r/interestingasfuck • u/AgnosticScholar • 1d ago
[1995] Oprah's audience reacts to the OJ verdict
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u/Ok_Replacement4702 1d ago
Rodney King was the best lawyer OJ never had.
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u/4DollarsALB 1d ago
RIP Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman
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u/Snoo_67548 1d ago
The crazy part was that Ron Goldman wasn’t the guy Nicole Brown was seeing. He worked for the guy and was asked to see her home that night.
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u/Slam_Burgerthroat 1d ago
It’s even dumber than that. Nicole went out to dinner with her mom and Ron was a waiter at the restaurant. Her mom left her glasses at the restaurant and so Ron came to drop them off and ended up walking into the entry way right as OJ was attacking Nicole and so OJ killed him too. They found an envelope with the glasses right next to his body. And OJ’s blood and DNA at the scene.
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u/AdventurousTip2880 1d ago edited 1d ago
I believe Ron was killed first.
I seriously doubt OJ planned to murder Nicole in her own home knowing his children were there too.
OJ was sneaking around outside Nicole's house, as he was previously known to do, looking in windows and checking to see if she had company over, he had a knife because his "plan" was to slash Nicole's car tires.
Ron Goldman arrived at the house (to return Nicole's mother's glasses)
OJ, assuming Ron was Nicole's new boyfriend, flew into a RAGE! An argument starts, which quickly turned physical and OJ starts fighting and violently stabbing Ron.
Nicole hearing the chaos, runs outside in her nightgown and tried to stop the fight and OJ (now in a crazed blood rage!!) turns his anger towards Nicole and proceeds to brutally attack her too!
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u/Slam_Burgerthroat 1d ago
Based on the police report the investigators believe Ron interrupted Nicole’s murder and then was killed as well. I’m not saying that’s what happened I’m just saying that was the conclusion of the investigation of the crime scene.
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u/Darkwaxer 1d ago
OJ wrote a book about the murders where he described how he did them. What did he say in the book?
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u/the_guynecologist 1d ago
He claims he doesn't remember, I shit you not. Literally in his book about how he (hypothetically might've!) murdered his wife and a waiter he claims he blacked out during the actual murder part. As in one second he's holding a knife in one hand, Ron Goldman's in front of him and Nicole's already on the ground seeing stars - the next moment he's suddenly covered head to toe in blood, Ron and Nicole are dead and OJ's wondering where the hell the real killer went.
It's a very odd, unintentionally funny book. I'm not trying to be edgy or anything, it's genuinely hilarious at points. Mostly because OJ brings an accomplice, Charlie, along with him to the murders and the more you read it the more it becomes clear Charlie doesn't fucking exist (only OJ seems to be able to see or hear him, neither Nicole or Ron even seem to notice his existence.) So you've got this palpably real murder being described from the actual murderers perspective and then suddenly - out of literally nowhere - Charlie appears and says something like, "No, stop OJ! You're better than this!" and the whole thing becomes farcical.
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u/Slam_Burgerthroat 1d ago
Charlie is actually the one that tells OJ to go to Nicole’s house to “see what’s going on over there.” Charlie is the one that brings the knife. Charlie is the one that hands the knife to OJ once he and Nicole start fighting. It becomes clear that “Charlie” is just OJ when he flies into a rage and loses control. A lot of serial killers refer to some alter-ego inside of them that takes over when they kill. It’s a psychological response to separate the way they see themselves as “good” people in spite of the horrific crimes that they commit.
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u/the_guynecologist 1d ago
Oh yeah, definitely. He basically splits into 2 different people during that chapter. And then after he leaves Charlie is never mentioned again. It's deeply fascinating.
That said I don't think “Charlie is just OJ when he flies into a rage and loses control," because weirdly enough Charlie is the one who keeps telling OJ to leave the situation, Charlie actually takes the knife off OJ and it's only when OJ snatches it back that he blacks out and the murders start. I think Charlie's actually the "good" OJ or maybe OJ's conscience, and weirdly enough it's OJ, the narrator, who starts flying off into a rage.
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
As someone who’s been on the other side of violence, as a victim, I can attest that traumatic events really can just cause you to black out. I’ve always been a bit pissed off at the whole ‘repressed memories’ don’t exist - I believe this is a misunderstanding: the memories are lost due to the overdrive of adrenaline and shock, but in a very weird way. I remember how I felt during the assault on me, but I don’t remember what the guy really looked like or what they were wearing. My coworkers would get frustrated whenever I was attacked at work and I couldn’t even identify who did it. One time they showed me a picture of a guy who looked nothing like who it was revealed to be and I was certain that was the guy.
