The reason I'm writing is because of the statement I heard so much on the television after O.J. was found not guilty by reason of police incompetence. Some people were actually of the opinion that this "sent a message".
Well, yeah, it does.
It says that if you have money and the best lawyers, you can get away with anything. It says that the investigative procedures used by the L.A. police department were not as precise as they should have been. It says that people don't mind that there is a man who murdered two people walking around free without any real punishment for his crime. It says that justice does not prevail in our courts, only money.
And now, to top it all off, the sordid details of how he treated Nichole have finally come out; how he beat her, how he threatened her life. She was not a wife to him, she was a commodity. One that no one could have if he couldn't have her. The greatest insult to our intelligences since Pepsi's "Uh huh" marketing campaign was O.J.'s assertion that in fact it was Nichole that abused him, not the other way around, that she bloodied him and left him in tears.
Uh huh.
So now OJ has been found responsible and liable for the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, and he has been punished financially for those deaths. That is the non-emotional, objective assessment of the outcome.
A few things, just quickly:
1. Why couldn't Marcia Clark do a job similar to the job done by the plaintiff's attorneys in the civil trial? Marcia Clark screwed up, plain and simple, and this outcome proves it. And don't tell me that the civil trial only proves liability and not guilt, because there was more than enough evidence to blow away any doubts, but that evidence COULD NOT BE USED BECAUSE THE PROSECUTION DID NOT FOLLOW THE RULES OF DISCLOSURE. That's a mistake, a huge, really STUPID error that cost the American people and, more importantly, the victims and their families, the justice they richly deserved.
2. OJ is finished in this country. Yeah, I hear his autograph sells for something like $400. Yeah, he can always write books, so long as they don't deal at all with the crime he perpetrated or the trials that followed. Yeah, he can probably still wash dishes or something if nothing else pans out. But his movie career and his endorsements are history. Bye, bye, OJ.
3. A lot of people see the civil trial decision as a "white" decision. One of the jurors put it best when being interviewed by KGO. As best as I can remember, he said, "We made the decision based on the evidence. That statement [that it was a white decision] in itself reveals the person who said it as racist."
Amen.
4. Fred Goldman's appeal to OJ to sign a confession in return for forgoing the civil trial penalties shows me that Fred Goldman was not in it for the money. He wants justice, and he wants it bad. I would do the same. Not that OJ will ever admit to his crimes, but I wouldn't ignore any avenue, and I wouldn't be satisfied until the killer was behind bars. I assume Fred Goldman feels the same.
Well now we have proof that the prosecution in the criminal trial simply didn't do their job, and due to their sloppiness, a man unanimously found responsible for the deaths of his ex-wife and her lover is walking around free. Unanimously, on all counts, the jury found for the plaintiffs. Found that O.J. was in fact a murderous scumbag.
But this trial also sent a message. Simply put, you can't *completely* escape justice. In some form or another, you're going to pay. But I predict the punishment for O.J. has only just begun. Life is going to be hard on this criminal.
O.J., if you're reading this, you are going DOWN. The only bad thing about karma is, it takes so long to balance out. But it will. Your twilight years will find you broke, desolate, and hopefully abysmally alone, without companionship or friendship to help pass the long pointless days and cold lonely nights. You're no better than a common gangster. You're no role model for anyone. You are scum, and the whole world realizes it, now more than ever.