SAMSKARA: AN IMPRESSION

I had started out this post as a letter to a friend of mine in discussion to something he passed onto me about the Polanski case regarding Anjelica Huston’s part in all of this, however, after I began writing I found this deserved to be a blog post. Why? Simple. It has some issues that have been further nagging me since Roman Polanski’s arrest and subsequent re-vilification of him since then by a many numbered member of the global lynch mob brigade who are beating themselves into orgasmic delight in wanting his blood spilled by any number of disgusting fashions. So I decided to make this a blog post. So here we go.

First of all, an explanation of the title of the post. History is a lie agreed upon is something David Milch of “Deadwood” fame coined in trying to put history into perspective. What it means is that the ones who ’sings the songs’ as The Who put it, are the ones who get to tell their side of the truth, no matter if it is or not. They are the victors, the ones putting out the ‘facts’ as such so therefore they are controlling the medium and the amount of fact streamed to the hungry masses. It doesn’t matter if it resembles the truth, just a fraction of it so as to make it acceptable to anyone who might question the realness of the information. So in essence what is happening is there is the perception of fact, when in all actuality, there is little of it that even makes the airwaves or reams of newsprint committed to giving the hungry citizenry what they want, which is a sensationalistic version of what is in all actuality, a form of prevarication…or a lie agreed upon so that those involved. As long as there is some variance of the actual truth in there someplace, those who do put this stuff out are somehow able to live with themselves. Despite the fact that those who read this stuff are largely lazy of just wanting the three minute version of the events, rather than the actual truth. So in effect what is left over is the lie agreed upon. The press agrees to lie to the public and the public agree to accept their facts as given. History is full of such inaccuracies. So is the case of the State of California V Roman Polanski.

The Q&A below is from the Grand Jury testimony by Samantha Geimer, our presumed ‘victim’ at the head of this case against Roman Polanski. It should be read with an account that she is testifying under oath and subject to perjury. The below is from Prosecutor Roger Gunson and Ms. Geimer about what she did after her return home after the most traumatizing afternoon of her life:

Q. After you arrived home with Mr. Polanski on
March 10th and before you went to the doctor, did you have a
bowel movement?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you have a douche?
A. No.
Q. Did you have a bath?
A. No.
Q. Did you have a shower?
A. No.

According to Dr. Edward Larson who conducted the examination of Geiemr at Parkland, he noted to the Grand Jury that he found nothing consistent with any kind of vaginal or anal tearing, He also noted that she didn’t have anything resembling trauma. He also said he examined her with a sigmoidascopy, I can tell you those are not nice I’ve had two in my time, but they could in fact, do more damage to someone than anal intercourse can. Okay, getting off track here. Sorry. But from reading it, I plainly got the impression that this doctor found nothing to indicate any kind of anal penetration. And what gets me further is that Geimer claimed she put on her panties three times, after she got out of the jaccuzi, after the first anal ‘rape’ and then after the ’second’. She then claims that the semen was coming out of her anus and was sort of smooshed into the panties. Flash forward to when she returned home, lied about the asthma attack and went into her bedroom. She claimed she got into her nightgown and then called her boyfriend, Steve. Steve came over and went into her bedroom. This causes all kinds of problems for me.

Here she is, the ‘victim’ of this horrendous ‘rape’ by this man she was ’scared’ of, yet she has no qualms about letting Steve into her room with her. I can tell you from my experience, you don’t want to be alone with ANY man, let alone your boyfriend. I remember with mine, he never understood why I didn’t want him near me or to touch me. I’m still like that today. I’ll confess, I’m bi-sexual and have been with my partner (a woman) for close to 30 years now. I do know I’m still touch sensitive. If she touches me a certain way, I either jump, or have to pull back from her because it is what is called ‘touch memory’ of something that happened. For me, it was when my rapist came up to me and was holding me against his body before he began the rape. Even though I know my partner will not hurt me, it’s still the sensation that I’m being held or not allowed to leave of my own accord. Yet, here Geimer was allowing this guy into her room while she’s in her nightgown? Makes no sense. So my question has to be this one, She was still apparently wearing the underwear she was wearing from Nicholson’s house, so why sit in Polanski’s ‘filth’ while talking to the boyfriend? Did she like sitting in that? Was she getting some kind of a thrill out of it, or was there no sperm in the panties UNTIL Steve and she perhaps put it there? Then suddenly that’s when the police were called by the mother.

There is no independent evidence of what happened after she returned home and after Polanski left. We do not know what was said or ‘planned’ at that time. So if we do take into consideration that Polanski did ask her about being on birth control and not wanting her to become pregnant, why not lie and say that she was so she could get pregnant by him? There is according to what evidence we have here, absolutely no DNA linking Polanski to her in any way. At least Monica Lewinsky held onto that blue dress and didn’t launder it or send it out to be dry cleaned! One would think that if Susan had been THAT intelligent, they’d have kept something that would have had Polanski’s DNA matter on it.

Still further, Gunson in the Grand Jury testimony questioned both Vannatter and the chemist who testified that there was something that appeared to be sperm. In fact, he was 90% certain it was. However, what kind of testing was done? Namely, what kind of typing and sub-typing was done? At that point, there was no RFLP or even RNA sequencing that would have determined definite ownership of that DNA matter. Back when Sharon was murdered, the blood guy who took samples in the immediate vicinity of each of the victims, plus various spaltters on the baseboards leading to Sharon and Roman’s bedroom, plus at the front inside entry, the porch and on the walkway leading outside the front door. In all cases, he found that the typing and sub-typing belonged to the victim in the nearest proximty to the blood stains or major collection. The only place he had difficulty was directly on the front porch where the largest bit belonged to victim Voytek Frykowski, but there was a mixture of Frykowski’s, plus Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate. In the forensics taken by Joe Granado, he found there to be three types of blood taken on the porch and tested it as belonging to Voytek Frykowski, Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring. So I posit this: If blood typing and sub-typing was being done even back in 1969 when forensics was still in its relative infancy, who difficult woult it be to type and sub-type semen? How difficult would it have been to take a court compelled blood sample from Roman Polanski, then compare it in terms of type and sub-type to the semen found on the panties? But then both Roger Gunson and Philip Vannatter would have had to contend with that nasty little thing called >CHAIN OF CUSTODY. It was known that the panties were not collected until two days after the event. Technically, they should have been collected at the time of the rape kit exam at Parland Hospital. According to Samantha Gemier’s own testimony, she’d been wearing a blue dress at the time she left Nicholson’s house, saying goodbye to the woman who was there on her way out. So if she ‘Lewinskied’, there should ahve been evidence of sperm on her dress since she claimed she dressed ASAP to ‘get out of there’. She was wearing no other garments such as a bra, or stockings, so there would have been transference from her skin and seepage through the underwear onto the dress. Transference is the likely reason there was a mixture of blood on the flagstone porch at 10050 Cielo Drive on the night of the Tate murders. Yet according to the forensics that came back after scientific tests, her anus, vagina, vaginal lips, dress and other places where one would have expected to find semen or seminal fluids, all came back as negative…yet no tests were done on the panties? Makes no sense.

