Juiced!

By now, pretty much everyone has heard of the O.J. Simpson story. You know, the All-American football star at USC of a National Championship team, the Heisman Trophy winner, the Number One pick in the entire NFL draft, the Hall of Fame pro football star who then later went on to star in movies, TV commercials, and even for awhile, was one of the hosts of Monday Night Football. He was a guy who became really famous for “actually doing something.”

In 1994, that same O.J. Simpson was accused of the gruesome double murder of his wife Nicole Brown and waiter Ron Goldman. He went on the big police car chase thing in his white Ford Bronco and then was involved in one of the biggest high profile trials in history. He was found not guilty in a controversial jury decision that shocked most of the country in one way or another, and caused a large portion of the national American audience to be obsessed with his guilt in a way that made Lt. Dan Girard’s obsession with the capture of (The Fugitive) Dr. Richard Kimble look timid.

(Note, for those who are too young to remember the O.J. Simpson case, HE is an African American man who was accused of murdering his wife, Nicole, who was a blonde, attractive WHITE woman)

Simpson was later found guilty of those murders in a civil suit (and assessed a huge 33 million dollar civil judgment against him), and then was found guilty (in what could best be categorized as a “dubious crime”) of an attempt to retrieve some of his stolen autographed merchandise in a Las Vegas hotel room and sentenced to anywhere from 9 to 33 years in a Nevada prison. His crime seemed like that of a stumbling dufus who simply was too stupid to realize that he might be getting set up in a sting operation and, due to the prior acquittal from the murder charge, was risking some serious problems if he ever got caught doing ANYTHING wrong.

Even though he may have been railroaded in the autograph heist case, no one in America seemed to complain much about it, because so many of them thought it was a karmic form of justice for his beating of the murder rap. The people who supported Simpson seemed to “not mind” his conviction on the autograph case, because they figured he probably “got what he deserved after all” for the murders that most people seemed to think “he probably DID commit.”  Has there been ANY murders since that would have been done by that same killer?

What’s unique about the case of O.J. Simpson is that the masses of people, who, very likely, were fans of his when he was a player, actor or celebrity, but who then turned and hated him from the outset of his accusation for the murders, have indeed done this to the extent that they have. Those people, who are mostly white males, and who have obsessed the most about the guilt and punishment of O.J. Simpson, are what this article is all about.

Unfortunately for our planet, there are are people throughout the world who are murdered every day. There are trials for those murders all of the time. There are situations throughout all of the trials for these crimes where the obviously guilty parties are beating the rap and “getting away with murder.” It happens with rich people, who can afford to hire good lawyers, all of the time. It happens with white people, who also can hire pretty good lawyers to sometimes get them off. It seldom happens with African American defendants, who cannot afford the good lawyers or pretty good lawyers to get them off.

O.J. Simpson happened to be a BLACK man who happened to use his wealth and power to overcome the charges against him of his alleged murder of a WHITE woman.

The question of this article is, “where is this obsessive sense of justice” when it comes to all of the other situations where people are charged with (and sometimes get away with) murder? Why is it so focused ONLY on O.J. Simpson? Could the reason be… the race of the victims and the race of the accused?

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There is a trial going on right now for the murder of a man named Odin Lloyd. Lloyd was killed execution style by whoever it was that killed him. The man accused of the murder is Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez was a very good tight end for the New England Patriots, and, he would likely be playing in this week’s Super Bowl if he was not in this legal situation. Hernandez played for the Pats as recently as two years ago and was a key member of the team, but was released from the team (and a potential 40 million dollar contract) because he is now on trial for the murder of Lloyd.

Hernandez, in other words, was ALSO a major football star. He scored a touchdown in New England’s last Super Bowl appearance. He has a LOT in common with O.J. Simpson, who of course, was also a star football player who was on trial for murder. Hernandez, though, is not on trial for the murder of a beautiful, white woman. He, a man of Puerto Rican descent, is on trial for the murder of an African American man.

The trial is just at the beginning stages, and will be televised and publicized very similar to the Simpson trial. A lot of the evidence against Hernandez is circumstantial. There is a very strong perception amongst the American audience that Hernandez is guilty of this murder. But a judge has ruled that a lot of the evidence that was to used against him was not going to be allowed. In other words, there is the very real possibility he COULD get off this charge and be found not guilty.

Since the trial result is several weeks, if not months, away, and there is still no certainty how it will turn out, there is an opportunity to play a sort of speculation game.

The crimes of Hernandez and Simpson have certain characteristics in common, such as the brutalities of the murders, but they also have striking differences in the nature of the killings. The Nicole Brown murder was probably a crime of passion, a murder by someone who would be unlikely to kill again, while the Lloyd murder was an execution style murder by someone who was likely to kill again.

In other words, O.J. Simpson MAY have committed the crime of passion that one time in 1994 (he was acquitted, remember), but he has not committed any murders since. Aaron Hernandez may or may not have been the murderer of Odin Lloyd, but he is also being accused of two other murders (even though he might not have anything related to the two other murders admitted in his trial), and the perceptions of Hernandez are those of a dangerous person. The public perception is that one seems like someone who snapped just that one time and the other seems like someone who is more of a sociopathic, homicidal threat. We don’t know what really happened. Remember, it’s perception we are talking about here.

The point I am making is — if Hernandez is found guilty, and does prison time, he will be looked at as if her was a convicted felon, and he will be getting his perceived just punishment.

BUT, if he is found to be not guilty, he will then be in the same category as O.J. Simpson after his murder trial. He will be another reasonably wealthy person who has used their money to beat a murder rap.

The question is — will those same people who were obsessed with the guilt of O.J. Simpson, and “pursued his punishment” after the trial until they were blue in the face — will they spend the same time and energy obsessing over the “guilt” of Aaron Hernandez? Will they spend hours upon hours on the Internet trying to post comments, expound upon his guilt, and or obsess about ways to research, or to talk about or prove his guilt? Remember, an Aaron Hernandez out amongst the populace might still be a threat (perception gained from his gang-like tattoos). All O.J. Simpson did when he was out free was golf.

Or, will the obsessive anti-O.J. crowd just ignore an Aaron Hernandez who beat the rap? Will they just spend even more time obsessing about O.J., even though a rougher and more dangerous O.J. 2.0 in Hernandez would be out there in the public?

How people react to an Aaron Hernandez acquittal would show a lot in terms of whether or not they judge the actual crime’s merit being defeated, and if they don’t react as strongly, it might indicate a more disturbing possibility. And that is that they are more upset about the murder of a white person than they are of a black person.

A brutal murder is a brutal murder. The magnitude of each of these two murders is equally bad. But, there is the possibility that the populous won’t care as much because they value the life of a white person more than they do the life of a black person.

It’s all speculation. But, if Hernandez is found to be not guilty, then the reaction of the general populous will be very telling. If the anti-O.J. people don’t care about a murder that was just as heinous as that of Nicole Brown, then they will reveal that it just might have been more about O.J.’s race than it was about some high minded sense of justice. And that would be a “crime” in and of itself.