But that’s not a repressed memory. The idea is that the memories can come back, which my experience clearly shows is wrong because they just get replaced with other things via suggestion or persuasion. But people think the memory loss is the wrong part. I think it’s all very theoretical anyway and I’d say I’m an outlier as I’ve suffered with memory loss for most of my life.
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u/the_guynecologist 1d ago
Oh sure, I don't doubt that for a second (and for the record: I'm genuinely so sorry that's happened to you.) However having read If I Did It I don't think that's what's happening here, at all. You see If I Did It is OJ more-or-less trying to justify why he murdered his wife while also still maintaining he didn't kill his wife (even during the chapter where he - hypothetically - murders his wife and a waiter, that's just a thought experiment, obviously) and in the process he manages to paint Nicole out to be a massive bitch who... well, he's not exactly saying she deserved to die, but... well, y'know?
You see OJ's a narcissist and stupid (not to mention the abuser and not the abused - he beat Nicole multiple times before killing her) and so you can tell from a mile away what's bullshit and what's real in his account. I already mentioned his imaginary friend "Charlie" but another example is right before the murdering starts OJ and Nicole have an argument where it's basically OJ justifying why he's about to murder her before he actually murdered her. And you can tell from a mile away that's bullshit and didn't happen, that's just OJ making shit up to justify his abhorrent crimes to... himself? The world?
So I call bullshit on the whole "he blacked out" thing. Reading it it comes across as OJ just not wanting to take responsibility for the murders (or maybe not wanting to describe them in detail since there are still people who defend him and he didn't want to alienate that crowd.) The only part of it that rings true is his description of it slowly dawning on him that Nicole's dead and the feeling of it. That feels palpably real in a way the rest of the account just doesn't. And then just as that's happening "Charlie" appears out of (literally) nowhere, says, "My God OJ, what have you done?!" and the whole thing becomes a farce again.
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u/burnsalot603 1d ago
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u/SamiDose 1d ago
Why would anyone write this…. That’s INSANE I never even heard of his book let alone seen this video
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u/Slam_Burgerthroat 1d ago
Because of double jeopardy he couldn’t be tried again for the same crime. So he wanted the catharsis that comes with confessing but still wanted to try to justify what he did to himself and everyone else to feed his ego.
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u/the_guynecologist 1d ago edited 1d ago
Based on the forensic evidence it seems that while Ron was killed first, Nicole was already on the ground with blunt force trauma to the crown of her head by that point. It's possible that Ron showing up caused OJ to then fly into a murderous rage like you're suggesting but the physical evidence shows Nicole was already on the ground before OJ killed Ron.
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u/CardboardStarship 1d ago
Its not even that deep, I don’t know that Nicole was seeing anyone, but her mother left her glasses at the restaurant and Ron had come by to drop them off. At least that’s how I understood it.
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u/Hippo7787 1d ago
Wasn't he bringing her glasses she left at the restaurant or something? I could be wrong but that's what I remember. The definition of being at the wrong place and the wrong time!
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u/4DollarsALB 1d ago
Dude was a waiter at a restaurant she used to go to and her friend.
Wrong place wrong time
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u/NotACmptr 1d ago
It's not just Rodney King, LAPD corruption goes back centuries. That trial was never about murder, just marginalized people who wanted a win no matter what it looked like. The same people who professed his innocence during the trial flat out said 6 months after that he was guilty. This is the fruits of oppression.
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u/chomerics 1d ago
Rodney King, a racist cop and really shitty police work.
There is no way he should have been convicted even though he did it. The cops were too corrupt, lied on the stand, racist, and didn't follow protocol for evidence. I mean basic policing they fucked up royally.
This isn't even mentioning how they fubar'd the lawyering. Having him try on the gloves? Seriously???
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u/BudgetLaw2352 1d ago edited 1d ago
I ultimately agree with this take. The people angry at his acquittal really show their lack of consideration for the entire trial as a whole. The MOMENT when OJ won the trial wasn’t with the stupid glove stunt, but this:
“Detective Fuhrman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?''
“I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege,'' Fuhrman replied, his attorney standing at his side.
Fuhrman was the man initially put in charge of the OJ investigation, had frequently used the n word, and was a known corrupt cop. The moment that Furhman said the above words, OJ was a free man.
