So now they've finally arrested Roman Polanski, more than thirty years after he escaped justice for raping a thirteen-year-old girl.

PARIS — After more than 30 years as a fugitive from U.S. justice, Roman Polanski, the director of legendary films including “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” was arrested in Switzerland on an international warrant as he arrived in Zurich for a film festival featuring a retrospective of his work, the Swiss authorities said Sunday.

Of course not everyone is happy:

France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Artists and film makers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing the case.

What reasons do they give?

"I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion," he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in Gstaad.  "It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed actionmust be in some way politically motivated," he said.

It's political?  What particular political motive would the US have in doing this?

And "he's 76."  Well, that could have been avoided had he not run the fuck away 31 years ago.  I'm reminded of the man who killed his parents and then asked the mercy of the court because he's an orphan.

"Seeing him alone, imprisoned while he was heading to an event that was due to offer him praise and recognition is awful, he was trapped," French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said at a news conference today. "In the same way there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America, that has just shown its face."

I think seeing the 13-year-old being raped would probably be more awful.  But it didn't get filmed, Mitterand wasn't there, and it was so inconveniently long ago, so you really don't have to think about it.

In my mind, the "generous America" is generous to 13-year-old girls who were drugged and raped.  Not so much to the older man who drugged and raped her, and not only didn't get shunned by "polite society," he was getting an award for his lifetime of apparent wonderfulness.

Poland's film-makers' association also rose to his defence.

"We do not understand why the Swiss invited Polanski to a film festival, where he was to have received a life's achievement award, and then arrested him," said association president, Jacek Bromski. "We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness."

Overzealousness?  Arresting a rapist?  I guess we have different definitions of that word.

And it appears that, in Switzerland, just like in most other countries, the people who give out the film awards don't actually get to tell the police what to do.

You might wonder, too, why this is the first time anyone's tried to arrest him.  Surely they should have been trying harder, right?

But this isn't their first try, not by a long shot.  He just gets informed about it ahead of time and avoids it:

Los Angeles District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told ABC News that this is not the first time Polanski has been in this situation, but he typically hears about a possible arrest ahead of time.

So finally he's in the hands of law enforcement.  But, as a French citizen, he'll have to be extradited through the French system.  I would like to hope he'll arrive in the US and finally serve his time, but I'm afraid it won't happen.  It took passing a new law in Pennsylvania to get murderer Ira Einhorn extradited from France.

Good luck with something as "trivial" as rape.