Well I for one don't blame the Arubans one bit for resenting the American media.
Greta has been fair, but some in our media --most notably Whorealdo and O'Reilly, but also including someone I normally like, Sean Hannity-- have been incredibly arrogant and condescending toward the Arubans.
American commentators who blast the Arubans (and the Dutch) for their justice system and for "botching" the investigation, yet are ignorant of the well-established Napoleonic Code the Dutch system is based upon, make themselves obnoxious and ridiculous.
How many of these media demi-gods understand that none of the "suspects," including both van der Sloots, would likely have been detained for even one minute under our American system, given the increasingly obvious dearth of evidence to hold them, search their homes and cars, etc. ?!
The Dutch system clearly gives their "suspects" far fewer rights than does ours; and IF any of these suspects are guilty of a crime, more likely the Dutch system will ferret it out of them than would ours. If this incident had occurred in America, I'm quite sure none of the so-called suspects we know of would have been jailed, interrogated or had their homes, cars, or cell phone records searched.
And how many American media demi-gods who sneer at the Dutch remember that the Netherlands is one of the few Western European nations that is supporting the U.S. in Iraq!
you can defend their system of justice, but what say you of the corruption? THAT is what has americans up in arms, much more so than the differing systems.
The points you say are important ones; however, there is no balance there, in my opinion.
The biggest complaint against what their system did is that they arrested the Security Guards on the mere word of the three who were last seen with Natalee, they let those three go and they did not have or borrow the forensic search capability that was crucial to finding the forensic truth in this case.
Add to that, they lacked the expertise and technical resources to seriously search for a body under the possibilities that she had been put into the ocean. After all this time, just about zero chance exists to find such a body, or if it were found, find crucial evidence on the body.
The only thing that I can actually agree with you on is some of the media. Some do overstep their bounds and state and relay misinfo. It does not make them look good.
Thanks for once again injecting some objectivity to this case discussion. There is no real evidence of intentional corruption here and no dead body. As you say, in America the defense lawyers would be laughing this off as a slam dunk for the suspects to go free with little or no detention at all. And as far as investigative mistakes being made, do I hear Boulder CO police or LAPD please? This is not peculiar to Aruba that the case started off possibly slow and off-track and some wrong suspects were detained. If this case was so easy to solve, the FBI, American media, team from Texas, etc. would have more than just suspicion. Something is amiss here with the Sloots but feeling that is one thing, for the authorities to prove murder is another.
Well I for one don't blame the Arubans one bit for resenting the American media.
Lot of Dutch media there as well and, by some accounts, even more pushy & obnoxious than American press.
"The Dutch system clearly gives their "suspects" far fewer rights than does ours; and IF any of these suspects are guilty of a crime, more likely the Dutch system will ferret it out of them than would ours. If this incident had occurred in America, I'm quite sure none of the so-called suspects we know of would have been jailed, interrogated or had their homes, cars, or cell phone records searched."
BS. Our system relies heavily on forensics. The damn dutch don't have a clue!
Don't defend Aruba, and The Netherlands does not need coddling. Aruba and a lot of the islands are Pirate coves. Always were and always will be. My husband's friend was murdered in Jamaica and they covered it up. They are not to be trusted.
OMG!! Your post #116 is off the wall. In America, the Kalpoe brothers car and the Vandersnoots car etc. would have be searched (after they got a warrant) within the first 12 hours. The Dutch system leaves a lot to be desired. And Sean Hannity has not been condescending at all. He has simply expressed his shock at them setting these guys free and not going through the car(s) for 11 full days. That is a long time and plenty of time to get rid of any evidence.
And the Arubans DEPEND on American dollars for their very income (jobs). Perhaps they should think about that.