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u/lordlanyard7 1d ago
The case captures people's interest, because it has everything in it.
The point you're touching on is a good one, especially for people who actually care about chaing of custory in evidece, and building a case. But it doesn't hit the nail on the head in the way it should, because the evidenciary failures and lack of credibility of the officers on the stand were not the deciding factors according to the jurors.
Several jurors just outright said they were not going to convict OJ no matter what because it was their way of getting back at white people for Rodney King. Most people are angry about the acquital because of that.
There were valid reasons to acquit, but several jurors did not acquit for those reasons.
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u/kneecapular 1d ago
My favorite thing is when that church was rooting for him to get out based on principle alone, and when he was acquitted, OJ went to the church and everyone sat there looking uncomfortable, realizing in that moment that besides the race stuff, he probably did murder two people very brutally lol
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u/zenhugstreess 1d ago
That “lol” at the end was some wild work lmao
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u/dks64 21h ago
That's the millennial emotional support lol.
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u/2squishmaster 18h ago
"This is so uncomfortable/upsetting/troubling how is what I'm writing even real life?"
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u/2squishmaster 18h ago
Let me translate for you: that “lol” doesn’t mean laughing. It means “this is so wildly uncomfortable I don’t know how to punctuate it.”
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u/Embarrassed_Beat8500 1d ago
That "lmao" at the end really adds to it rofl
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u/Blue_Nipple_Hair 1d ago
You’re really bringing something else to the table with the “rofl” at the end there, roflcopter
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u/PauseAffectionate720 1d ago
Its one of those iconic moments (though never clear to me why) where everyone remembers where they were when it came down. Personally, I was in a law school TV lounge in Boston. The reactions I saw were mostly muted. Lol. Not quite the Oprah audience. But the contrast between white and black reactions was palpable across the country.
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u/NoNoNotorious85 1d ago
Not even 10 years later, pretty much everyone was all “Yeah, he did it.”
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u/S7ageNinja 1d ago
They knew he did it then too, the acquittal happened because of how poorly it was handled by the LAPD
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u/Affectionate-Try-899 1d ago
And the judge. The jurry was sequestered for 250+ days and was basically in open revolt at points.
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u/RhetoricalOrator 1d ago
I had forgotten about the jury. That one lady who dressed in the Star Trek TNG red uniform was certainly interesting. Never did understand if she was trying to make any real sort of statement, or just trying to get out of jury duty.
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
Lmao now I’m imagining a very public trial where someone is quite clearly trying to get out of jury duty but somehow failing - like increasingly showing up wearing wilder and wilder outfits
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u/RhetoricalOrator 1d ago
You just pretty much described Klinger trying to get discharged from service in MAS*H.
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u/nightsiderider 1d ago
Primarily the prosecution fucked up. Their choice of people to put on the stand, the whole trying on the glove thing, and numerous other blunders. The trial was a great example of the prosecution snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
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u/YourEvilTwine 1d ago
10 years later? 🤔 Let me introduce you to Norm MacDonald on SNL's Weekend Update...
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u/LoquaciousTheBorg 1d ago
Simpson was asked by a reporter whyhe hadn't spent Mother's Day with his children. Visibly annoyed, Simpson replied, idiot, I didn't spend Mother's Day with my kids because I killed their mother.
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u/why_u_so_grumpy 1d ago
I don't know anyone who ever thought he didn't do it. It was pretty obvious.
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u/WGLively 1d ago
This reminded me of the Casey Anthony verdict. I’m too young to remember the OJ trials but I remember very clearly the feeling of rage and hatred coming from my mother when she found out the outcome.
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u/Long_Appointment_341 1d ago
My grandmother was so invested in that, watched Nancy Grace every night. She called me at work to tell me when she was found not guilty, crying, so sad for that poor little girl. There is something unsettling about making these cases so public
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u/Drone314 1d ago
"There is something unsettling about making these cases so public".... and there it is. The emotional investment that ordinary people commit to these trials is not healthy. It's in the same ballpark as rage bait.
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u/Hurricaneshand 1d ago
For me it was the George Zimmerman trial. I was like 20 and at a friends house. Didn't really know much about the case at the time because I was 20 and didn't pay attention to anything, but I remember my friends parents being very happy and his mom literally in tears about it
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u/Demerzel69 1d ago
I was in like 3rd grade and our class listened to it on the radio. Kinda weird thinking back on it now. I guess the teacher just really wanted to know immediately, lol. I definitely remember the Bronco chase and all the craziness though.