I mentioned that Geimer admitted to having taken no shower, no bath, no enema, no douche, this according to her testimony to Roger Gunson during the Grand Jury session. One thing I should explain about what is done during a Grand Jury session. The perponderance of the evidence the prosecutor has to prove is next to nothing. It is essentially, a star chamber proceeding. The prosecutor is basically, the lone inquisitor. He alone asks the questions put to the various witnesses who are called in a certain order so as to piece together his/her case to gain an indictment against the perpetrator who has the presumption of innocence until a jury of twelve render their verdict, or in some cases, a judge rules. It is the defendant who decides between a jury trial, judge trial or to accept a plea bargain if it is beneficial to their case. So in essence, during the Grand Jury procedings, there is no one else in the room except for the prosecutor, the particular witness and 21-23 members of a ‘professional’ panel who issues the indictment based on the lowest mix of the evidence and testimony provided. In this case, Gunson called very few poeple into the Grand Jury room. According to the list on the official transcript, it included Samantha Jane Gailey, Philip Vannatter, and six others that included the medical doctor who examined Geimer. There is no cross-examination allowed by the defense who could call into question whatever collected evidence or bias the particular wintess had in the case. In this case, Douglas Dalton could have hammered away at the testimony given by Geimer and noted the inconsistencies in her statements as to the donning and undonning of her underwear or any other given set of clothing she took with her that day…as selected by Roman Polanski, according to her. Susan Gailey’s parental skills could have been called into question. Philip Vannatter’s evidence collection skills could have been questioned, god knows we know he’s prone to carrying around vials of blood laced with EDTA and running shoes kept in the trunk of his car for at least twenty-four hours after removal from a supposed crime scene. So this goes back to evidence. Is it circumstantial evidence? Not even close. This is technically, no evidence at all since there is no concrete proof Roman Polanski ‘raped’ this poor helpless little ‘kid’. So where do we go from here?

I think the easiest way to go would be for someone independent of the case to explore its intracasies. Certainly there are so many agendas here the real truth is getting lost within the pages of minutae and scripted sound bites logged in their many forms accross the spectrum. The mainstream press is controlled by the corporations who cannot in any way be seen as supporting a much vilified man when it comes to reporting the truth. That’s the reason to a certain degree, I wish Roman Polanski would allow himself to be returned to the United States, withdraw his original plea, or scripted plea, and force a trial. Then and only then would the real truth be exposed. All the remaining witnesses would be compelled to testify, including Samantha Geimer whose Grand Jury testimony could clearly be impeached by the evidence of fact. Steve Cooley would then be forced to wipe that egg off his face with that one simple actuality, her statements that fly in the face of what the truth is. Cooley’s balls would be in a sling if the truth actually came out, and all skeletons aired. I understand completely Roman Polanski’s reasons for not wanting to set foot on American soil. He has responsibilities now. It’s not as simple as it might have been say in the 80s when he was still a single man. He must take his son, daughter and wife’s feelings into consideration. Sitting in his chalet in Switerland certainly is a better position for him to be in. Would there truly be someone who could and would examine this case with a clare and unbiased eye? I would hope there would be, but there’s no Innocence Project knocking on Polanski’s door. No one other than Douglas Dalton, his son and Chad Hummel are willing to take on the truth and expose it. I’m still feeling even his California lawyers are lagging a bit. They’ve gone after Welles and others in hopes of swaying opinion. What they should be doing is going straight to the heart of the case, which is the evidence and Geimer’s Grand Jury testimony. They should be highlighting the fact there is no evidence at all in terms of forensics and or medical evidence. And that is disturbing. Why not attack Geimer and her initial testimony. Go after her words and expose that what happened and what is are two totally different things. Go deeper than the Zenovich documentary did and actually show that Geimer’s statements don’t jibe with the evidence that is in the record, definitely not the part of it thesmokinggun.com ever dared to release. They put the two relevant portions of the transcript up on their website, but not the ones that actually contain the truth of it all. Namely, the portions containing the medical evidence and the portions containing the testimony delivered by Dr. Larson himself.

I think what I don’t get about all this is why did Samantha Geimer allow herself to be used in such a disgusting way? Why would she allow herself to undergo an intensely personal examination when it was clear her body bore none of the allegations she contended in her ‘harrowing’ account of fending off a crazed pervert. I know for me after my rape, recounted in a previous post, I certainly couldn’t have gone through that. The violation was too deep, too personal. What did she and her mother hope to gain? And what kind of a mother would have allowed their daughter to go through such an ordeal? I have only one conclusion about Susan Gailey. Today she would likely be diagnosed with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a pathology accepted by the DSM (The Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as containing these characteristics:

• a condition that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker
• the individual is usually the mother, who deliberately makes another person (most often their own child) sick
• the parent misleads others into thinking that the child has medical problems by lying and reporting fictitious episodes
• they will exaggerate or even fabricate symptoms
• there is an element of satisfaction at knowing they’ve deceived professionals into performing often times needless examinations or surgeries in order to feel more important and powerful

Does this pertain to Susan Gailey? Perhaps. Did she concoct this ‘evidence’ in order to gain some kind of noteriety and when the proof didn’t match the story she and Samantha weaved, did she suddenly decide to backtrack and ask for the plea bargain? Did she realize that Polanski was facing a series of charges that could have brought him up to the 50 years Rittenband had threatened Polanski with? Is that the reason two court appointed psychiatrists stated that there had been an air of permissiveness within the home? Did they know something about the mother and Geimer we didn’t? It is telling neither classed Polanski as any kind of pervert or sexual offender. Neither did they deem him as likely to reoffend. And that has come to pass. Over the past 31 years since he fled injustice in the United States, not one other ‘victim’ has come forward to state Roman Polanski ever did anything to them. One might have thought with the amount of publicity his 2009 Swiss arrest generated, there might have been a flurry of women coming forward to state he’d molested or raped them. But there haven’t been. According to Geimer, no other person but she has ever accused him of doing anything. So why doesn’t Geimer actually do something to end this once and for all by giving an interview on Oprah or some other noteable news show and tell the truth. Tell the truth of what it actually was, not an act of perversion done to her, but rather an act of perversion done to him in order to gain some kind of fame through him. It wouldn’t have been the first time a publicity hungry mother has put their child ahead of the child’s best interests. But then Geimer is old enough now to state for herself why this was done if she truly wants it over and done with. She’s proven that she’s articulate, somewhat intelligent. People have listened to her, sought her out for her story. People magazine featured her in their December 15, 1997 issue where she stated this:

Even now, so-called experts are using my situation on TV talk shows to push their own points, which have nothing to do with how I feel. Twenty years ago everything said about me was horrible. But these days it’s not fashionable to bad-mouth the victim. Now I’m all ready to stand up and defend myself and everyone is saying “oh, you poor thing.” But I’m not a poor thing. And I can’t oblige everyone by becoming freaked out and upset just to make things sound more interesting.

