COGNITIVE DISSONANCE is NOT something the show's producers should have fostered, as they most certainly and unfortunately did here--IN SPADES!
Here a corrupt Matt merely rebukes McCready, his son and his henchman Bart when they are discovered by Matt trespassing and feloniously breaking and entering for the purpose of and caught in the act of committing arson to the Gabriel home. And what is more, the McCready son went unpunished when he slashed the Gabriel horse bridle with the intention of causing their carriage to careen out of control. This was to allow the criminal McCready and his two accomplices time to torch the Gabriel house and flee the premises undetected. Matt directly witnessed yet turned a blind eye to all of this! SHAME!!!