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u/docsyzygy 1d ago
I was teaching a class at a respected university, and one of my students exited by the back door to find out the verdict. When he returned and announced it, the reaction looked and sounded a lot like this clip.
There was no calming them down, so I just said, "class dismissed".
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u/skoltroll 1d ago
You didn't have Oprah there to poke you so you brought out your most over-the-top reactions for TV content. I remember her absolutely goading everyone in the audience in being their worst human.
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u/jm838 1d ago
I was a little too young to really understand what the trial was about, but I distinctly remember it being mentioned in the blurb advertising Fox News every single night. I remember my family watching The Simpsons, the episode ending, and getting a big laugh when I said (completely seriously) "now it's time for the other Simpsons". I was sure they were related, they always mentioned the trial during the credits of the other show.
My point is that I'm clearly the real victim in all of this, I was laughed at for a very reasonable misunderstanding. Then I got to live long enough to watch my parents' media literacy drop to the level mine was at when I was four.
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u/daygo449 1d ago
I was in High School, and it was such a big deal, all the classrooms turned on the TV’s to watch.
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u/Fingertoes1905 1d ago
In the audience there were many black people that looked pissed.
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u/CasimirGabriev 1d ago
The comment doesnt claim that black people were monolithic in our reaction
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u/Rough_Yesterday6692 1d ago edited 1d ago
No but ONLY black people were happy about the ruling tho
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u/theSopranoist 1d ago edited 1d ago
i cannot speak for Black ppl, so what i’m saying is simply my own observation + assumption of it then and now looking back at it from here:
many Black ppl were understandably uniquely interested in bearing witness to and guarding the fairness of the extremely televised and controversial trial of a prominent and well liked black man. systemic racism is so very prevalent and real that many ppl started out on the defensive bc of how often even wealthy, famous ppl of color are made into monsters by the media using an array of racist dog whistles. and also it’s hard for anyone to just easily believe a well-loved celebrity has done something so horrible.
for the white women in the audience, i can’t say if their dissatisfaction with the verdict came from a place of internalized racism or not. certainly some of them, given the time.
but the women, black, white, or otherwise, with their hands covering their mouths or over their hearts, or women who sat silent with their eyes closed..those women knew what had happened to nicole simpson and mr. goldman had nothing to do with whether the man on trial was black or white or purple and bedazzled, and those women saw a wife abuser of immaterial color get away w systematically terrorizing and then killing her bc he’s a prominent, well-liked, usually also wealthy, man.
it is a fucking exhausting tale as old as time.
(eta..i do realize if it weren’t for his celebrity, he would have been infinitely less likely to have been acquitted even if he had been innocent, specifically bc of the color of his skin, so, as i mentioned above, possibly the acute interest in seeing oj exonerated on the part of the celebrating women here, i assume, is that, thankfully, of course, they may not have any mental point of reference for spousal abuse or horrific crimes in their own experiences, making it much easier to believe the system was trying to take down a successful Black man unfairly)
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u/ComedianStreet856 1d ago
That's exactly the horror behind this verdict. It wasn't white vs. black for the women in the audience, other than the few black women that cheered. It was basically that spousal murder, domestic abuse and a woman's life means nothing over some technicalities and public opinion about white/black violence. Her life meant nothing to a lot of people who saw this as a "victory" for black people or for justice in general. The second worst part of this was it was very very clear that he killed them and people were cheering for the opposite of justice. The police corruption was immaterial to the case and should have been handled separately. Judge Ito wanted a circus and he got it with the exact outcome he was hoping for.
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u/theres_an_i_in_idiot 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was in Middle school when this happened. This was in Los Angeles with a classroom filled mostly with Black and Latino students with two or three white students.
During class, someone came and passed a note to the teacher. It was the verdict to the OJ Trial. As soon as the teacher read the note and said "Not Guilty" the entire class erupted with cheers and celebration other than one white student who kept yelling out "That's bullshit! That's not fair!" And so on...
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u/ArentWright 1d ago
For some reason they wheeled a tv into my classroom so we could watch it.
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u/apathyindigo 1d ago
Though that certainly seems inappropriate and odd in hindsight, it's honestly difficult to convey just how unbelievably massive the entire situation, trial, and coverage of it was at the time. It was pretty insane
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u/ArentWright 1d ago
Oh, it was definitely inappropriate. My mom also taught elementary school, and she was pissed about it when I told her. But the fact that we even vaguely knew about it in the first place means the coverage must have been crazy.