If this is how she truly felt then, why not make a clean break and say what really happened. Even her statements in the Marina Zenovich documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” don’t ring true. Here was her chance to finally air the unfettered truth, the one that dare not speak its name, yet she is still hanging on her initial claims of victimhood. If she feels that it isn’t fashionable to ‘bad mouth the victim’, fine. Come out with the truth, no one will certainly bad mouth her. In fact, people would likely pat her on the back one more time for being gutsy enough to tell the truth. So why with the lack of evidence against Roman Polanski doesn’t she just drop the pretenses and hyperbole and just tell the truth? Or is her version of it more titillating to tell. She also said this to People:

WHEN I FIRST MET ROMAN Polanski I was living with my mother and sister in the San Fernando Valley. It wasn’t Ozzie and Harriet, but we had a nice family life. My mother was a working actress, and I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be famous—a movie star. But I was really just on the edge of ceasing to be a tomboy and trying to act more like a young lady. I had a 17-year-old boyfriend who drove a Camaro, but my room was knee-deep in clothes; I had a Spider-Man poster on the wall and I kept pet rats.

That she said she wanted to be just like her mother, an actress, and she wanted to be famous, is she afraid the light will shine less brightly on her if the truth is told? To me, it has to do with the infamy she’s gained through attaching herself on the coattails of Roman Polanski. So why not come out with the truth and let the dust fall, fade away into that infamy just like Moncia Lewinsky or Paula Jones or Patricia Bowman? This is nothing more than another Duke Lacrosse allegation unproven by the facts that nothing happened. No proof of any attack, rape or act of savagery. Only and act of a woman wanting to get famous from her daughter’s rendezvous with the director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown”. Given what she said in her Grand Jury testimony that didn’t jibe with the evidence in this case, why did the Grand Jury take so little time in assessing the facts and issue the six count indictment against Polanski? Why did they not see there was no evidence at all here. Nothing but a few allegations unproven? Or was that the lie that was agreed upon?

It seems the recent Christmas Day arrest of actor Charlie Sheen for domestic abuse, is enough to throw people into a flurry of message board and blogotory rage. “How dare that Charlie hold a knife to that dear woman’s throat and threaten her life,” is the mantra I’ve been reading. Even on one (mentioned [ HERE ] ) where this blogger’s name and reputation have taken a steady beating for suggesting that some women should be smacked for their constant stupidity for marrying men who are known abusors. This on the heels of the fact that Charlie’s wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, has decided to drop the charges against Sheen and take him back to work on their marriage. With that, it now appears that the Aspen police are now seeking to charge Mueller with filing a false report. So what happens on that aforementioned website? They begin spewing bile my way for being what they’re calling, a female mysogynist. This despite the fact that Mueller has lawyered up to fight the charges of filing a false report and the girl was so devastated over the attack that left her so afraid and in fear of her life, she was found out and about in Aspen at a joint where Paris Hilton and Gerard Butler were seen. Seems domestic abuse isn’t what it used to be.

What particularly gets me about Brooke Mueller’s alleged assault, is that her call into the 911 dispatcher came at about 8:30 AM Christmas Day. Both Mr & Mrs. Sheen blew over the limit for alcohol consumption. At 8:30 AM in the morning, and what is worse, is that Mueller had just given birth nine months ago to twin boys. No word where the boys where at the time of the incident, but what the hell is a woman whose just given birth nine months ago doing getting herself totally wasted on the morning of what is supposed to be your twins’ first Christmas? One could easily understand Ms. Mueller’s concern if Sheen were a raging alcoholic who was going around weilding a weapon and threatening everyone in the house, but this wasn’t the case.

Police released Mueller’s 911 call where she slurs through her accusations stating, “I have to file this report,” almost as if she knows she has to set some kind of paper trail in case she wishes to divorce a guy she knew had a shakey rep with women. Then comes the news that Ms. Mueller had a prior DUI arrest back in 1996 where she was arrested for blowing over the limit and running into a sign she claimed through her drunken haze, she didn’t hit. At the time she also tested positive for Quaaludes. Does anyone still think she’s worth all this handwrining?

I’ve been called a mysogynist due to my stating that I feel that some women deserve to be smacked as actor Sean Connery stated back in the 1990s to Barbara Walters:

On this aforementioned website I linked to above, Sean’s fans are now former fans, disdainful that Sir Sean had the audacity to say this. For me it has to do with the cycle women who put up with abuse subject not only themselves to, but their children.

As most studies have noted, there is a cycle of abuse with these women is set in stone. There is the first hit, then the second, then the third. Often times it escalates to more than that in the form of rape, shooting, and sometimes death. What I have never understood about women who go through this cycle is how they don’t see it coming. There are always pre-cursors in the form of men who go buck nutty if their underwear, sweaters, socks aren’t folded right and put away in the little cubby holes in their wardrobes, or the drawers in their dressers. Often times it’s about when dinner should be on the table, and the slow weeding out of denying her the right to go anywhere without his say so. Or there is the part where he demands to know what friends she’s seeing and cutting her off from those friends. Then finally, cutting her off from her family. What I don’t get about these women is, how do they allow it to get from the first hit or the first display of psychotic behaviour? How does a woman allow that man to carry so much power, it escalates to the rest? The women I don’t understand are the ones with children. You know, the little ones who have no choice but to be there when dad is going caveman on mom. The ones that shouldn’t even be there had the woman walked away at the first signs of their man’s controlling behaviour. And like I said, there is always the pre-cursor to this behaviour. But this is the time where she should walk, not when it’s escalated to the point that both she and her children are in danger.

My feeling is, any woman who goes back for seconds from any man who’s done this, is telling the man to hit her again. It’s giving the man entitlement to abuse and debase again. What, the first time wasn’t enough? And the notion is that love will conquer all and he will change, isn’t enough. If he hit you once, he’ll hit you again. The film Sleeping with the Enemy starring Julia Roberts is the prime example of how this thing keeps going. The Patrick Bergin character is not drawn from nothing. He does exist. The neat freak who will smack her if she doesn’t keep the towels the right length on the bar, or the cans stacked properly in the cupboard. But the one thing Julia did was she got out of the situation. She left. And when Patrick’s character came after her, she did what she had to do to protect herself. We’re not living in The Burning Bed era anymore. I don’t understand why women haven’t empowered themselves to the point, these types of situations don’t keep happening.

