Most are European and unfamiliar, but among the people whose movies I’ll never watch again: Jonathan Demme, John Landis, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and, bless his heart, Woody Allen, who I guess was forced to sign lest the press seize on the idea of a guy who married his almost-stepdaughter passing judgment on Polanski. Open question to any of these rape-defending turds: How far would you have let Polanski go before deciding that, hey, he probably should serve some time after all? What if he punched the kid in the face when he was raping her? Beat her with a tire iron? Seriously, how far?

Lest you think that this is about anything other than some perverse droit de seigneur for talented artists, here’s how the petition phrases the signatories’ deep moral objection to arresting this guy:

By their extraterritorial nature, film festivals the world over have always permitted works to be shown and for filmmakers to present them freely and safely, even when certain States opposed this.

The arrest of Roman Polanski in a neutral country, where he assumed he could travel without hindrance, undermines this tradition: it opens the way for actions of which no one can know the effects.

Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom.

They’re explicitly calling for film festivals to be treated as de facto international waters, above the laws of any sovereign land and beyond the reach of any cop, even if that cop is in the area looking for … a fugitive who raped a kid. And the beat goes on: Polish filmmakers are calling his arrest a “judicial lynching” and a separate petition organized by a French philosopher objects to this degenerate being pinched like, and I quote, “a common terrorist.” This entire story comes back to that word “common,” doesn’t it?

Even HuffPo’s commenters can’t believe there are people on the site defending Polanski. Keep punching yourself in the eye, Hollywood; the blacker and more bruised it is, the better. Exit fun fact: Which poor, persecuted, misunderstood genius once said this?

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

Update: A Jesuit priest wonders, what if it were Father Polanski who’d raped a kid? “Entertainment, not religion, is the new opiate of the people and we don’t want our supply disturbed.”