The Facts in the Case of M. Polanski: Authoritarian Dignity

Or dignified authority, if your worldview is warped enough to permit such an anti-concept.

Film director Roman Polanski lost his bid Friday to be sentenced without returning to the U.S. when a judge ruled the director must be present in court if he wants to resolve his 32-year-old sex case.

Reiterating Polanski was a fugitive from justice, Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza said he was acting to protect "the dignity of the court."

Bart Dalton, a lawyer for Polanski, said the ruling would be appealed.

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Lawyers Chad Hummel, who represents Polanski, and Lawrence Silver, who represents victim Samantha Geimer, tried to convince Espinoza to change his mind.

But Espinoza cited a law that says someone who flees is not entitled to the processes of the court unless they return. The judge also cited the length of time Polanski had been a fugitive and the deterrent factor for others who might consider fleeing to escape justice.

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Prosecutors insist Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles courtroom and not be permitted to manipulate the justice system.

The dignity of the court? My ass. The authority of the court.

A court that does not have to negotiate with a sovereign anarch, but has submissive subjects surrender and groveling for a scrap of collectivized justice.

As for dignity, the dignity of the courts went down the drain the day the first plea bargain was struck. If courts wanted dignity, they wouldn't negotiate with criminals. They are, however, happy to negotiate with any criminal that surrenders and submits to their authority.

If the court were interested in dignity and justice, it would make negotiations dependent on the severity of the alleged crime, not on whether the suspect surrenders. "We don't negotiate with rapists" would be moral; "we don't negotiate with fugitives" is not. To expect any fugitive to surrender and submit to the authority of the court that claims a coercive monopoly on truth and justice in any given "jurisdiction," irrespective of whether he can expect a fair trial, is as fascist as expecting a Jew to voluntarily board a cattle car to Auschwitz.

By the way…

"The Anarch is to the anarchist, what the monarch is to the monarchist."

— Ernst Jünger