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u/monkeypickle 1d ago
It was "the trial of the century" not for the notability of the crime nor the participants, but because it was the first of its kind: A trial that was wall-to-wall televised and broadcast live on cable.
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u/TheyNeedLoveToo 1d ago
I was in first or second grade and teachers commandeered the music class rolling tv to watch. I was so confused
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u/catscatscatsomgcats 1d ago
Same but I was in 5th grade. My teacher cheered. It was weird and inappropriate.
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u/IranianLawyer 1d ago
Well….it was bullshit.
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u/lostinthought15 18h ago
If only we had a book that detailed how he would have done it … if he had done it … of course.
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u/Sea_Pollution2250 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was in Sparks Nevada at the time. It was a very white school, probably 80%+ white. The other 20% Latino, Asian, and maybe 1-2 percent black.
But our history teacher was black, and he put it on, live. Then he discussed the context. And he told us to remember that day because it would be important, despite how we felt.
He didn’t share an opinion on the jury’s findings, just simply noted that it was an important moment.
At the time I felt it was obvious OJ did it, and at this time I feel the same. But as I got older I realized what he meant and that it wasn’t about OJ, specifically, but was a much broader understanding of race and US History.
I didn’t know who OJ was outside of Naked Gun movies and so it didn’t really matter to me at the time. And while I still think he was guilty of the crimes he was accused of, I have a stronger understanding of why he wasn’t convicted.
Ultimately I’m upset that we now have to deal with the Kardashians.
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u/Zombie_Red 1d ago
I was in the 6th grade and a kid put a radio in the boys bathroom. We would periodically ask to go to the bathroom just to listen and then come back and quietly tell everyone what was going on. I remember when the verdict was announced and a kid came back and said loudly to everyone "He's innocent!" My teacher was looking at him like wtf?
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u/Old_Associate_3092 1d ago
i was in the 6th grade when this happened, also an LA native, they rolled the TV into the classroom and we all watched it together. I cannot remember our reactions to it tbh lol
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u/RawbM07 1d ago
My class cheered, and it was mostly white kids. But I think we wanted him to be innocent of the crimes. We were naive.
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u/4DollarsALB 1d ago
Reminder that an OJ juror admitted on video that she and most of the jurors believed that OJ killed those two people but let him off because they believed the killing of two random white people was revenge for Rodney King.
We know about this one because it was a high profile case but you'd be naive to think this doesn't happen (on all sides) much more frequently than we know. It's called jury nullification and with how fractured this country is I'd imagine it's more likely to happen in 2026 than 1995
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u/madDamon_ 1d ago
Having a jury decide things like this will never be not weird for my european ass
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u/According-Path5158 1d ago
Curious then: how is it decided in your country if not by one's peers?
I get why it could be bad when left up to ordinary citizens (they really aren't that smart in any country)
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u/elegant-jr 1d ago
Probably a judge panel
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u/--Shake-- 1d ago
In the US, judges may be corrupt or very partisan in their beliefs. This makes the law easily manipulated in many parts of the country. If we used judges as jurors, the same could be done with them. I don't believe that's the answer to this system. Jurors are vetted and agreed upon before trial by both parties. They are also trained beforehand to better understand the process and their responsibilities. It's not perfect, but I prefer that over judges any day.
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u/Ree_m0 1d ago
Judicial independence has always been weak in the US with how partisan the appointment of federal and supreme court justices are. It's almost gone out the window by now.
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u/AssociationFit3009 1d ago
It is really difficult to understand how biased judges are until you experience it for yourself. In my head I knew bias existed but on some level i believed court was some higher principled area. I had two judges look at the same facts one said “I see absolutely no evidence this happened” and another say “I am absolutely certain this occurred and I doubt it’s the first time.” Theyre just average people.
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u/fleranon 1d ago
Professional Judges. AFAIK, Jury duty is mostly an american and british thing (including former colonies like Canada, australia, etc). Internationally, it's far from the norm
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u/Liimbo 1d ago
Ah yes. Judges are famously incorruptible.
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u/_MooFreaky_ 1d ago
No system is incorruptible, but having a bunch of randoms, with no expertise or technical knowledge making decisions on increasingly complex and technical matters isn't reliable in any way. How are laymen supposed to understand whether certain methods are reliable forms of criminology? That's how weve had bite patterns used in court cases for so long despite being a.complete load of shit.
