Bernard Henri-Levy, Norman’s fellow blogger on the HuffingtonPost, has gone even further by suggesting that what is happening to Polanski is a “lynching”. (see: http://tinyurl.com/yzvbbk8 )

Mobs and lynching occur outside the rule of law. Almost unanimously, the anger on the part of the anti-Polanski crowd that Jeff is condemning manifests as a call for justice to take its course, not through actions taken outside the rule of law, such as those committed by lynchers and, well, pedophiles such as Polanski. To be sure, there are exceptions, such as ABC’s Cokie Roberts who may or may not have been serious when she called for Polanski to be “shot” (see: http://tinyurl.com/ybqdzay ).

To suggest, as Norman and Bernard-Levy do, that calls for the rule of law to take its course — all 32 years of a grindingly slow yet methodical process in this case — is on the side of mobs and lynchers insults the memory of those who, through history, have been the victims of the non-legal approach. And principle amongst the insultees are African-Americans, thousands of whom died at the hands of lynchers.

Roman Polanski, child rapist, must not — even by insinuation — be placed with company he doesn’t deserve to be within a 100 miles of.

Gunson acknowledged the judge’s sentence was unpredictable. “I’m not surprised,” he said, “that [Polanski] left the country under those circumstances.”

Gunson may be surprised but that doesn’t justify Polanski fleeing. A commenter on one of the Polanski blogs on the HuffingtonPost suggests that the suggestion of a possible 50-year sentence constituted “duress” which can, in certain circumstances, be a valid defense for breaking the law (ie fleeing jurisdiction).

Here is what Wiki tells us, in part, about “duress”:

In order for duress to qualify as a defense, four requirements must be met:

- Threat must be of serious bodily harm or death
- Harm threatened must be greater than the harm caused by the crime
- Threat must be immediate and inescapable
- The defendant must have become involved in the situation through no fault of his or her own

Perhaps Jeff can inquire of his legal contacts above whether Polanski’s fleeing constitutes duress.