Chris Rock compares Roman Polanski to OJ Simpson

Over the past week I've found myself so confounded and confused by celebrities begging for clemency for child rapist director Roman Polanski. While I understand that he may or may not have gotten off because of a legal technicality (the veracity of that argument is unclear), what I do not understand is how so many celebrities are rushing to his aid. First off, the reason we'll never know for sure if Polanski had a plea deal or would have gotten more time is mostly due to the fact that he fled the country. His choice, his fault.

Secondly, I can't believe they'd even want to be associated with him. No matter what - no matter what - Polanski drugged, raped, and sodomized a 13-year-old girl. While some celebrities have been making the argument that Polanski deserves to be pardoned based on technicalities in his trial that could have resulted in a dismissal, just as many are arguing that it wasn't really rape (Whoopi Goldberg), that it's been so long we should just let it go, his victim has publicly forgiven him, etc.

But the second most illogical argument (after Goldberg's it wasn't rape rape argument) is that Polanski is/was a great director. Chris Rock put it perfectly last night:

Now that everyone from Sharon Tate’s sister to Governor Schwarzenegger has weighed in on Roman Polanski’s arrest, Chris Rock is having his say.

On ‘The Jay Leno Show’ Thursday night, Rock made the fair if hilarious point that even the most sensational trial in recent memory didn’t go places that some Polanski supporters are headed.

“People are defending Roman Polanski because he made good movies 30 years ago?” he said. “Are you kidding me? Even Johnny Cochran didn’t have the nerve to go, ‘Well did you see OJ play against New England’”

[From the Huffington Post]

I love Chris Rock. Way to cut right to it. What if I am a really great gardener? Or I am a hardworking CEO? Or a hardworking housewife? What the hell does being good at his profession have to do with rape? Does that make it okay for him to force himself into a 13-year-old? If I used to be the best surfer in Australia, does that mean I should be able to loot diamonds whenever I please? Seems like an asinine argument, but that's essentially the correlation a lot of people are making. And I am a big fan of several of Polanski's films. I'm just a bigger fan of justice.