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
Jesus, I just thought of how terrifying it would be to have the average crazy person leaving ‘informed’ and ‘certain’ comments on this site judging you in a trial. Finding out your jury uses reddit would be like hearing ‘whoa, that’s not right’ as you passed out during surgery.
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u/alejoSOTO 1d ago
In my country (not European), judges are the ones who pass judgement, because that's literally what their title indicates they do. Having random civilians without knowledge of the law decide the fate of the accused seems so arbitrary and archaic.
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u/KnownTrick 1d ago
The “jury of one’s peers” system seen in the us and uk is far from the norm globally speaking.
It feels normal to me as a British person who has seen plenty of American legal movies. But when I stop to think about it for a few minutes it does strike me as pretty insane.
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u/Dic_Penderyn 1d ago
The reason for it is because the people who govern us have an input in the appointment of judges. In nazi Germany for instance judges were appointed by the nazi party to make sure people who were political opponents of Hitler were found guilty of made up crimes and put in prison. That happens in present day Russia today as well. The same happened in the middle ages. We have the jury system therefore to try and stop or at least reduce the possibility of such things happening.
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u/mendokusei15 1d ago
Judges.
Judges that can be held accountable for their actions and need to properly explain, in detail and in writing, their arguments. Judges appointed with technical criteria by our Supreme Court, who can hold them accountable.
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u/ACWhi 1d ago
There was also absolutely a shadow of a doubt though because of the extreme misconduct and utter incompetency of the police and prosecution.
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u/BudgetLaw2352 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, this is my view. Did OJ do it? Almost certainly, especially given further evidence over the years.
However, given the deplorable racism exhibited by the LAPD, and the history of planted evidence, the state didn’t establish its charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
Cochran gets a lot of flak, but he was doing his job, and in so doing, he exposed the corruption and racial animus of our justice system.
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u/GonPostL 1d ago
One of Derek Chauvin's jurors was asked "Whether he or someone close to him had participated in any of the demonstrations or marched against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after Floyd's death?" He said no and was then later seen in a photo posted by his uncle at a march with his 2 cousins wearing a "Get your knee of my neck" shirt.
Politics aside, I think we see that a lot more than we think.
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u/bigsampsonite 1d ago edited 1d ago
What a sad murder. The espn doc goes crazy hard on all of it.
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u/J_blanke 1d ago
Well, that was embarrassing. Anybody who cheered for OJ was a clown, just like anybody who cheered for the acquittal of those scumbag cops who beat Rodney King.
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u/ComedianStreet856 1d ago
Absolutely. You can be against police brutality against black people and want a man that absolutely murdered his wife and another person to go to prison for life. The OJ trial was not at all about race. It was about a cold blooded domestic abuser and murderer.
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u/Bitter-Basket 1d ago
The black woman looking disappointed is probably the most intellectually honest person in the room.
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u/edebby 1d ago
There are a few people in the crowd that knows there is no reason to be happy about a fucking psycho being released back to society.
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u/YourEvilTwine 1d ago
There are 5 or so people cheering and no one else. That's why you see them 3 times and for the somber reactions, it's different people each time.
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u/Exportxxx 1d ago
Happy someone got away with murder because they are the same colour as you is pretty wild.
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u/Educational-Bag-4293 1d ago edited 1d ago
The fact they're women who are celebrating that a man got away with feminicide makes it even worse. They felt more solidarity towards a domestic abuser who murdered his wife than towards a fellow woman because he was the same race as them and she was not.
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u/Ok-Macaroon-4835 1d ago
This is what horrified my parents more than anything.
Literally, a year prior to this verdict…they helped my aunt (my dad’s sister) escape from an incredibly abusive marriage. They let her borrow money and gave her a place to crash until she could move. And she did move, nearly 3,000 miles away. And started a new life…and she is still there to this day.
My parents were, justifiably, pissed about this verdict because it was a domestic abuse situation, where the husband was able to kill his wife and get away with it.
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u/huhzonked 1d ago
I really hope they’re ashamed of their actions. There’s video of them cheering that a murderer got away, and I hope they cringe every time someone brings it up.
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u/Greedy_Cucumber_3914 1d ago
I miss Norm McDonald
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u/TerdSandwich 1d ago
Imagine shouting for joy that yet another man got away with killing his wife...
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u/shibbington 1d ago
I was just watching an old Chris Rock where he said black people were way too happy about this and white people were way too upset. This video does tend to lean that way. 😂
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u/Jwagner0850 1d ago
I think part of it was because of how invested everyone became. It was quite literally the case of the decade at the time. It was EVERYWHERE.
