some fries drowned in mayonnaise. Yee-haw! Sell my pants, I'm going to heaven.
Who Watches the WMATA Watchmen?
A midget with an axle grinder?
Yeah seriously, this is a question with a really easy answer: you molest a 13 year old, you go to jail. You get convicted and sentenced to jail, you go to jail. You make the pathetic excuse for a thriller the Ninth Gate, you go to jail.
Oh, come on! "The Ninth Gate" had everything! Johnny Depp, a hot chick who was Satan, Frank Langella on fire. All it needed was more pedophilia, anal rape, and people on fire.
Most criminal activity that Metro Transit Police respond to is in parking garages.
Does oral count?
It depends how good you are at it.
I am going to let others address Polanski. I am going to direct my morning vitriol to another set of hooligans - the Montgomery County Po-Po. If you're speeding, jackasses, and your roof rack ain't on, then you're getting a ticket just like the rest of us. And no, this is not an endorsement of the speed cameras, but rather a condemnation of cops who think the rules don't apply to them. And spare me the BS about how the ticket should apply to the owner of the car and not the driver - that doesn't work for civvies, and it won't work for you.
Dread-
You forgot their favorite late night activity....roll up to the red light, flip on the party lights, run the red, turn off the lights, cause waiting for the light is just for the little people.
So true. But I see that in broad daylight too. D.C. cops are pretty bad on this score.
It sounds like the Po-Pos are trying to get out of speeding tickets through a loophole. I guess one can argue: if one lives in MoCo, they own the car since they pay taxes for it.
That's exactly what they're doing, but it won't work. If Joewithay, Jr. borrows your car and gets a ticket, who should pay for it? There's a mechanism built into the procedure to permit owners who were not in the vehicle at the time to prove that it wasn't they who ran the light or were driving over the limit.
If Joewithay, Jr. borrows your car and gets a ticket, who should pay for it?
Roman Polanski.
+1
Nominating Tom Lee for official Morning Round up editor.
HEAR HEAR! That pre-9 AM stud!
Eye second that!
always good to see that my idiot dopplegangers are still around.
At least you've managed to take care of IMGorph, IMGrope, IMPei, and IMRetardedMonkey.
Get out your katana. There can be only one.
Who you callin idiot?
+1
Tom rocks!
Aw, y'all are making me blush.
But seriously, doing this one day a week is easy -- I can just sacrifice an evening, wake up a little early and get it online. That's not really a sustainable model when you have to do it every other day of the week -- and go straight from posting it to following the news until everyone goes home. So while I appreciate the plaudits, I hope everyone realizes that my MRs are only able to appear this early because they only have to do so once a week.
i can't believe that any of you didn't make the connection between roman polanski and marion barry.
think about it—the question that tom asks (should we punish those who break the law even when we sort of like them?) is something this city has been applying to barry for decades now.
i think it's pretty clear. the answer is minimally. then treat the perp like a conquering hero.
I think it's been made quite clear that DC suffers from mass Stockholm syndrome. How else can you explain the same batch of clowns getting re-elected every year?
Unless you're suggesting that Marion Barry's been sodomizing underaged girls, which is not that far of a stretch considering what he's been doing to taxpayers for years.
Once again the American public (and the DCist readership) are showing their lack of common sense. Roman Polanski is a 76 year old man. He is no danger to anyone. What, exactly, will be accomplished by sending him to jail? The larger issue is the inability of people to judge cases on their individual merits. The comparison with Pinochet is a wonderful example. Polanski deserves compassion because of (a) his age; (b) the long span since the crime occurred; (c) the fact the crime left little lasting impact; and (d) yes, Polanski's other gifts to humanity.
What, exactly, will be accomplished by sending him to jail?
Gosh, I have no idea. Justice?
Polanski deserves compassion because of (a) his age; (b) the long span since the crime occurred; (c) the fact the crime left little lasting impact; and (d) yes, Polanski's other gifts to humanity.
And the same goes for Nazi war criminals, particularly the anal rapist pedophile variety. Just so long as they were low-level Nazis who didn't actually put Jews in ovens and so long as they donate cans of pumpin pie filling at Christmas.
And by "gifts to humanity" I assume you mean "his penis in an underaged girl's posterior."
He is a rapist. He deserves to be in jail with the other rapists and murderers. So he has a gift for making films, big f*&^ing deal. He is old because he has carefully traveled only to countries that would not extradite him for the last 30 some years. Tough luck that he got nabbed as a senior.
Ask a victim of rape whether the crime has lasting impact or not. Better yet ask the victim of child sex abuse what the results were on their lives and those around them.
