Held Prisoner in Hampton Roads

His ass . . .

. . . belongs in jail.

Question: If you drug, rape and sodomize a thirteen year-old girl, should you be able to avoid prosecution? Does it matter that you have been a fugitive for thirty years? Or that you're 76 years old? Or that the victim has forgiven you? Or that filmmakers and actors all over the world think it's unfair?

Since I have a daughter who was once thirteen, and several grand-daughters who eventually will be, I am totally, completely appalled about what I'm hearing:

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, said that for Europeans the development showed that the American system of justice had run amok. “Sometimes, the American justice system shows an excess of formalism,” Mr. Lang said, “like an infernal machine that advances inexorably and blindly.”

Ronald Harwood, who won an Oscar as screenwriter of “The Pianist,” which Mr. Polanski directed, said: “It’s really disgraceful. Both the Americans and the Swiss have miscalculated.”

Nearly 100 entertainment industry professionals . . . urged in a petition that Mr. Polanski be released, saying: “Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision.”

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, described Mr. Polanski’s arrest as “a bit sinister” and said he and the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, were jointly writing a letter expressing concern to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Polanski's agent, Jeff Berg, appearing Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, said he did not understand why such a long-standing case was being pursued now.

Come on, folks. What if it was your daughter?