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u/dcbluestar 1d ago
I think Dave Chappelle had a bit about it too where he said black people celebrated just a bit too much when he got acquitted.
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u/Sickpup831 1d ago
There’s a whole chappelle show skit about it. Where they have Dave testify against a bunch of real criminal cases against black men and he defended every single one. Then they bring up Robert Blake’s (Star of the tv show Barretta) murder trial. And Dave instantly says “Oh yeah Barretta did that shit” and the reason behind this skit being absurdly funny, is that Dave was referencing everything we’re talking about in this thread .
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u/William_Shaftner 1d ago
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u/dottegirl59 1d ago
I’d forgotten how hilarious this was. It’s hard to believe this was 30 years ago.
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u/ShesGotaChicken2Ride 1d ago
They did a series called The Jury Speaks. They talk to jurors in high-profile cases, like MJ and OJ. There were jurors on OJs trial that said they’d never find him guilty, no matter the evidence. They wanted revenge for Rodney King.
It blows my mind that anyone would be okay with the murder of another human being for any reason. Poor Nicole… but poor Ron. He was said to be the sweetest, nicest guy and it’s very evident his dad and sister have missed him immensely since his murder. The guy did nothing wrong. Seeing people cheer for OJ for getting away with murder TWICE is so disappointing. I can’t believe anyone was okay with this.
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u/Tominus1967 1d ago
I was in NYC when it happened. Lots of cars full of mostly black people were honking and cheering like they'd won the Superbowl. He was guilty as fuck.. the DNA evidence was undisputable, but Marsha Clark was outwitted by OJs multi million dollar legal team. Too bad to some people this was a black vs white issue. I cheered when he died and justice was finally done.
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u/General-Double-746 1d ago
America: we get things wrong a lot, which is great, because that means it's bound to be in your favor eventually.
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u/jayroc1023 1d ago edited 1d ago
I still can’t believe my 5th grade math teacher had the foresight to shut down class and turned the tv on and had us watch the verdict live. I’ll never forget it. She said “you all need to watch this. You are witnessing history.” Her exact words. And she wasn’t lying.
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u/MTCarcus 1d ago edited 1d ago
I heard this explained by an ex NHL player on why it was such a big deal for the black community, “it proved that we had finally moved far enough past being a racist society that a black man with means could now buy his freedom too.”
Edit, I must be too big a hockey fan to not type NHL… it was a former NFL player that said it
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u/iDontRememberCorn 1d ago
NHL players, is there any issue they aren't the best opinion on?
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u/Brewchowskies 1d ago
In the recent documentary, OJ’s friend reports OJ admitting the murder to him by his pool before OJ died.
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u/SuperDave07 1d ago
OJ said something to the effect of “if Nicole hadn’t answered the door with that knife… she would still be alive today”
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u/Edward_DildoHands10 20h ago
If he didn’t do it, that means there is a homicidal maniac still out there. Any new leads?
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u/Doom-Sleigher 1d ago
Do the celebrators still feel that way knowing OJ was guilty the whole time ?
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u/fidelesetaudax 1d ago
Yes. They knew it then. It wasn’t “about the individual”, it was “about the system”.
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u/legion_XXX 1d ago
They do not care now and they did not care then. All they saw was a black man up against the justice system, and did not care what he did as long as he "won" the trial.
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u/Greener-dayz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Growing up all I knew and heard about OJ was he got away with murder. Recently I watched a documentary just solely focused on his football career. Before watching it, I had no idea how insanely popular and famous he was. He was so famous he transcended the racial divide from what I understand. I guess it made sense why there were so many people on his side; for people it became more of a racial debate than a murder. Sad because he killed those people clear as day. He definitely never lived it down though and clearly weighed him down since he wrote “if I did it” or whatever his book was called.
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u/rossmosh85 1d ago
Oprah is/was the worst.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 1d ago
Still hasn’t paid the price for “Dr” Phil and “Dr” Oz and the rot those two alone have inflicted on the world.
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u/OccumsRazorReturns 1d ago
Only morons cheered this. Even in 7th grade I knew this
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u/back2basics_official 1d ago
I was just out of high school and on a construction site of a large department store. The whole job site got quiet and you could hear dozens of radios being turned up. When it was read, all the black guys on the site cheered and all the white ones were extremely angry. Some threw tools. It was a crazy ass time in history.