You know, if they found that Michael Kenyon was framed and that the real Illinois Enema Bandit was a senile geriatric film director, I'd still want him prosecuted. It doesn't matter if all those retired sorority girls forgive him and are actually glad that their colons are sweet and clean. It's the principle that matters.
This comment is the perfect example of the need to distinguish between the commentati and the commentariat. How is "compassion" even relevant to the procedural posture of this case? Oh that's right, it isn't.
You read the deposition from the girl who was raped (and how many times she told him no during the rape) and then you get back to me "gifts to humanity" and all of that. The document is on the Smoking Gun's website; the assault is pp. 27-30.
And if you read it and think the crime still had "little lasting imact", then all I can wish for you is that you have daughters someday.
(b) the long span since the crime occurred;
Does this imply that since he escaped for such a long time he should be allowed to get away with it?
The same goes for his age, the only reason he is so old now, when he is finally being brought to justice, is that he has been evading justice. He would have been younger at his original sentencing.
(a) his age; (b) the long span since the crime occurred; (c) the fact the crime left little lasting impact; and (d) yes, Polanski's other gifts to humanity.
a)Old people committ crimes too, dipshit. b)There is no statute of limitation on rape. c) little lasting impact? You acrimonious little shit. Of course it left a lasting impact. It was RAPE. Yeah, she said she forgave him, but going through a rape trail decades after the crime occurred and she had time to pick up her life and try to continue living normally, would only cause the traumatic event to resurface. d) What gifts to humanity? As a director? It doesn't even matter--it does not negate the heinous crime in question.
Once again the American public (and the DCist readership) are showing their lack of common sense. And you're showing your lack of compassion. No wonder rape is the highest under-reported crime--victims have to put up with the bullshit of people like you.
Get your facts straight, spell check (it's "TRIAL" not "TRAIL), and go post your emotional garbage elsewhere.
I beg to differ. Jman's comments bordered on "apologist troll," deserved a smackdown, and Nom (and others) delivered.
Also, I find DCist to be a fine environment for my emotional garbage. Nyah nyah.
Kate Harding's article in Salon tells it like it is re: Polanski.
"The point is not to keep 76-year-old Polanski off the streets or help his victim feel safe. The point is that drugging and raping a child, then leaving the country before you can be sentenced for it, is behavior our society should not -- and at least in theory, does not -- tolerate, no matter how famous, wealthy or well-connected you are, no matter how old you were when you finally got caught, no matter what your victim says about it now, no matter how mature she looked at 13, no matter how pushy her mother was, and no matter how many really swell movies you've made.
Roman Polanski raped a child. No one, not even him, disputes that."
another interesting thing—you notice that the burglaries happened in a "southeast neighborhood," but if it was a positive story abou the area, it would probably get referred to as "capitol hill."
funny how things work that way...
Hmmmm...as a southeast/cap. hill resident, I think you are on to something.
watch the news for a while, and you'll see the same thing said about trinidad/northeast, or shaw/northwest, when discussing those areas.
clear framing going on by the news orgs.
I don't think DC churches should be allowed to hold funerals. Second best is we hold one mass funeral, once a year, maybe at RFK Stadium (which has lots of parking and Metro access).
This way no parking problems for residents who live next to churches, no tears in the streets of DC, no funky black dressess and kids looking like they want to be anywhere else but the "Second Coming of the Lord, First Baptist Church".
I like how WaPo characterizes burglaries as "quality of life" crimes. Panhandling and graffiti are quality of life crimes, burglary is more serious.
How are burglaries not "quality of life" issues? Ray-Ray and Antwayne are trying to improve their quality of life by stealing your $h!t. Your quality of life goes down because you always have to look over your shoulder as you walk down the street, and hurriedly get into your car after dark for fear of some thug raping you through your door. Then there are all the penis-shaped dents in your fender and trunk where some gang initiate humped your car for half an hour before realizing nobody was in it. You try explaining that to Earl Scheib.
Not a "quality of life" issue indeed!
you say potato....
Really, anything short of murder is just a quality of life issue, and even that may be a quality of life issue, since once you are dead your quality of life goes down to zero. I can see why the cops are taking it easy. /sarcasm
How many mothers took their young boys to Michael Jackson's house to "advance their careers"?
Roman was doing what Roman does, no 13 year old could drive herself to the "casting call".
So the parents should be charged with neglect or endangerment - and the rapists should be charged with rape. If "Roman was doing what Roman does", then what he does was/is still rape.
I agree on both points.