Names and faces
Director Roman Polanski beat a U.S. attempt to extradite him as a Polish judge ruled that the nation’s law forbids sending the filmmaker back to the United States, where Polanski pleaded guilty nearly four decades ago to having sex with a minor. “I can breathe now with relief,” the Oscar-winning director told reporters in Krakow, where the case was heard. “I pleaded guilty. I went to prison. I have done my penalty. The case is closed,” said the 83-year old director, who appeared thin and exhausted. Polanski also beat a U.S. attempt to extradite him from Switzerland more than a decade ago. Friday’s decision could finally close the case in Polanski’s favor. The Polish prosecutor who argued the case for extradition on behalf of the U.S. did not immediately say whether there would be an appeal. Judge Dariusz Mazur said the case was very complicated but an extradition procedure would violate the human rights of the elderly Polanski because he could be sentenced to confinement. “I find no rational answer to the question: What is the real point of the U.S. extradition request?” said Mazur, who spent more than two hours explaining his reasoning to the court in Krakow. Mazur said Polanski served his punishment in confinement in the U.S. and later for 10 months — partly under house arrest — in Switzerland in 2009-2010 when the U.S. unsuccessfully sought his extradition there. A psychiatric evaluator released Polanski early from a 1977 prison sentence of 90 days for unlawful sex. The judge then said he was going to send Polanski back to prison for the remaining days, and he fled from the U.S.
Organizers of a rally against police brutality spoke up Thursday in support of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who has been condemned by the New York Police Department’s commissioner and police associations over his remarks at the weekend event. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained had joined demonstrators in the city a week ago to speak against the deaths of people at the hands of police. “I’m a human being with a conscience,” Tarantino said at the rally. “And if you believe there’s murder going on, then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.” Those words drew the ire of police associations in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New Jersey, which have urged boycotts of his movies. He also got a scathing response from department Commissioner William Bratton. Speaking on a radio show on Monday, Bratton said, “Shame on him. Shame on him particularly at this time where we’re grieving the murder of a New York City police officer. There are no words to describe the contempt I have for him and his comments at this particular time.” The police associations slammed Tarantino as being “a cop hater” and “anti-police.” Carl Dix, a co-organizer of the RiseUpOctober rally at which Tarantino spoke, said the criticism was “outrageous.” “It really is an attempt to squelch any discussion by people in the arts or prominent people in other fields of taking up and discussing controversial social issues,” he said.