Friday, July 01, 2005
Ah, Sweet Aruba
Everybody has heard the story of an Alabama teenager who seems to have met an unfortunate end while vacationing in Aruba. Let us put aside the wisdom of making an international news crisis out of a foolish young woman who leaves a bar in a foreign country late at night with a pair of unsavory characters. I have noted something that seems to be lost on so-called professional journalists and most of the viewing public.
Did you notice that in Aruba, a holiday destination for many Americans, an accused person can be held up to 8 days without any criminal charges. In this island paradise, there is no Writ of Habeas Corpus, a fundamental freedom enshrined in the main body of the Constitution. That’s BEFOE that pesky Bill of Rights!
It has also been reported that police are accusing the father of one of the suspects of obstructing justice. You may wonder what happened to suggest such a serious accusation. Well, from what I get from reports, the dad had a conversation with his son concerning his legal rights. Ain’t that a scream? I guess the local Barney Fifes wanted to take the kid down to the basement and beat a confession out of him, but the old man got in the way.
The moral of the story is, when you visit one of these bass-ackwards third world hell holes, remember that your God-given rights ended at the U. S. border.
Did you notice that in Aruba, a holiday destination for many Americans, an accused person can be held up to 8 days without any criminal charges. In this island paradise, there is no Writ of Habeas Corpus, a fundamental freedom enshrined in the main body of the Constitution. That’s BEFOE that pesky Bill of Rights!
It has also been reported that police are accusing the father of one of the suspects of obstructing justice. You may wonder what happened to suggest such a serious accusation. Well, from what I get from reports, the dad had a conversation with his son concerning his legal rights. Ain’t that a scream? I guess the local Barney Fifes wanted to take the kid down to the basement and beat a confession out of him, but the old man got in the way.
The moral of the story is, when you visit one of these bass-ackwards third world hell holes, remember that your God-given rights ended at the U. S. border.
