Freshly Squeezed OJ

It appears that they have finally gotten the Juice. They have waited patiently for Mr. Simpson to self-destruct and true to his nature he has obliged. According to news reports two of Mr. Simpson’s accomplices have agreed to turn States evidence and testify against Mr. Simpson. By the time their stories are heard, Mr. Simpson will take the brunt of this prosecution. In what many have seen as a set-up from the beginning to prosecute the Juice for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman, the cards are lining up against him. Many people wonder what could possibly have motivated OJ to get caught up in this whole scenario anyway and what could he have hoped to gain.

Mesereau said the move by co-defendants to plead out and testify to save themselves shows the prosecution's motive is to get Simpson.

"This might feed into the idea of a setup," he said. "They set him up in the hotel room and tape recorded it and now they're setting him up in court."[1]

My question is this, if you know you are the most watched and most despised man in the country how could you ever hope to walk into a hotel room full of shady characters to retrieve merchandise with guns and expect to get away with it? What must he have been thinking? The problem with OJ and many men like him is that their arrogance always trumps their good sense. Mr. Simpson has been untouchable for most of his life; once he picked up that football and outran every other kid on that field he became impervious to reality. He grew up in the pampered life of a gifted athlete; he had people waiting on him hand and foot. He grew accustomed to getting away with whatever he wanted and if he got caught it was quietly brushed under the rug. It’s the same thing with a beautiful woman she goes through life unchallenged and develops a narcissism that few can fathom and understand.

When many of us would have faded from the scene following a murder trial, which the majority population felt he was guilty and got away with murder, he chose to remain in the limelight. He got away not with any murder but the murder of a beautiful blond white woman, who he wasn’t supposed to be married to anyway. Mr. Simpson on the other hand continued to want to be in the limelight, he continued to flaunt his freedom having the false belief that people would forget and once again welcome the Juice back with open arms like they did so many times in the past. His arrogance got that the better of him; there are many things a black man in America can be. He can be a role model, a hero, and maybe one day President, but what he cannot be is arrogant. Arrogance was a virtue OJ could no longer afford. It is one thing to win the Heisman, to run for 2,000 yards, and to be accepted into the Hall of Fame with those you can afford some arrogance, it is another to kill two white people and get away with it in the minds of many and still be arrogant.

The clock has been ticking on OJ and he couldn’t hear it. His ego wouldn’t let him. He kicked into the room still believing that he was the old OJ and the country had forgotten about the past. He believed that people would understand and support him, because he was right. He couldn’t have been more mistaken. These people don’t care if he is right, they want their own brand of justice and by God they intend to get it. If that meant they had to wait, they would wait. OJ got comfortable, he started believing that he was the Juice again, so being fueled by the people who would eventually set him up he took the bait and the rest as they say will be history.

Two of Simpson's co-defendants, one a former friend, agreed to testify against him Monday in return for drastically reduced charges.

"It's always a prosecutor's strategy to go after the little fish to get to the big fish," said lawyer Edward Miley, who represents defendant Charles Cashmore. "In this, it seems to be that O.J. Simpson is the big fish."

"All the others are getting a good deal and Simpson, the one without a conviction, doesn't? It's all about who he is," said Thomas Mesereau Jr., who represented acquitted defendants Michael Jackson and Robert Blake in cases that turned on witness credibility. "They probably wouldn't have brought charges if it wasn't for who he was."[2]

Before this is all over, everyone will walk but OJ. The whole goal was to get OJ and they got him. I guarantee you there will be no acquittal this time. There will be no “Dream Team”, no Johnnie Cochran; there will be no public outrage. As this case proceeds it will become fairly obvious to all that it was a setup, but no one will care. The characters will all have had some involvement with the criminal justice system in some way or another. They will all have seedy pasts and were it not for OJ would not even be noteworthy to the public. The pressure is mounting and the Juice is about to get the final squeeze.

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-15-2690514155_x.htm
[2] Ibid.

