Racism - It's Not A Black Thing
Any fair-minded observer believes that O.J. was guilty. At least there was as much or more evidence of his guilt than for any other murderer on death row, but there are those who see the trial as a matter of right vs. might. as this yahoo snippet shows. As the unconsciously racist writer says,What she found was someone whom people believed was probably guilty — but who'd been framed by the police... "It didn't really matter to the black population if Simpson was guilty or not. They knew the police lied," she says... "We say, 'So what? Cops always lie.' But if you're black, it's different. The black community doesn't really want justice — they've given up on justice — they just want equality.And the racism does not stop at the whites. Says a black observer,
"I asked one of the people I interviewed, a professor, if anyone [in the black community] thought Simpson was guilty," Bikel says. "He said, 'I did, but I liked the verdict. When you're black in Los Angeles, every one of us is hassled.'... "It doesn't matter to blacks if Simpson was guilty or not. It's very striking and difficult [for whites] to understand... "What I discovered is that we really live in different countries — the [racial] divide is huge," she says. "We don't pay much attention to it . . . but when something like [the Simpson trial] happens, then we realize it's really two countries.Two countries? So both sides think that there is a racial divide here, one that the founders never saw. Indeed, our system of justice is based upon the proposition that the power of the state is manifested in the criminal justice system, and that we must have checks on the state's police power. indeed, it is enshrined in our founding documents that, if the constable creates evidence, the only recourse that the people have is to acquit the defendant; that police misconduct must be punished in this, the only way that we have to exert the people's power over the system of justice - by acquittal.
There is really no racial component in this, yet our public discourse is so poisoned by racial - and racist - thinking that most of us can only see this with a racial filter. O.J.Simpson was indeed guilty, and the LAPD did indeed bring evidence that was stronger than that left by the killer. That the jury acquitted Simpson is actually a victory for justice, or at least a necessary exertion of the peoples power over the ultimate power over the police. If we did not have this power, well, then we would have nothing on Stalin's or Saddam's police state.
Back at the farm. Cindy She-Hen goes on dishonoring her son's good name, as this blog post has a fair roundup of the fatuity of it all.