Vegas girlfriend culpable?

The free world is horrified by the recent mass murders in Las Vegas Nevada.  We have a right to be angry.  Horrible things are happening by sick, demented people in cities across the world and citizens feel helpless.  Authorities in multiple international attacks tell their publics that they had been watching the perpetrator who had a history of mixing with the wrong people or going to violent websites.  They just did not happen to be watching him/her on the day they committed this particular atrocity.

In the case of Las Vegas, we have a different scenario. A psychotic whose father had been on the FBI’s “most wanted list” for years, apparently decided to “out-do” his father and find his fifteen minutes of fame at the cost of hundreds of innocent victims enjoying an open- air concert. The carnage will be in our minds for a very long time to come.

The police immediately zeroed in on Stephen Paddock’s  girlfriend Marilou Danley, who they discovered was not in the country when the atrocity occurred. Somehow her I.D. was used to rent the hotel room.  How could that happen without her present at the time?  Authorities talked with her and found her to be an innocent in the affair.  This is reminiscent of the San Bernardino killings, where the terrorists built up a munitions stash in their home. Family members came in and out, and yet no one had the slightest idea anything untoward might take place with those weapons and explosives.

Either law enforcement officials are blind, or the law is handcuffing their efforts. Either way… the situation needs to change. The idea that Paddock’s girlfriend, who lived with him, had no clue of his plans is very hard to swallow. We are supposed to believe that she just happened to be out of the country on that horrid date.  It is possible that Paddock kept his munitions in a storage facility, and kept his plan a secret from her. It is indeed possible that he bought her a ticket to get her out of the country to spare her any responsibility for his actions. But it is also possible that she knew the kind of man she was living with, and ran away.  It is unclear why the police so easily dismissed her from any culpability.  Not being physically present does not clear one from responsibility. We know that from terrorist networks that send one individual to perpetrate an atrocity.

The bottom line, is as follows:  If an individual knows that a terrorist or psychotic is about to perpetrate an act on innocents, and does nothing about it… that person is a collaborator and needs to be held accountable. Anyone who knows that innocents will die as the result of the plans of another, has a responsibility to call the police and warn the authorities.  Not doing so, when proven, should make them as guilty of the crime as the person who pulled the trigger or planted the bomb.  If there is no such law in existence, it is time one be implemented. It was impossible that the family of the San Bernardino terrorists did not know that their family members were planning a terror attack. They should have all been held equally accountable for the deaths as they could have prevented them.

Israel deals with this problem with a sadly frequent regularity. Family homes are sometimes destroyed when a terrorist commits a horrific act. This is meant to be a deterrent, in hope that even one family member will find a way to advise authorities of an impending attack. There is evidence that many times, this has been helpful in stopping an atrocity before it occurs.

In the meantime, friends and families of potential terrorists of any persuasion need it clearly delineated, that if they are found to have had information of an incident which ultimately brought a loss of life, and chose not to report it, they are then equally culpable.

How does a reportedly kind and sweet woman live with a psychopath and not have a clue what is on his mind? It may be possible if the man is incredibly devious, but society has a right to demand that the investigation be a bit more “in depth” than what was determined within twenty-four hours of the incident.

Someone asked me “When is this all going to end?”  I fear that there is no end in sight. It becomes critical that the public serves as the eyes and ears for the police force.  I learned during the Los Angeles Rodney King Riots in April of 1992, that the police forces are woefully inadequate in times of crisis. In that catastrophe, they were told to “stand down” while the rioters looted shops and set small neighborhood shopping malls ablaze.  In Los Angeles, the entire police force was assigned to protecting the firefighters who were being “shot at”, while they were trying to extinguish the man-set fires.  All criminal activity was ignored. Only later, when there was some video footage that became available of the stores being looted, fires being set and crimes being perpetrated, were some individuals then brought to justice.

The life-lesson garnered from being in Los Angeles during those riots is quite simply that Democracy only exists if the citizens participate in protecting their way of life.  No government authority or police force, FBI or CIA, Mossad or similar entity can protect their populations fully.  Every citizen who loves their freedoms and way of life needs to realize that they have a civic responsibility to participate in protecting their neighbors and the order that we all hold dear.  The conclusion is clear – we must demand that those who remain silent, be held accountable for their complicity. Silence is indeed … consent.