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When Obsession

It has been over 13 years since the deaths of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman and for the families I am sure it is still a very painful memory that touches their lives daily. The subsequent trial of O.J. Simpson was a polarizing event in America and showed many the disconnect that is still a part of the racial climate in America. While the vast majority of whites believed that Mr. Simpson was guilty, while only 26% of blacks publically stated he was guilty.

For the last 10 years Ron Goldman’s father has waged a personal crusade against Mr. Simpson, after he was found not guilty Mr. Goldman sued him in civil court and won a 33 million dollar judgment against him. However, due to loopholes Mr. Goldman has only received about 10,000 dollars in the 10 years. What originally began as grief for a loved one seems to have been transformed into an obsession for revenge. The problem with revenge though is that it consumes the carrier as much if not more than it does the target.

It is from here that Goldman has settled into his pursuit of Simpson. His anger is not foaming or hysterical, but cold, methodical and relentless. He sits on the sofa, in shorts and an open shirt, the handlebar mustache still in place, his gray hair swept back from his forehead, and talks in a house that is completely silent save for his voice.

For Denise Brown, this is pointless. The book gave Simpson the "sickening" opportunity to trash Nicole's name and reputation, then taunt the families with details of the murders. Goldman had already stopped publication of the book, she says, and there is no motive left in publication but to make money.

"This is evil, this is blood money," she says in a telephone interview. "It's written by a man who is evil. And now [Goldman] is writing in the same book by the man who murdered his son? This is disgusting to me."

"The money from this is just going to pay off his lawyers, his creditors," she says. "He has so much debt he has to be able to pay back something. . . . We were on the same page until he wanted to sell this book for his own financial gain."

Under terms of an agreement worked out between the attorneys, Brown's estate will get roughly 10 percent off the top of sales, and Goldman the rest. In Goldman's case, a large chunk of what's remaining will go first to Cook, the collection attorney.

And none of it, of course, will come from Simpson himself, but rather from the book-buying public.[1]

This obsession has led Mr. Goldman to sue and win for possession of the book written by Mr. Simpson, entitled, “If I Did It”. In it Mr. Simpson discusses in a supposed hypothetical way how he would have committed the murders. Mr. Simpson uses the book as a platform to demean his ex-wife’s character and provide justification for her to be murdered, but not by him of course. One of the common traits of abusers is to blame the victim for causing their own abuse and thus freeing the abuser of any responsibility in the act. You made me beat the hell out of you.

Here for me and I guess Nicole’s sister (Denise Brown) is where the story takes a weird turn, when the book was being considered Mr. Goldman lobbied hard against it being written, published and released for what I thought was to preserve the memory of his son. It appears that this was not the case. Mr. Goldman has now released the book and added some words of his own. So now you have the murdered boy’s father sharing the same book with the person he considers killed his son. Mr. Goldman has taken what many considered a noble gesture stopping the book from being published and turned it into a money making operation. This is no longer about the memory of his son and wanting to preserve it, this is about cold hard cash. It appears that all of his efforts to pursue Mr. Simpson have left Mr. Goldman with quite a legal bill and he is in need of cash.

I don’t have a problem with Mr. Goldman receiving the proceeds of his judgment against Mr. Simpson, but I don’t think the general public should have to cover for it. If he can’t get the money from Mr. Simpson, Mr. Goldman does not appear to have a problem getting it from the rest of us. I had nothing to do with the crime or the marriage for that much, so why should I be asked to retire Mr. Simpson’s debts. Anyone who buys the book is in fact helping Mr. Simpson to pay-off his judgment; it doesn’t matter to me where the money is going.

Due to his obsession to “get” Mr. Simpson, Mr. Goldman has allowed his moral compass to be changed. If it was wrong for Mr. Simpson to write the book in the beginning it is still wrong today. Mr. Goldman should either kill Mr. Simpson and get it over with or go on with his life. There is nothing he can do to bring his son back to life. He has allowed this tragedy to poison his life and corrupt his values. He mentions that he promised his son to pursue this, but I doubt if this is what his son would want for his father’s life.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR2007091202605.html?hpid=topnews

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