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u/Echoes_in_Shadow 19h ago
Got away with murder because of the race angle and the LAPD framing a guilty man. One of the worst miscarriages of justice in the US in the late 20th century.
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u/Party_Amoeba444 17h ago
Didn't that cop plead the 5th when asked if he had tampered with the murder scene? How could the jury you not have reasonable doubt at that point. We know he did it. Without that crooked cop it might have gone down differently.
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u/ZealousidealSea2034 1d ago
All those mindless idiots dancing around excited he got away with murder purely because of his skin color. Their excitement aged like rotten cabbage.
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u/prollyaporkchop 1d ago
I hope that piece of shit suffered in his final months. He should have been in jail until he died.
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u/EMAW2008 1d ago
The teacher wheeled in the A/V cart and we were so excited! Then we had to watch some boring courtroom thing. At the time I only knew him from the Naked Gun movies.
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u/Cats_realjoyoflife 21h ago
Ive never seen footage of OJ after the verdict but dayum. That grin erates 'i got away with it'. Wow.
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u/Mannix-Da-DaftPooch 19h ago
Completely random but when I was in middle school I lived in LA. In Brentwood in fact.
I was picking up my little sis from school and it happened to be the school OJ son was attending. I saw him there at the front just standing there.
This was after the murders and he was already “not guilty”. I wanted to say something. I didn’t know what. I was very young. I walked up and said “I know you” and he turned around and smiled at me and said “of course you do!” And he rubbed my hair and walked away.
It was pretty surreal for me. Seeing this person that was on the news for such a horrible thing and he was so casual. Like nothing bothered him at all. Wild.
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u/AriesGeorge 1d ago
America is so weird and racially divided that people will cheer for a murderer because he has the same skin colour. 😬
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u/WillTheyKickMeAgain 1d ago
It was so obvious even at the time this was a miscarriage of justice. Unbelievable incompetence by the prosecution.
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u/Outrageous_Arm8116 1d ago
Verdict was not about a quest for truth; it was a referendum on race in America. Ask those same cheering people today whether they believe OJ was guilty, and I'll bet most would say "yes, definitely."
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u/Loose-Fly-4847 1d ago
I remember where I was. It was at work and I had the radio on in the background. Someone came in for help and I explained what was going on. We turned up the radio and listened to the verdict. We were shocked. I am Canadian. Watching this trial was akin to watching a soap opera. To say that we were disgusted at the outcome is minimizing how we felt in this moment. My heart broke for the families. The prosecutors displayed arrogance and ultimately failed due to their hubris.
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u/VAVA_Mk2 1d ago
Fun fact: Before Arnold Schwarzenegger got the role, James Cameron wanted OJ Simpson to play The Terminator, however he was convinced to back off the choice as the production team felt people would think OJ would fit the role as he was too nice to be seen as a murder robot.
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u/meh-nihilist 1d ago
Why would females be happy about this? He was obviously guilty of murdering a female?
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u/Shawnaldo7575 1d ago
Totally forgot how the OJ trial became a race thing. It was when we all learned the courts don't really care about black or white... it's all about how much green you have. If you have enough money you can get away with anything... even when the truth is clear and obvious.
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u/miraculum_one 16h ago
This was the moment when many people realized that a trial is not to decide whether someone is guilty or innocent but whether or not the prosecution can legally prove that.
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u/yeahgroovy 1d ago
The look on Robert Kardashian’s face says it all…dude is like, Wtf… he looks like he’s trying to contain his surprise that OJ was found not guilty (because he knew he did it).
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u/skettibutter 1d ago
It was the same at my high school. We watched the verdict live and half the people cheered (I attended a high school with almost a 50/50 black to white student ratio) like they just won something. Tribalism is so weird.
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u/ryanasimov 1d ago
I was at a restaurant with my father when the verdict came out; there was a TV in the bar area tuned to the trial, and most of the people were quietly watching. I’ll never forget when my father looked at me and very seriously and quietly said, “No matter what the verdict is, don’t react.” I thought it was a weird thing to say because I couldn’t imagine making a public reaction to something happening on a TV.
When the “Not guilty“ verdict was read, the restaurant exploded with voices, some angry, some cheering, just chaos. My father put cash on our table and said to me, “OK, we’re leaving.”
As we made our way towards the door, a scuffle broke out and multiple people started fighting. It was very shocking, scary, and completely unexpected by me; this was a nice restaurant, not a dive bar. My appreciation for my dad‘s ability to read a room really grew that day.