There was a character on the NBC show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit played by the lovely Norwegian actress Connie Nielsen who was subbing for series star Mariska Hargitay who was on maternity leave at the time. The character was named Dani Beck, a former Warrant Officer who was transferred to the Sixteenth to be partnered with Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). In the episode Confrontation, a rapist returns to his victims’ homes to rape them again. It turns out, he is trying to get them pregnant, revisiting when they are most fertile in order to ’seal the deal’. One woman who has become pregnant, refuses to tell her husband the baby she’s carrying might be that of her rapist. At one point, Dani confronts Elliot about the sickness of a woman who decides to have her rapist’s baby. Elliot reminds us once more of the fact his old partner, Olivia Benson, is the child of rape. Dani becomes incensed due to the fact that women have choices today Benson’s mother didn’t back when she was raped. Dani tells the victim that she should be more careful of where she goes, what she does, that no matter what is going on, she has to make sure she takes care of number one. What resulted from that episode’s airing was a systematic slamming of the character of Dani Beck to the point that women, were telling her to “shut the fuck up bitch”. Ironcially, they’d rather have the docile and sisterly type of Olivia Benson to hold their hands and stroke their hair and tell them it wasn’t their fault sooner than heed Det. Beck’s words about taking care of themselves and watching what’s going on around them. I personally, don’t understand the idea that being careful was so wrong.

Where celebrity women like Rhianna can go on Oprah and bare her soul about the abuse she suffered from Chris Brown, and Whitney Huston can relate her torturous marriage to Bobby Brown and her own drug addiction she blamed on Bobby Brown, this says one thing to woman: You are not responsible for your actions. So you can blame the guy all you want, there will always be someone there to hold your hand through it all, you need not lift a finger to help yourself, Oprah will always have a program about this and you can feel uplifted because Oprah or Tyra has helped you feel good for an hour out of your life. The reality still exists you put yourself into the situation and no one but you can get yourself out. Don’t let the second time be a third, or a fourth.

What also gets me about this particular message board and the hive mind that constitutes its posters, is the other side of this board’s purpose. It houses various message boards on Soap Operas, including the continually repulsive former jewel in ABC’s daytime crown, General Hospital. The show has become what has been dubbed in soapdom as Mob Central due to its reliance on underworld boss Sonny Corinthos (played by Maurice Benard) and his main muscle Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) as the main focus. Sonny and Jason’s exploits include fathering many children from their different conquests, and abusing the women around them. Sonny in particular. was infamous for throwing a full glass of water at his then pregnant wife, Carly (then played by Tamara Braun) and this man is considered a hero for women. That to me just smells of fucked up. He then accused Carly of having a secret tryst with another man, his rival Lorenzo Alcazar (Ted King) and flagrantly flaunting it out in the open. Of course, Carly couldn’t question him or argue with him. Her voice was lost in it all, only his rantings and ravings were allowed voice. His feelings of betrayal and hurt. His rantings are too much, he drives the nine month pregnant Carly out into a stormy night to a house outside of the city of Port Charles where Carly trips down some stairs and goes into premature labour. When Alcazar arrives to help her deliver the baby, Sonny also arrives hearing Carly screaming from inside. Instead of entering to see what is going on, he busts in seeing Alcazar and fires a gun, the bullet doing what all single bullets do, goes through Alcazar and lodges into Carly’s cranium. Before she lapses into a coma, Carly delivers her baby into Sonny’s arms. Then after Carly awakens from her coma weeks later and due to the fact she’s fighting feelings for Alcazar, Sonny files for and wins sole custody of their sons Michael and the now named infant Morgan. Only under Robert Guza Jr.’s poison pen are men like this considered heroes, and women non entities. Is it any wonder?

How does this all relate back to Ms. Mueller? Plenty. This notion that this woman is the vicitm of a nasty piece of work named Charlie Sheen is nonsense. Was she truly in danger for her life so much, that she was seen smiling a couple days later after this horrific attack? Not likely. The only ones in danger are those of us who have to hear about this incident and be told that the Sheens are a loving couple who want to work on their marriage. It doesn’t even pass the gag test. It’s not like there wasn’t any warning of Sheen’s behaviour. His nasty divorce from F-Lister actress Denise Richards should have been ample warning to Ms. Mueller. And not anymore than one year into the marriage, Ms. Mueller becomes pregnant with twin boys. Then on this message board, or Bored Hausfraus Central and co-dependent aholics, I’m told that I’m a whole whack of sick for taking the man’s side in it all after I explained that there might be something else to the story, and that Sheen might not have done it. Well lo and behold, there is something more to the story. Namely, Ms. Mueller’s past addiction and DUI. Should that matter to this story? Certainly. It shows prior behaviour and shows she tried to get out of the DUI arrest.

Another interesting turn on this message board I’ve named above, is this notion that men are seemingly always the aggressors. By virtue of their body weight and size, they are able to overtake an average sized woman without batting an eye. Even if this were to pass the laugh test, I mentioned that only a little while ago, it was believed a man could never ben abused or raped by a woman. As depicted on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the third season’s Ridicule, a male stripper files a suit against three women for rape. The ever schmuckish Det. Stabler refuses to believe a man can be set upon by three women at once, in fact, it’s a wet dream. However, ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) decides to prosecute two of the women Pamela Adler (Paige Turco) and Amelia Chase (Diane Neal, soon to play ADA Casey Novak seasons five through nine) for the rape. Though it doesn’t result in a conviction, both are found guilty for the death of the third woman Sydney Green. But Stabler’s assertions that men are not victims of rape is just one of the reasons men are never believed. That according to one poster in particular, men cannot be raped and can never be abused by women. A man who stands an average of 5′9” at about 190 lbs cannot be overpowered by a woman about 5′3” at roughly 130 lbs. Perhaps if we were living in caveman times, this likely wouldn’t be true. But today where studies have shown that women have become progressively abusive, it belies the fact that men often times don’t report abuse. Am I saying that men are whimps? No. I’m saying that to naturally believe the woman in cases such as the Sheen schmazzle is to totally negate that women are often times the agressors. Am I taking the man’s side in this, am I taking Sheen’s side? No. And there was never a time I was on that board. I was merely stating that there was more to this story than another OJ/Nicole situation. And that was proven out by Ms. Mueller’s appearance mere days after this traumatic event. There she was, smiling and being seen at an Aspen nightspot. No where was it mentioned she had any wounds on her throat from the supposed knife attack she contended happened. Then comes the news the police are charging her with filing a false police report. Doesn’t help her story one iota.

