First of all, the black security guards weren't in "prison." They were being held at the police station for questioning. There's a difference.
Questioning them was probably fully justified, if any witnesses at all thought they saw the guards with Natalie. Even if those witness accounts turned out to be unreliable, you'd still have wanted them questioned jsut to be sure, right?
Putting them in "prison" without sufficient evident would not have been justified, obviously. And they weren't put in prison, they were released -- presumably because authorites could find no real evidence against them. (And I doubt they were released because Aruban authorities have somehow set up Mrs. Twitty as their judge. She's a wonderful lady, but she's not empowered to go around exonerating people.)
Second, while many seem to assume that the van der Sloot family is hugely powerful and influential in Aruba, there are also reports that they are not.
So there are 'reports,' and there are 'reports.' What to believe? I say none of it, unless and until there're hard facts proved under fair rules of evidence.
As far as the Aruban authorites not seeming capable of "break[ing] down a bunch of young men" -- what if it turns our the young men know nothing of Natalee's ultimate fate, as I posted earlier? If that scenario is true, what information exactly are you going to get out of them by "breaking them down" ?
If any or all of those boys were complicit in murder, then they should hang. Or fry. Whatever. But we sure as heck don't know anything of the sort, yet.
Sounded like the VDS were on their way up. Not any more. They are probably being looked at as responsible for giving the island a black eye, and what's worse, being bad for business. Oh, and one of them probably killed an American girl, but that's just boys being boys.
One time I was the victim of an unfortunate (temporary) incarceration and they had about thirty of us in a small holding cell. For some ungodly reason that I'll never know, they put a girl in the cell for only a few minutes. It was less than a minute I think before one of the men said "let's rape her" and a bunch of the others started grinning and shifting around. I don't know how long it would have taken before they were on her but the cops came back and took her away.