Intelligence Squared - Roman Polanski should be sent to jail

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Roman Polanski should be sent to jail

Roman Polanski is one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, but he’s also a man who’s spent the last thirty years on the run from the US authorities, having been convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl. After he was arrested in Switzerland, Hollywood’s finest came out in support of Polanski, saying that this all happened a long time ago, that the 1970s was a time of laxer sexual mores, and that his artistic achievements compensate for his crime. Others, however, believe that he is no better than a common paedophile.

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Bernard de Haldevang
It is hard to argue that just because he is a successful and creative individual, a crime he has committed should just be forgotten. If society believes this was a crime, which it does and rightly so, he should be treated as every other criminal would be.