I’ve been told I hate women. I only hate certain women who make it more difficult for others to be taken seriously. It’s in this vein that I say, some and I mean some women deserve to be smacked in order to wake them up to the things they do to themselves in the name of whatever they feel constitutes love. As one of my previous posts told, I am the survivor of rape. I was 13 at the time and the rape happened in my bedroom. My sense of safety since then has been paramount to me. Like what Dani Beck said in that episode of SVU, I take care to mark myself in my surroundings. I don’t flaunt myself conspicuously. I don’t dress provocatively, I don’t say to men, “I’m a vicitm, humiliate me and debase me.” I stay silent, under the wire so as not to bring any kind of overt attention to myself. I make sure my cell phone is charged and that people know where I am and where I’m supposed to be. I don’t go to bars because I hate them. I don’t allow my drinks to go unattended because I only drink tea and water and they’re never out of my sight. I never go to the bathroom without leaving someone there I trust to take care of my tea or water. When I’ve been in what I’ve felt is a bad situation with a man, I’ve gotten myself out of it and never repeated the behaviour. So in that, I don’t understand women who will not take care of themselves and each other and who refuse to see the flaws in the women who make false allegations against their boyfriends/lovers/husbands. Mueller is no poster child for this. She shouldn’t even be considered such, but to some, they want to herald her as some kind of banner to womanhood, paint her in the same light as Whitney Huston, Rhianna and Nicole Brown Simpson as reasons to decry my advocating on the side of caution. So far against Sheen, they’re only allegations. He’ll answer the charges in February 2010. By that time, the charges will likely be dropped and or dropped or filed against Mueller. So in the end, who is the true vicitm here? And like my defense of Roman Polanski, I will not say I’m defending Charlie Sheen, I’m only saying that he should be given the chance to tell his side of the story. Knee jerk attitudes are alright if there’s evidence to prove such charges, but so far all we have is a report of a knife being drawn and slapping. Nothing concrete. We have evidence of wounds on a throat, but we don’t know how they got there. Sheen deserves the right to be innocent before the courts, not tarred and feathered just because a bunch of nasty loopy cunts decide they want to fry one more penis for womanhoodry.

According to the Sexual Assault Glossary of Terms, it defines statutory rape as “sexual intercourse between an adult and a minor. The adult can be found guilty of statutory rape in courts of law even if the minor was a willing partner.”

According to the laws of California, Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a Minor is defined as:

• an adult can be guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse if he or she has sex with a minor.
• a minor can be guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse if he or she has sex with another minor.

What are the penalties for Unlawful Sexual Intercourse?

1) If a person is no more than three years older than the minor with whom they have sex, that person is guilty of a misdemeanour and can be imprisoned in the county jail for up to one year or fined up to $1,000.00.
2) If a person is more than three years older than the minor with whom they have sex, that person is guilty of a misdemeanour or a felony. If convicted of a felony, that person can be imprisoned in state prison for up to four years.

Now despite what anyone may think would be the fitting punishment for director Roman Polanski, even if he’s returned to the States on the 32 year-old charges of unlawful sex with a minor, laws state that he won’t get what people want him to get. Namely. tossed in prison with the key thrown in the Pacific. It won’t happen. Even the issue of the flight to France would be off the table if the case is completely thrown out. But according to the California Penal Code contained in subsection (b) of section 4530, Polanski could receive up to 16 months to two or three years in prison to be served consecutively. Though if the case is throwing up completely after the appeals process is done, it too will be vacated because it is connected to the initial crime. Ergo, no crime…no need to flee.

It is still amazing to me the amount of people who refuse to STILL look at the facts of this case. Those are that the term ‘unlawful sexual intercourse’ is tantamount to consensual sex, no matter which way anyone wants to cut it. The fact that Geimer was thirteen at the time, is the only matter in which anything illegal happened. So far as this blogger can tell, there is no evidence against Polanski other than the panties containing what appeared to be semen.

According to Geimer’s (nee Gailey) initial testimony, which all posters on message boards love to point to on thesmokinggun.com website, she testified Polanski had ‘entered’ her through the back or ‘butt’ as she called it. She also stated that he’d performed ‘Cuddliness’ on her. Cunnilingus for the uninitiated. However, acccording to the medical and scientific evidence, all slides came back negative. For anyone having seen any one episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, this means no force and no noticeable intercourse took place. Tissues around the anus are so sensitive that any kind of insertion of anything larger than a pencil, would cause damage, yet Geimer had no visible tearing or bruising either anally or vaginally. There was no hint of saliva, which would also have been present in the panties, except, no blood typing or sub-typing took place. This leaves one conclusion of the medical and scientific evidence fails, either no sex occurred, or some kind of consensual sex occurred. Meaning that whatever sex happened, was not rape or force, rather a simple act of saying ‘yes’.

Most would consider that Geimer saying she said ‘no’ repeatedly would be enough to say it was rape, but with her shifting feelings on Polanski and his work, it says something else to the intelligent observer. As a rape victim myself, I can tell you no true victim of rape ever wishes the charges to be dropped against their perpetrator. NONE! They can forgive, certainly. That is the inherent nature within us all. But the fact is the hurt has been done. One who has truly been violated does not seek some kind of closure through asking for a dismissal of the charges. I know in my case, there was no trial and no reporting to the authorities, but if I had, I can tell you with certainty I’d want him to rot for what he did to me. No doubt. What I don’t know about Geimer is how she can cooperate with the Zenovich documentary without saying something about no matter what illegalities Rittenband committed, Polanski still has to do the time for what he did to me. But there’s none of that. Only saying the charges should be dropped. In her affidavit filed in January when Polanski’s lawyers asked for a dismissal of the charges, she states, “If Polanski cannot stand before this court to make this request, I, as the victim do. I have urged that this matter come to a formal end. I have urged the district attorney and the court dismiss these charges.” This goes counter to any true victim’s right to seek justice for what was horribly done to them. That she does not want ‘justice’ for herself, means there is only one reasonable conclusion: The sex was consensual.

Now before anyone comes down on me stating that a 13 year-old cannot consent, I submit they can…and do. The time when this incident occurred was not like today’s insistence on ‘protecting the child’. In fact, it was all about the child seeking independence for themselves as well as their baby boomer parents seeking to relieve themselves of parental responsibilities. Films like “The Ice Storm” starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline are indicative of what the 70s was like. Key parties, wife swapping, orgies, drinking and drugs were all the rage. This was the upswing to Disco and where Studio 54 flourished in a Dionysian dream of permissiveness and sexual liberation. This was before AIDS and the so-called ‘punishment’ for having sex began. There were no apologies given, it was just done. The moral shift began in the Regan era where ‘just say no’ was tantamount to your mother shaking her finger at you for being naughty. Evangelical ministers like Jerry Falwell and Jim Baker were preaching on the ills of the 70s, when in all actuality they were having affairs and doing the deed despite their ranting. Whatever the 70s were, I’m pretty pissed at all those wanting to conscript my era for their own, when they never lived through it. They certainly do not know of the permissive element of that time.

As a 46 year-old born during the upswing of the 60s, I can tell you those times were very permissive. My parents were from the pre-WWII era. Both born during the twenties, they were contrasts in elements. Dad was an old-world fart who believed that a girl was pure as the driven snow until her marriage. Mom believed in freedom for women. So that made for a free thinking, though very careful with what she did daughter. Though I was never loose by the conventional sense of the word, I did find my ‘whoopee’ spot very young and loved using it to my own pleasure. By the time my period came at eleven, I had pretty much felt out every square inch of my body, delighting in what I found there. I had my first boyfriend at twelve and yes, we were involved. We’d done those experimental touches and found we liked it. I knew what he had, he knew what I had. Everything was going fine until one night.

