At times, we who have no native blood, other than that from our own native-born selves or from long ago native-born ancestors, should thank the Indians/First Peoples for not organizing into armies of tribes and using the invader’s tactics and strategy. Had the occupants of America north and south allied with their traditional enemies, those combined armies could have stalled and delayed European-American conquest. But only for a time.
“Thank you,
Scots ancestors for leaving Scotland” moments arrived while I was watching the
British police procedure program Shetland. In one episode, DI Jimmy Perez, upon
watching a murder confession on an internet site, tells one of his officers,
“Take that site down now.” And the police officer complies. Just like that, the
offending site is down.
DI Perez in
another episode tells an attorney’s office manager, “I want all his cases for
the last two years, his mobile phone and his computer.” And it was done. No
warrant necessary; only a police official saying, “I want.”
In another
episode, DI Perez’s supervisor tells a suspect, “You know Scotland has done
away with double jeopardy.” That called for a search, and, sure enough, it is
so. In Scotland a person may be tried a second time for an offense for which he
was initially found not guilty.
So, again,
thank you Scots ancestors for leaving a place where individual rights exist at
the whim of government.
Oh, and the
weather there sucks.
I claim Scottish heritage. My ancestors were defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar (1650) and were sent to America in the bottom of a ship.
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I remember a few years ago Scotland was debating leaving Great Britain. Kind of silly. It's not like it's a choice of freedom (screamed in Mel Gibson's voice) or serfdom. It came down to Scotland staying so Mother England could keep paying for their socialist lifestyle.
I love watching "Shetland."
Shetland has more murders per cap than Chicago or Philadelphia.
I don't know about the Scottish 4th and 5th Amendment laws, but maybe the show just doesn't want to get into that procedural stuff to much. I did not know about the double jeopardy thing. That is soooooooooooooooo wrong for any civilized country.
Watching Shetland, I always point out the sunny days, not to many of them. It always looks cold and windy !!!
Did you see the episode where there was a murder on Jimmy's home island?
Matthew: School history sort of forgot about Scots and Irish enslaved by the English. I am not certain when my Scots and Irish were brought over. A father and a son were transported from London to Virginia in 1750. About the third series of Shetland, I thought the island must have the highest per capita murder rate in in world. I watched the last episode available a few days ago. My wife, McLean 150 years ago, says she would like to live in the Highlands. Watching Shetland, she said, "Isn't that lovely?" Ah, where is the sun? The double jeopardy change was a matter of political expediency. A man got away with murdering two teenage girls, so the law was changed. Second trial gave a guilty verdict.
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