For years I have been in denial about O.J. Simpson. I watched the trial from beginning to end, and honestly, once the racism angle came into it, and I heard all the evidence, I did not buy that he murdered his wife and her friend. I grew up in Los Angeles, and over the years I had my own run ins with racist cops. I was once stopped at 4:30 in the morning, on my way to an early shift at Packard Bell Electronics. Despite having my PB Badge, all of my paperwork in order in my car, a valid drivers license and having committed no crime, other than "driving while black," at 4:30 in the morning, I was made to lay down in the street with a gun pointed at me, while wearing a suite... while the crackers ran a check on me. It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. Anyone who did not grow up dealing with that kind of racism in L.A., has a hard time wrapping their head around why many blacks felt as they did after the O.J. verdict.

But racism was not the only thing that led me to believe O.J. innocent... I just could not believe that in less than an hour, a person could practically decapitate two human beings, and then clean up what must have been a monstrous quantity of blood and then get on a flight to Chicago, without leaving more evidence. You slaughter two human beings and then leave behind "drops" of blood in your car... rather than blood everywhere. And the glove thing... Two damned convenient. A man commits a double murder, and is calm enough to fool everyone he came in contact with that night, and yet he tosses a glove behind his own house. No, it did not wash... And there are still lingering doubts in my mind.

Lastly, I knew O.J.... Casually, but I knew him. During the time I was at the University of Southern California, we recruited a number of athletes for my fraternity, among them was Marcus Allen. Marcus never joined the fraternity and was not a particularly close friend, but I had several opportunities to hang with him, and on a couple such occasions, I had the opportunity to meet O.J.. Now it is probably less than reasonable to assume that hanging with a guy for a couple hours, qualifies one to judge them. But I liked O.J.. He was a cool guy, and a Trojan, and he always took time to talk to us. He never seemed to be stuck on stardom, and I admired him.

It was for those reasons and others that I never bought the O.J. as a murderer thing. But the recent news about the new book... Well, it has convinced me to rethink my position. Joe Gandelman has done a good job covering the story of the book and the interview on Fox, so I wont rehash that. He points to a great post today, from one of the people who covered the trial. It is a compelling read, so please check it out.

The whole thing makes me sad. For many years O.J. Simpson has been a hero, then he became a martyred hero... Now, I don't know... He is just another fallen hero, in a world where we don't have nearly enough heroes.

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Posted by: qusan at November 19, 2006 12:03 AM

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at November 19, 2006 12:08 AM

Posted by: Shaun at November 21, 2006 01:30 AM