December 21, 1977 was a night I’ll always remember. There was a Christmas party my parents were having at our house, and two other couples were invited to celebrate the Spirits of Christmas cheer. My dad had been in and out of detox for alcohol abuse and my mom had become somewhat of an enabler, drinking her fair share of the ’spirits’. I really wasn’t sure if it was to keep up with my dad, but certainly it was something. This night I was expected to act as DJ for the night on the new stereo my dad had just bought. It was fun to put those records on the new turntable and watch them spin. But the other thing I had done that night was try to experiment with my sexuality…my allure with this new ‘thing’ I had. I decided that night to wear no bra under a very revealing powder blue, button up top. Testing the waters. What I was testing, I really didn’t know. All I knew was that I was trying this new thing out. At the same time as the DJing, I was also expected to serve up the pickles, the olives, the cheese trays and most of all, the little dishes of fruit salad with sour cream and marshmallows. It had started snowing just when the other couples arrived around seven. Coats were taken and put in the closet, my dad already on his way to a bender, was making the drinks. I was introduced to Sarah and Del (both pseudonyms) and Dinah and Mick (both pseudonyms). My dad had met both couples at the legion and asked them over for this get together. Sarah and Dell were just sweet. Scottish and lovely, they chatted with a zeal that would tend to knock one of their pins. Del told some funny stories of the ‘old country’ while Sarah sat and watched him talk. Dinah and Mick were different.

Both Dinah and Mick had a bit of a dark aura over them. Joining in the chit chat, neither looked to truly be ‘in’ on it all. Not like Sarah and Del. Del hadn’t noticed my cleavage…a true gentleman, but Mick seemed to delight in it. He looked, and looked, and looked some more. I remember him being very accommodating to me, as if setting me up for something. He’d compliment me on my music choices, touch my hand when I gave him a new drink, even getting up to touch my back when I excused myself to go get another ginger ale from the kitchen. While there, my brother and his new fiancée returned home. They’d just gotten engaged that night and it was decided she would stay over instead of trying to get the bus home at that late hour. They were already active sexually, but for appearances sake, my mom told me to go upstairs and make sure my room was cleaned up so Tara (a pseudonym) could start out in my room upstairs, then after my dad went to bed, she would go downstairs to the basement room that was my brother’s. All very hush-hush for my dad’s benefit. So I climbed the stairs to my room to remove all the 45 records I’d laid out wondering which I’d use during the night as DJ. I had been up there about ten to fifteen minutes when the door opened and Mick walked in…his penis outside his trousers, and he was stroking it.

At that moment, I froze. All I remember was all the blood draining from my body and I was cold as he turned, locked my door, then came for me. To this day I can still feel his hand on the small of my back, the way he breathed on my neck and how he grouped for my nipple inside that powder blue, button up I’d chosen for that night. He was hungry. Suddenly I found his penis between the legs of my brushed denims, and he was getting off by dry humping me all the while his other hand fidgeted for the zipper on my jeans. His fingers found the flesh between my legs and his breath heated up. Soon, he’d pushed them inside, but it was awkward. He wanted something else.

He moved me over to my bed and laid me down on the spot I’d cleared and took my jeans and my underwear down to my ankles. Then he mounted me and just began driving himself in and out, in and out, in and out I can’t remember how many times. At that point, I’d all but left my body. I remember looking up and seeing the overhead light looking funny. It was black all the way around it except for a pooled light source. I guess at some point, I’d begun crying because all I remember is that feeling of being underwater. I can’t remember how long he’d been inside me or how many times he’d raped me, but I do remember what happened next. He withdrew then sat me up on the side of my bed, then opened my mouth and forced me to orally copulate him. He’d ejaculated in my vagina and I remember blood and something of a creamy texture while he pumped in and out of my mouth. I remember gagging a few times, and something coming out of my mouth at the sides. I guess at that point, he’d ejaculated again, holding my head straight between his palms as he finished. He then kissed me on the top of my head and turned to the door and left. How long this had all taken, I don’t know. All I did know was looking down and seeing my jeans and panties in a pool at my ankles and thinking how odd it was they were there. I stood, pulled them up and had a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. As I left my room, my mind was blank…not quite sure what to do, only that I had to get to the bathroom. When I wiped myself, I found blood which I thought was odd since I’d finished my period the day before. I never ever spotted. This was part of the shock of the incident. Not comprehending what had happened and not completely there. All I knew was that I had to go to the bathroom.

Once I finished and left the bathroom, Dinah had come up to use the facilities and she had a look in her eyes. I recall now it was she knew what Mick had just done. But she just brushed past me. My mom called me back downstairs, and still in that haze, I went. Del and Sarah were trying to figure out the stereo while my brother and Tara were showing the ring to my mom and dad. Mick was sitting on the couch as Dinah rejoined him. Mick had begun talking to my brother about stereos. My brother had received a new one when my dad bought his and Mick was interested in seeing it. My brother asked him to come downstairs and as he did, Mick slipped past me, then reached out his hand to take me by my arm. He acted all nicey nice, making it appear like he just wanted me to come with him. Once down there, my brother began showing him the stereo’s doodads and gadgets. And when my brother put on an album to let Mick hear the sound from the four speakers, Mick came up to me and began making it look like he was dancing with me. His hand went for the small of my back and I was frozen again. His hand brushed my breasts several times, catching the skin where the shirt was open. More violation. This time, it was open as if he was compounding my shame by doing it so brazenly in front of my brother.

Soon after that, mom called from upstairs, Everyone was leaving. The roads were getting slick and Sarah and Dell and Dinah and Mick had to get home before it got worse. Mom wanted me to say goodbye to everyone. AS I did, Dell was kind and considerate and was almost out the door with Sarah. Dinah was talking to my mom as Mick was saying his goodbyes to Tara. Then Mick came to me and reached around Tara to touch my breasts. Tara realized what was happening and blocked him. Too late, I was downstairs before anything was said. I ran into my brother’s bathroom downstairs and refused to come up until Mick was gone. Tara knew something had happened and told my brother. I found out much, much, much later that Dinah had asked my mom on the way out to the car that night, if Mick had done anything to me that might have scared me. She knew.

Everything after that was like it was suddenly my fault. I couldn’t tell anyone, though Tara knew. While dad slept most of the next day away, I told my mom what happened. I didn’t tell her all of what happened. I didn’t show her the scrapes on the insides of my thighs, or the bruising I’d found there when I took a mirror just to see. I didn’t tell her that he put his penis in my mouth, or that he’d hurt me. All I told her was that he’d touched me and felt me down there inside of my pants. I couldn’t tell the rest, and I doubt I could have even if pressed. At that age and at that level of trauma, I couldn’t think or didn’t wish to think. When my mom called Mick to come over later that day, he swore on the life of his children he wouldn’t touch another drink. He also acted all contrite. Saying all the right things at the right time. Told me he was very sorry and he wouldn’t do it again. And I believed him. I had to.

