Scott Watson: who set the watchman?
We could say that no one "set the watchman" in Scott's case, well at least apparently no one in authority. When Harper Lee wrote: "'Go Set a Watchman' it was a character Flynt who said, 'Somebody needs to be the moral compass of this town.'" No one with the power to set a moral authority in the Watson case did, being the investigation, the publicity of it, the leaks to the press, false leads, lies, threats, and bribery while plenty in the public did and were rightly outraged at the beginning because police didn't treat them seriously or in turn just ignored them.
The file this case needed was the answer to those people's questions and evidence. A situation where each account was recorded in detail, not a situation some 20 or more years later with people still revealing they went to the police with what appeared possibly strong evidence but were ignored. The "watchman" needed in this case was the police right up to the Commissioner and Minister. A watchman to say every bit of evidence was investigated and recorded before Scott Watson was charged. But instead, police were still tidying up their case to the time of Scott's trial and removing incriminating material that showed the possibility of not only of the real offenders but of a ketch. I know from that file the police who did the dirtry work because their work was messy or overconfident, perhaps expecting while they may have fitted up somebody they were confident that the noise would go away as more dirt was leaked against Scott, and his family.
But it hasn't obviously, its right back at them in their faces and the questions remain as to why they turned honest people away, dismissed them as not knowing what they really saw, that the police although not present when things worth reporting happened already some how "knew" they were of no value. What was of value to police was the witnesses that could be bent and twisted to give false testimony and of no value would be a file full of people saying what they saw on the record because that would betray the intention of the inquiry to fit up Scott Watson.
That's how big this Miscarriage of Justice is. If the police had done their job, the couple might well have still been alive, secondly the "2 hairs" would have been of no value as Scott's boat wasn't a 2-masted ketch and he went aboard alone without a single witness saying he didn't. There would have been no 2nd trip where "it didn't matter" how the couple went aboard Scott's boat because the boat they went aboard would have been found or accepted as not being a single-masted sloop.
Scott wouldn't have been in prison and it wouldn't have taken 23 years for him to have a second and hopefull fair, appeal hearing. Scott would have been unknown to the public and quite likely at least 2 men, would be serving rightfully serving life sentences. The only books, movies, or documentaries on the case would have been dealing with the truth rather than searching for it. Harper Lee's words through one her characters about a moral compass would not be on this page nor would this page exist as a testament to evil men and women prepared to send an innocent man to prison or simply look away as a "watchman" would never do.
