Seinfeld's Law

Remember the last episode of 'Seinfeld', where Jerome, Cosmo, Lainey & George "T-Bone" Costanza were arrested for watching the fat guy get robbed & did nothing but videotape it & make "fat guy" jokes?


[tony's note: yeah, don't front like you've never watched it...]


They were charged with breaking the imaginary "Good Sumaritan Law", which made it illegal to witness a crime without making any attempts to stop it. For the sake of the show, it was a means to an end, signifying the last hurrah for the 'Seinfeld' cast & crew. &, it was funny to see the morbidly obese man squeeze his swollen body from that compact car. Not that morbid obesity is comical, but, you smell my cologne.


Now, to parallel that with reality, a 15 year old student at Richmond High School, in San Francisco, CA was robbed, beaten & raped after the school's Homecoming dance last Saturday. Ironically, she was crowned Homecoming Queen. The West Contra Costa Unified School District has had it's fair amount of controversy lately, with a truancy rate of 69%, & last year's homicide total at 19. Investigations at Richmond High have revealed that only a small number of the school's surveillance cameras are operable & numerous fights on school grounds have been posted on YouTube.


So far, for the reported crime, a 19 year old ex-student & a current 15 year old student &a few more kids have been formally charged, with more arrests undoubtedly to come. Which in essence, sounds about right, but considering the fact that roughly 20 individuals participated makes that horrifying event that much more appalling. Reports say that about half of the participants were witnesses who did nothing to aid the girl, & perhaps some even videotaped it on their cell phones. That's more than likely, given America's voyeuristic approach at life. Eerily though, a very similar situation happened recently in Chicago, IL, to a young man named Derrion Albert, which resulted in his brutal, possibly avoidable murder had someone just stepped in. You may have heard about it. Instead, people either stood around, joined in the barbaric activities & recorded the event for prosperity. Perhaps the one good aspect of the paparazzi mob mentality is that criminals are stupid enough to get caught on tape red handed, some even amplifying their idiocy for the camera man.


We've all been there at least once, where we found ourselves in the midst of something that seemed to be going to far, yet waited on the next person to intervene or hoped it would just go away. Maybe it did go away, it probably didn't, but we see what happened in the cases of this young lady & Derrion Albert. No one said anything, which, at the very least leveled the playing field between witness & perpetrator. & if it didn't, it should have. Otherwise, only prison walls, as opposed to mental stability, truly separate the criminals & the civilians.


Currently, California has no laws that makes it illegal for one to witness a crime without at least notifying the authorities. They do have the "accessory" charge, but watching doesn't necessarily translate into "helping", as much as driving the car or signaling if someone approaches. Maybe they should implement such an ordinance. Granted, it wouldn't sit well with the boisterous "no snitching" ethos that shadows the inner-city, but life exists outside of the fabricated world of gangster politics & subversive criminal activity, so it is a possibilty.


The victim was rushed to a local hospital for her injuries, yet the mental scars of "multiple offenders, multiple people raping over [a] prolonged period" will still be fresh wounds even when stitches are removed & bruises disappear.


No shots, but very few things separate the human race from the rest of the animal kingdom. Judging by the news & urban legends, that line dwindles daily. At this rate, jail will literally be just another version of the zoo, if one doesn't consider it that already. That's not to say that all the dudes who ever experience jail are sub-human, but, again, you smell my cologne. We need to take "Love Thy Neighbor" a little more seriously, folks. If "we" don't like/trust the police, & the government is secretly plotting to destroy our shallow existences with hidden agendas & conspiracy theory actualities, than the least we can do, as a race, is watch each other's collective back. This isn't to say that everyone needs to don a cape & become hero's to anonymous prey, but super powers aren't needed to dial 911. How much of a douche nozzle are you really when you don't feel the incessant need to help keep another person safe? Although, I guess that's beyond douchery. That's more like evil, pathetic cowardice. Without dwelling too deep beneath the surface of societal ailment, there's always two sides to a story but usually only a singular outcome.


[tony's note: sorry for the lack of "comedy". i don't find anything funny about this bullshit.]