Several side effects of that night stuck with me for a while. One thing I did for months until we moved from that place into a new townhouse and got rid of that bed, was to take my pillow and a blanket and slept on a small rug in front of my small television on the floor. I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in that bed again. Another thing was that I didn’t shower for days. Didn’t brush my teeth. I felt dirty. I felt like I wanted to crawl up inside the wall and die. My boyfriend wondered why I didn’t want to be with him the way we had been. I couldn’t tell him. I’d go to school and sit there, not concentrating. I’m not sure if any of my teachers though anything of me, but I knew at the time, I didn’t care.

When we moved six months later to a new townhouse, my parents bought me a new bed. I finally started sleeping in one at night…and through the night. I don’t know if it was because I felt safe, or just happy that I wouldn’t have to face another night in that bed or looking at that bed, but I knew I was finally starting to ‘come out of it’.

One July morning in 1978, I was sleeping. I think it was a Saturday, I know it was summer vacation and I’d be starting high school that fall. I was dressed in a tank and a pair of sweats and my dad came storming into my room. He was drunk, as usual, and ordered me out of my bed and downstairs. The shit had hit the fan. My dad had wanted to have Sarah and Del and Dinah and Mick over to see the new place and for a barbeque. My mom had told him she’d be okay with Sarah and Del, but not Dinah or Mick particularly. She’d also told him why. She told my dad that Mick had touched me the previous December at the Christmas party and told him he’d gone inside my pants. My dad was furious. He called up Dinah and more or less lit into her about how sick and perverted Mick was. I was told to get on the extension and tell Dinah what Mick had done….I couldn’t. I couldn’t say what I never said to anyone…the truth of what happened. it was still too traumatic. So as I listened to Dinah, she suddenly started calling me a slut, tramp, a seducer. She’d known what he possibly did that night, but turned it on me. As Dinah hung up on my dad, he became furious. Later that day, Mick and his son Danny (a pseudonym) showed up, angry at how upset my dad had made Dinah. Mick denied everything. Denied ever being sorry for what he did, and denied he’d been drinking that night. Danny then drilled me about what his father had done. He got angry and started yelling at me, demanding me to tell him what his father had done. I said nothing. I sat there completely in shock again, because of all that was happening…AGAIN! As Danny’s voice got louder and louder, my mother pushed him out of the house. He started to get violent with my mother and as my brother came up the walk, he grabbed Danny and began pummelling him. Danny, the taller of the two and the most fit, started wailing on my brother. So in the last ditch effort to have it stop, I screamed that nothing had happened and I’d made it all up. The entire thing then begged everyone to leave. I ran upstairs to my room, slammed the door and just cried. Mick managed to get his son off of my brother and away. My brother was yelling at my drunken dad accusing him of causing all of this. I’m not sure if he knew what had happened, or even suspected, but my relationship with my brother changed radically after that afternoon.

Some six months later, I was with a friend at a restaurant ordering pasta when I had to go to the bathroom. I got up and headed back to the back of the place when a hand came out and grabbed my wrist. When I looked down at the table, I noticed it was Mick. He was looking up at me in that same fashion he had while I was sitting on the side of my bed before he forced his penis into my mouth. Satisfied. While he gripped my wrist tightly, he said three words to me. Three words that would remain with me to this day. He said, “No hard feelings.”

I saw him about five more times after that day. The second time being out on the street where he noticed me. That same look. Those same words. The other four times he didn’t see me. They were chance encounters, but they had an effect on me. That effect was pure fear. As of this typing, I’ve got knots in my stomach as I did that night and the subsequent times I’ve seen him. It’s a visceral reaction. Something that cannot be removed from the spirit once it’s there. I’ve had residual from it to this day. I cannot do oral sex on a man. I just cannot do it. Another residual of that night is the relationship I have with my mother. While I love her and will do what I can as a daughter for her (she’s 85 now), I just cannot be close to her. I tell her I love her, but there’s so much unsaid. So much I still blame her for that it’s sort of impossible to be open with her. The last residual I have of that night is my feelings on the Polanski case and what it means to me.

According to Geimer, the event can “All go away…” Her words. She also claims she’s ’so over it’. She has also gone almost over backwards to make sure the courts don’t punish him further for that night, even so far as to sign an affidavit with the court in January 2009 to ask that all charges against Polanski be dropped and it all be done to ’save her any further personal harm’. What harm, I ask?

A victim of rape simply doesn’t forgive and forget and move on. It is a permanent imprint on your soul. So deep is it, it does affect everything you do for the rest of your life. Certainly, it isn’t a memory 24/7, but it does colourize who you become and the motions you make as you go through life. I know it has me. Samantha Geimer went so far as to publically forgive Polanski in 1997. In 2003, she wrote an op-ed piece for the LA Times in which she said:

“But I believe that Mr. Polanski and his film should be honoured according to the quality of the work. What he does for a living and how good he is at it have nothing to do with me or what he did to me. I don’t think it would be fair to take past events into consideration. I think that the academy members should vote for the movies they feel deserve it. Not for people they feel are popular.”

My rapist was an interior designer. For me to write an almost glowing letter of praise for his work or what he did, would be against my very nature. He hurt me. He taunted me. He raped me. No way could I ever think of writing an article for a local magazine praising his work or what he did. I certainly wouldn’t ask his peers to celebrate him with an award. It’s obcene in a way. I know what was done to me that night and forgiveness and praise is not what I would give to my rapist if I could. And some say that for Geimer to forgive Polanski means she’s a strong person, an honest person. What kind of person truly if their claims of rape are true, wants total exoneration for the brutality of what was supposedly done to her that afternoon? I know I don’t think of Christmas the way I did. I likely would change if I had children, but until that happens if ever, my feelings won’t change. And that Geimer has three children, sons, who she’s told about what happened that afternoon. How do you look at them knowing you’re telling them one thing, then doing something else to be ’so over it’? I don’t know. I guess I’m not that forgiving.

The other reason I wrote all this is because looking back at the Zenovich documentary, the one thing it never did was explain about the medical or scientific tests done on Geimer at the time. Geimer had been taken to Parkland Hospital to be examined in light of her ‘traumatic’ rape. As is with all rape victims, swabs were taken of her anal and vaginal areas for proof of sperm or other fluids. Anyone who watches “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” on any given week, knows this is important for any evidence in any rape whether the victim survived or not. According to the book “Polanski: The Filmmaker as Voyeur” by Barbara Leaming, the tests done on Geimer came back negative. No tearing or ripping of the anal cavity or of the peritoneum was found. No blood nor semen were found and the slides were all negative. No evidence of saliva was found. According to Geimer’s account in her Grand Jury testimony, Polanski entered her from behind, or as she said, entered her ‘butt’. She then stated that he performed ‘Cuddliness’ on her. Yet no trace of saliva as found.
All there is against Polanski is a pair of panties with what looked to be sperm, but another thing the Zenovich documentary doesn’t answer is if that sperm was tested. Blood typing and sub-typing was available back then. So a source could be found and linked to Polanski in some way as to have actual proof a rape occurred, but there is none. Today it would be easy to take a sample from those panties and get an actual DNA signature from them to identify Polanski once and for all. And if that DNA doesn’t belong to Polanski, what then?

