Might as Well Chime In...

So this OJ thing. I figured I might as well give my two cents, since everyone else is. So here goes.

First, let's get the lighter stuff out of the way. The media is giving WAY too much attention to this. If the dream was to have him go away forever, then please, don't point the camera at him. Move on, next story please. It reminds me of the clip of the anchorwoman who made a big deal about Paris Hilton being the lead news story. Thanks a lot jackass, you just spent 5 minutes talking about how you don't want to talk about somebody. Welcome to the 21st-century media, I guess. And um... have you seen Marcia Clark? What the fuck?!?! She looks terrible. Wow.

OK, so I on to the slightly more serious stuff. So as you know, OJ Simpson has been charged with numerous counts of robbery and kidnapping stemming from an incident in Las Vegas over sports memorabilia. Based on the way information has come out recently, the credibility of the participants, and the actual crime (if any), things seem to have been blown way out of proportion, don't you think? He could possibly spend the rest of his life in jail over trying to steal back his own stuff? Really? If this was the NBA, we would label it a "make-up call".

And that's the problem I have with this whole thing. There seems to be this overwhelming sense that this is OK because he got away with double-murder about twelve years ago. Justice. The 'Al Capone' logic. Get him for something and lock him away forever, even if the offense is relatively minor compared to what we want to get him for. But doesn't that just take us back a dozen years? Have we learned nothing?

The original OJ case triggered completely different feelings amongst the general public, and those differences were normally seen to go along racial lines. The consensus was that Blacks either thought OJ was innocent, or wanted him to be found not-guilty regardless if he was or not. And non-Blacks generally believed that he was guilty, and wanted to see him put away forever. Well, this is bullshit. Why is it that the media thinks Blacks are these savages who condone evil and violence (eg: Michael Vick)? People will point to the images and video of Blacks reacting to the verdict as opposed to Whites. Let me tell you why the Blacks reaction was that way. It wasn't cause we were happy to see OJ acquitted. Fuck OJ. No one was thinking about that piece of shit anyway. The reaction was just a big "I told you so". For years, we had people ignoring us, or rolling their eyes whenever we tried to explain that the judicial system is not the same for us as it is for Whites. The reaction was, "Come on, it's the '90's. It's not like that anymore. Color doesn't matter." Maybe so, but money does. And that was our point. It wasn't a Black/White thing, it was a Haves/Have Not thing, a class issue.

So back to my point (that previous paragraph was so much better articulated in my head, but oh well, that's why I'm a programmer). Isn't it just as much a failure of the system if we can overreach on charges, make up some other charges (kidnapping? come on), and punish someone for not what they were convicted of doing, but for what we couldn't get them on twelve years ago? What's the difference? The reality will always be that the system hurts those that have pre-existing prejudices (race, notoriety, etc...) and benefits those with money.

Let's not bastardize the system for some twisted sense of justice. That's not justice. It's karma. And I believe in karma. Which means if OJ is convicted on these new charges and serves the possible maximum sentence, I will not shed a single tear, or waste a single thought on the man. Good fucking riddance.

And on that note, I promise to never bring the man's name up again.