By Kay Ebeling
City of Angels
October 1, 2009
http://cityofangels5.blogspot.com/2009/09/boycott-polanski-says-pedophile-priest.html
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Usually SNAP sends the media a notice about pedophile priests and bishops who commit felonies and one or two reporters show up. Wednesday they put the name Roman Polanski in a press release and about seventeen news reps arrived - early - the majors: CNN, ABC, KNX Radio Los Angeles, Fox LA, two Spanish TV crews, one French.
I have to beat down an urge to be Killjoy here and point out to these news hounds that a story of bishops who for decades aided and abetted crimes similar to the one Roman Polanski committed should at least arouse some curiosity in a journalist. But no, here, I see SNAP is right again, just play the way they play, and maybe along the way some reporter with a budget will notice this incredible story of thousands of serial sex crimes against children, and point the cameras away from the celebrities for a few hours.
If you can’t lick ‘em join ‘em. So here thanks to the SNAP event today about Roman Polanski I’ve added three videos at YouTube, with Roman Polanski in the title. So as we speak, people typing in Polanski’s name in the YouTube search engine might find the videos and then from there City of Angels Blog. (The videos from today's event in L.A. are embedded below.)
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| Joelle Casteix (left) sent out the press release for SNAP about Polanski |
Even though it strikes me at the very craw of everything I believe about journalism, I’ll use the name Roman Polanski to try to drive up readership at City of Angels Blog too. I’ll use the name Roman Polanski if it helps get this message out.
The audio is bad, so here is what the West Coast rep for SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, Joelle Casteix is saying:
JC: We are first of all urging the State Department to move without delay to extradite Mr. Polanski back to the United States. We are also begging urging and pleading with all the Hollywood dignitaries and luminaries who signed a petition supporting Mr. Polanski to talk to a victim of child sex abuse.
Ask if they would allow their child to go to Mr. Polanski’s home and be given champagne and a Quaalude and be left alone with a child molester.
This is egregious.
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| Polanski? Polanski? Huh? |
And we want all of these people who are standing up in the national media and asking if Mr. Polanski be given special treatment, because he’s rich and because he’s powerful, and because he’s talented, to seriously reconsider. You know, child molesters can be rich and talented, but they also need to be fully accountable.
Q: You are asking for a boycott?
JC: We are asking for a complete boycott of all Polanski’s films, as well as a complete boycott of any of the luminaries, including Mr. Scorsese, Mr. Allen, and anyone else who signed that petition, to ask for Mr. Polanski’s release.
Q: What about the prosecutorial misconduct?
JC: Well if there was prosecutorial misconduct, really I'm not a lawyer, but why not stand up for yourself.
City of Angels piped in with a question:
While we're extraditing pedophiles from foreign countries, why not go after Cardinals William Levada of San Francisco and Bernard Law of Boston, who are both now living in the Vatican?
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| Phil Shuman |
Since both bishops oversaw the sex crimes of dozens of pedophile priests on hundreds of children in parish families, why don't we extradite them?
THud KillJoy was HeRe--
Alas, I no sooner said the word "Cardinals" and the reporters around me started packing up. The sounds of their clamping shut camera gear and wrapping up microphones drowned out my question.
As I tried to bring up the subject of church hierarchy crimes, these starry eyed news guys started looking for somewhere else to find someone else to make some new comment about Roman Polanski.
Why isn't the U.S. extraditing the bishops from the Vatican?
I called into the din...
JC: We urge the State Department to work diligently to ensure that anyone who allows the sexual abuse of a minor is brought to justice, is extradited to the United States and brought to justice.
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| Joelle talks to Fox reporter at left, Esther talks to ABC reporter at right. |
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Of course, I know that was another one of my former hippie hopelessly naive questions.
The bishops always high tail it to the Vatican. Always just hours before having to testify under oath they fly away, and once they are living in that "sovereign state" no one can touch them.
So many things are wrong here on so many levels, it's hard to figure out where to start. That's why I own City of Angels 1 through 30 and plan to keep writing these stories for years.
CHECK OUT THE PICS from Wednesday Sept. 30, 2009, SNAP event in L.A. about Roman Polanski:
As adult victims of pedophile priests we know there are hundreds of thousands of crime victims in the United States, that dozens of bishops who still hold office in cities across the country flagrantly took part in coverup of sex crimes against children. Nothing has changed institutionally in the Church that will get to the real cause of the epidemic of crimes, so it will likely happen again.
And the news media of Los Angeles think the story is Roman Polanski and his drugged out assault on a 13 year old girl in 1977. Strange, since in the seventies, there were so many people in the Hollywood Hills romping around naked in hot tubs having anonymous orifice penetration with each other not even knowing what sex each other were let alone what age - you'd think it was orientation at the seminary.
So, today in L.A., Roman Polanski is a more important story than the thousands of adult victims of pedophile priests who have never seen justice in American courts or law enforcement.
Maybe one reason we've never seen justice is this numb-brained news reportage with which we have to deal.
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| Esther, SNAP member and survivor, talks to Univision 34 in Spanish. |
And here I am doing it too.
Best Coverage on Roman Polanski and the Media Circus:
Word in Edgewise
Santa Monica Daily Press - Kenny Mack - ?Sep 29, 2009?
Realizing he was going to spend the next decade being treated the way he treated his victim, but without the Jacuzzi, booze, and pills, Polanski fled...
Why Robert Harris' NY Times Pro-Polanski Op-Ed Is an Offensive ...
Huffington Post (blog)
In his NY Times op-ed piece Wednesday, "Why Arrest Roman Polanski Now?," Harris desperately attempts, as have so many others in the past several days, ...
Some creepy coverage:
THE timing of Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on Sunday on ...
New York Post - ?Sep 29, 2009?
"The family has forgiven [Polanski]. The victim has forgiven him. The rest of the world has forgiven him," said Ratner, who cast Polanski as a French ...
Steve Lopez from L.A. Times:
STEVE LOPEZ Polanski's defenders lose sight of the true victim
Los Angeles Times - Steve Lopez
I'd like to show all these great luminaries the testimony from Polanski's underage victim, as well as Polanski's admission of guilt. ...
Self explanatory:
Hollywood Burning
National Review Online - Jack Dunphy
The victim's grand-jury testimony should disabuse any reader of the notion that she consented to what Polanski did to her. A warning, though: It is indeed ...
Polanski a Victim of Circumstances?
Elitist Justice?
Germantown Now - Al Campbell -
And, Polansky must be compelled to stand trial, finally, so that we can learn whether he is guilty as charged or if he was merely the victim of circumstance ...
Q: What do you make of the woman’s forgiving Roman Polanski and in fact urging last year that the case be dropped?
JC: Forgiveness is the gift you give yourself. For her to heal and for her to move on, she has to forgive Roman Polanski. You know, you can’t live a life full of anger at someone that you have no control over. And many of us work a long time to find forgiveness. But at the same time, that's what she needs to heal. And every time the case comes up in the media, her name is dragged in there.
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Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign using Donate buttons on the left. After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works. - ke
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