Complicit... who is to blame?

In May 1998, the TV show 'Seinfeld' ended after a nine-year run. The show's two-part finale drew from years of episodes and conniving cast members to bring the four lead characters to their knees. Spoiler alert, but it has been over 20 years so by now you should have seen it. In the penultimate episode, George, Jerry, Kramer, and Elaine are on an airplane that has to make an emergency landing in a small town in Massachusetts. While waiting for the airplane to be repaired, they witness an overweight man named Howie getting carjacked at gunpoint by another man. They mock and laugh, even videotape the actions, and are eventually charged with breaking the town's law, The Good Samaritan law. The police charge the foursome saying they should have helped Howie and since they did not get involved, they were tried in the courts.

To be sure that's a tv show and thus fiction, but last week we watched another episode on tv that was not fiction. It involved another group of four, although all men. Derek, Thomas, J.A., and Tou. Only in this case one of the four was actually guilty, and the other three, like the Seinfeld observers, stood by and watched. What was Derek's crime? He murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis in the USA. And while his knee was strategically placed on the neck of Mr Floyd, Derek's left hand was calmly placed in his pocket, while he awaited the death of his victim. 

Former prosecutor and Fox Nation host Nancy Grace said this week, "I will bend over backwards to support the cops, to support our justice system, to support prosecutors, to try to understand why they do what they do," remarked Grace at one point in the show. "I cannot support this...Why is this not murder one?" she asked in the latest episode of Fox Nation's "Crime Stories"on Monday.

What did the other three officers do at the time of the 8+ minutes which the entire world has watched? They did nothing. They are being called 'accomplices' to the crime by their non-involvement. Whatever you call it, it's a shocking shame.

Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo (pictured right) told CNN's Sara Sidner on Sunday that the silence of the four officers involved in Floyd's death and their inaction made them 'complicit.' "Being silent or not intervening, to me, you're complicit. So I don't see a level of distinction any different," he said.

Moses, who led the Jewish people 3,500 years ago, would have agreed with Chief Arradondo. Included in the middle of Leviticus in the 19th chapter, a series of 'thou shalt not' sentences are demanded. Verse 16 says, "You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor;  I am the LORD." The Hertz Chumash translates the 2nd half of this sentence as 'neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor." The Stone edition of Torah translates it to "you shall not stand aside while your fellow's blood is shed."

The Bible is clear that both the murderer and the silent-observer (who has the capacity to be involved and prevent further mistreatment) are to be held guilty. And the case of the death of Mr George Floyd will be tried in at least one court one day, but it's already being held in the court of public opinion each day as America burns. 

The four policemen lost their jobs the next day last week. 

The four policemen should be tried as criminals.

What do you think?