The Joran Van der Sloot debacle

We again witness an outrageous injustice -- the public lynching of Joran Van der Sloot for the death of Stephany Flores in Lima, Peru.

I'm absolutely appalled at the inflammatory information that is being fed to the media by the Peruvian police and public authorities and gulped down by the public.

So much of what we were told Van der Sloot said and did is already proven to be false, but it just keeps coming, and with each new release, Van der Sloot becomes ever more despicable.

In my opinion, what the Modesto Police Department and the Stanislaus County DAs did to publicly malign Scott Peterson's character with blatant lies pales in comparison to what is going on in Lima, Peru.

I used to blame the media for what happens in these public lynchings, as, at least in the United States, they have a Constitutional responsibility to protect citizens against an abusive government, but the buck stops with the police agency investigating the crime. And this police agency, along with Peruvian public officials, are raping the criminal justice system and destroying all hopes that Joran Van der Sloot will get a fair trial.

Shame on anyone who aids and abets this gross injustice.

This has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence, in either the Flores death or the Holloway disappearance -- it has everything to do with letting the criminal justice system work in a fair and judicious way.

Is there reason to suspect Van der Sloot is responsible for Flores' death? Of course there is. He's seen on video entering his hotel room with her and then leaving alone and she was found dead in that room. However, that does not justify a public lynching based on the outrageous leaking of highly inflammatory and blatantly false information. If Joran Van der Sloot is in fact responsible for this woman's murder, then let the evidence prove it in a court of law.

But since so many inflammatory stories have already proven to be false, I very much suspect that there is no substantial evidence against Van der Sloot, thus the need to convict him in a public trial so as to ensure conviction when he goes to his Court trial.

This stinks to high heaven . . . and I dearly hope someone in Peru steps up to the plate and puts an abrupt end to this mockery of justice. But I fear that Peru is more interested in getting the glory for bringing Van der Sloot down than in protecting and defending its justice system.

If you wish to discuss the Joran Van der Sloot case, please visit The Justice Gang.