It was known at the time that Geimer had had relations with other males. Their ages is somewhat debateable, but there was prior sexual history with other males. So where are the convictions for them? Where is the prosecution of Geimer’s mother Suzanne for neglect or allowing Geimer to run around having sex with other males? Where is the indignation from Geimer herself, for her mother’s ill attention? I know I have issues with my mom and my relationship with her is strained, yet there was Suzanne Gailey happily smiling and attending the premiere of “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” on the red carpet in New York, rubbing shoulders with Dustin Hoffman, and others they’d both hoped to rub shoulders with back in the day.

The final question I have is this: If Geimer doesn’t truly feel she was harmed by Polanski, then why even bother continuing with this persecution? As a rape victim, I am incensed by the amount of shit that is being hurled at Polanski after his arrest. Like I stated in part one of this commentary, where have all these Johnny-Come-Latelies come from? What real stake do they have in the continued Polanski bashing? And after he’s cleared or pardoned, how does this maligned man get back a semblance of honour or respect?

As a victim of rape myself, one would think I’d hate Polanski. But I don’t. Why? I don’t think it was rape. I know rape. I know it was consensual. How? Read part three….

The last fifteen minutes are the most interesting. All comments by Roger Gunson (prosecutor), Dalton (Polanski’s lawyer) and Silver (Geimer’s lawyer) plus Geimer herself, are extremely insightful.

NOTE: All comments in this post will be moderated. If they contain profanity, or are not constructive, they won’t appear.

There’s a scene from a Stephen Sommers film called Van Helsing where a crowd of pitchfork weilding, torch carring villagers are stampeding toward a windmill where a deformed, and mangled creature is carrying his deceased maker. The creature climbs the stairs to the top of the windmill where in the distance, the throng comes ever nearer. As the crowd bears down on the windmill, we can hear screams and shouts of menace as they advance closer. The creature begs to be left alone to be with his master. But instead of empathy or pity, the blood-thirsty crown set fire to the fragile wooden structure sealing the creature’s fate along with that of hs maker. And as the creature wails his plaintive cry, “Why?” He falls to an unknown fate as the conflagration engulfs the two of them.

What does the previous paragraph have to do with anything?

Plenty.

The recent arrest of film director Roman Polanski in Switzerland has led to a similar mob-like behaviour of a group of very vocal, but uninformed pseudo-indignant protesters who believe the director of such films as Rosemary’s Baby, The Ninth Gate, and the award winning The Panist should be tarred, feathered, and any other number of horrible things for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old in which Polanski, then 44. pled guilty to one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. What remains mind-boggling is that none of these people have dared acquaint themselves with the facts of the case. This leaves this blogger with a serious case of whiplash. The ‘girl’ in this case is Samantha Geimer (nee Gailey) who is now married for a second time with three boys and living in Hawaii.

There are two schools of thought in all of this: one believes Polanski ‘got away with it’ when he fled final sentencing in 1978; the other are those who’ve either been with this case (as has the author if this post) and others who have had their minds changed after the airing of an HBO documentary on the case. Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired was directed by Marina Zenovich. Zenovich became interested in the case after seeing Geimer on The Larry King show on CNN in 2003 when there was discussion over whether Polanski would be nominated for an Oscar for his work in The Pianist. Zenovich watched and saw Geimer and her lawyer, Lawrence Silver, state that the day Roman Polanski fled, was a sad day in the Americal Judicial System. She was perplexed by that statement, and set out to investigate the truth of the case.

Securing interviews with the main participants in the case, Zenovich began to uncover a gross litany of judicial misconduct committed by the judge assigned to the case, who also renegged on the plea deal accepted by Polanski. However, no one wants to acquaint themselves with the actual facts of the case. Instead, they want to say that Polanski got away with it, undoing a ‘child’ so totally, he is somehow to be put in the same league as a Dahmer, Gacey, or even a Manson. Defenders of the ‘official story’ argue that Geimer was somehow this Little Red Riding Hood led down the garden path by the wolf, Polanski. The reportage of Polanski’s arrest has made this story grow and facilitate those willing to accept the lies, repeat over and over again with an almost sycophantic monotone of another of Sommer’s films. The Zombie scene in The Mummy where Imhotep has an entire city of Cairo under his spell chanting, “Im-ho-tep” in an almost comic fashion. It’s the press I blame for not availing themselves of the facts of the case to air to their public. All they do is concentrate on the ‘rape’ and age of the ‘victim’ to stir the moral outrage. These agencies have an obligation to supply as much background material on their stories to give a fuller, rounder version of the story. Not stick to ‘talking points’ as a means to deliver their news. And again, there is the notion that Polanski ‘brought this on himself’.

And this isn’t the first time this has happened to Polanski.

What’s ironic here is that Polanski had enjoyed a love affair going with the media. A darling due his quick rise during the 1960s for his films Knife in the Water, Cul-de-sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers and Rosemary’s Baby, Polanski and his wife moved in a world where praise was heaped and fed in hefty sums. There was nothing Polanski didn’t do that drew the affection of the press who sought to take photographs of him and hsi beautiful wife, Sharon Tate, arriving at airports, at film festivals, and at premieres. He was ‘their’ new prize. That was until the day of August 9, 1969 when Polanski’s home at 10050 Cielo Drive became the place of a multiple murder including Sharon, pregnant and due to give birth that month with Polanski’s baby, Jay Sebring, internationally known hairstylist to the stars, Voytek Frykowski, a friend of Polanski’s, Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger Coffee fortune, and Steven Parent, an 18 year-old college student visiting the caretaker. What began after that, was a system of ‘blaming the victims’ for their lifestyle. Something Polanski excoriated the press for at a news conference shortly after his return to the States from London where he ws prepping a film. From that time on, he called the press up on the carpet for their printing of erroneous and salacious stories involving Sharon and their guests in the months prior to the murders. After the murderers were caught in late October, members of the so-called Manson Family, Roman left the United States sooner than face more lurid details involving his beloved wife and their friends. He’d had it with the press.

For the next seven years, Polanski made four more films, Chinatown, MacBeth, The Tenant and What?. The first enjoying a return for Polanski to the kind of attention his earlier pre-Tate murder had enjoyed. When in 1977 word came over the wires that Polanski had been arrested for rape, the media throng descended. What became of that, is historic…

…end of part one

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