Today, in 1995, the murder trial of OJ Simpson started. Regardless of what you think of OJ or the results, there were several things that I always thought were completely overlooked.
The first is that most people considered this an issue of race. But it was more importantly an issue of class. If OJ had been a bus driver, probably using a public defender, he would be in a jail cell today, and depending on the state may be sitting on death row since his victim was a white woman. In other words, he received the trail he did, and his acquittal, because he had the financial wherewithal to hire a great legal team, and this is true whether he is innocent or guilty. Racism is our country is often used to cover up, mask, and dilute class issues. By keeping people who have common interests and concerns apart because of racial issues, those at the top of the economic and power structures can continue to get away with things they would not be able to if blacks, whites and Hispanics united together on issues of common concern.
The second piece is also somewhat related to the first. A friend of my parents worked in the forensics lab for the LAPD at the time of the trial. For several weeks everyone in the lab, except for one, was doing nothing except working on the OJ case. Let me say that again, only one person was doing the forensics work for the entire city of LA while everyone else worked on just one case. Doesn't that seem like an enormous waste of resources? What about those other cases? Weren't those crimes just as important? The entire thing was just another example that our priorities are totally out of alignment.
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