Polanski's arrest, and his defenders

I am completely at a loss to understand why so many otherwise decent, normal people appear to think that raping a thirteen year old child is fine.

Fine, that is, if you are film director.

The reaction to the long overdue arrest of Roman Polanski is not merely bizarre; it is unsettling and worrying.  French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, for example, who is usually a superb judge of the difference between right and wrong, has even written to Hillary Clinton to protest, describing the arrest as "sinister" Robert Harris described the arrest as “disgusting treatment”.

Why? What is disgusting is the attitude of those who seem to think that because Roman Polanski managed for thirty years to escape punishment for raping a thirteen year old girl  then somehow he should be allowed to wipe the slate clean.