Tags:


Simpson sentenced
December 5, 2008 11:07 AM   Subscribe

O.J. Simpson has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for armed robbery. Simpson will remain in custody if he appeals. He may be eligible for parole in six years. An L.A. Times timeline of Simpson's legal history.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing (106 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

 
Wow, 16 years, imagine what he would have received if he killed somebody.
posted by lee at 11:08 AM on December 5, 2008 [11 favorites]


Justice is not served when one is sentenced for previous crimes.
posted by dawson at 11:09 AM on December 5, 2008 [11 favorites]


The course of history is long, but it favours justice.
posted by Deep Dish at 11:10 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Well, good thing he was sentenced for current crimes then?
posted by cavalier at 11:11 AM on December 5, 2008 [9 favorites]


OJ didn't do it.
posted by monospace at 11:12 AM on December 5, 2008


Is this going to affect his new book: "If I Did It: How I Would Have Robbed Two Sports Memorabilia Dealers at Gunpoint"?
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:14 AM on December 5, 2008 [19 favorites]


... or sentenced on the suspicion of previous crimes.
posted by Auden at 11:16 AM on December 5, 2008


This is going to put a serious kink in his ongoing efforts to find the real killers.
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:16 AM on December 5, 2008 [16 favorites]


NORDBERG, NNNOOOOOooooooo!!!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:17 AM on December 5, 2008 [8 favorites]


At least this opens up some tee times.
posted by Dennis Murphy at 11:18 AM on December 5, 2008 [6 favorites]


clearly, he's narrowed down the list of suspects to those who are in the nevada prison system
posted by pyramid termite at 11:19 AM on December 5, 2008 [14 favorites]


LATimes: ...his defense lawyers are asking Judge Glass that the former football player be given the minimum six-year sentence, whereas the Division of Parole and Probation has recommended a sentence of at least 18 years. The law even allows Glass to give Simpson a life sentence.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:20 AM on December 5, 2008


O.J. Killed/Stole The Precious Thing.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:20 AM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


The weed of crime bears bitter fruit.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:24 AM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


So the "If it's his own shit, you must aquit" line didn't work, huh?
posted by Floydd at 11:24 AM on December 5, 2008 [18 favorites]


Justice is not served when one is sentenced for previous crimes.

Technically all crimes are previous crimes. Until we can predict the future like in Minority Report.

But I get your meaning but I don't think that is what happened. He DID commit this particular crime, after all.

It was his celebrity and involvement in a notorious previous case that kept the media spot light on him.
posted by tkchrist at 11:25 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


The Juice is no longer loose.

Excuse me while I drive my white Ford Bronco, very slowly.
posted by hellojed at 11:26 AM on December 5, 2008


friday shit post?
posted by yonation at 11:26 AM on December 5, 2008


Quick, somebody ask a black person how they feel about it!
posted by klangklangston at 11:29 AM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


friday shit post?

C'mon. Where is your sense of nostalgia?

I miss the 90's. The present is all scary and shit.

How is the Long Island Lolita doing these days? Was Kurt Cobain murdered? What is Monica Lewinski up to anyway?
posted by tkchrist at 11:31 AM on December 5, 2008 [6 favorites]


Wow, 16 years, imagine what he would have received if he killed somebody.

if he did it.
posted by Artw at 11:31 AM on December 5, 2008


So wait, wait ....when he found out that these guys planned to sell some OJ memorabilia, he planned and executed a robbery in order to steal back memorabilia that he had originally stashed with these guys in an attempt to avoid the memorabilia from being confiscated to pay the settlement due the families who sued him in the civil murder trial?
posted by R. Mutt at 11:33 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


How is the Long Island Lolita doing these days?

You don't want to know.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:34 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Or in politics.... its not the crime but the coverup.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:34 AM on December 5, 2008


Boy George just got convicted for chaining up prostitutes – coincidence?
posted by Artw at 11:36 AM on December 5, 2008


I'm proud of O.J.. Thirteen years ago, he promised to bring the Real Killers to justice, and now, he has!

credit to billyfleetwood
posted by mattdidthat at 11:37 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


...and bababooey to y'all.
posted by punkfloyd at 11:38 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


I remember when I was about ten or so and the whole OJ trial was going on.
I was standing in line with my dad at the checkout at the IGA when I pointed at a tabloid and asked "Hey dad, who's OJ?"

Everyone laughed, but I grew up without a TV, so I really didn't know.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:41 AM on December 5, 2008


I worked at a movie theater in Westwood that OJ frequented. He would call first to say he was coming, anf the manager would go around to all the employees and say "OJ is seeing a movie here today. Don't treat him differently than any other patron, and don't bring up the murders."

The idea of bringing up the murders when OJ is waiting to see Kazam is irresistable, but I never did. Because I didn't want him to cut my head off with a knife.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:41 AM on December 5, 2008 [25 favorites]


I miss the 90's. The present is all scary and shit.

Yeah, I'm going home and firing up Marathon:Infinity while sipping the last of my Zima, Ska will be blaring in the background.

I don't know if I can get more 90's than that.
posted by hellojed at 11:45 AM on December 5, 2008 [4 favorites]


Boy George just got convicted for chaining up prostitutes – coincidence?

There's the name of a Culture Club song I was about to repeat here, but that would be a cheap way to get laughs. I'll let you guys think it over.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:47 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


""OJ is seeing a movie here today. Don't treat him differently than any other patron, and don't bring up the murders.""

Your manager obviously didn't want anyone to blow his cover while he was looking for the real killers at a matinee of Toy Story 2.
posted by klangklangston at 11:50 AM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


I assume he's going to be kept in solitary and not thrown into the wonderful circus of the general prison population? (Although in my mind I keep seeing him being "humbled" in some way by Oz's Vern Schillinger and that thought pleases me.)
posted by MasonDixon at 11:50 AM on December 5, 2008


You Know I'm Not Crazy?
Take Control?
Love Twist?
I'm Afraid of Me?
White Boys Can't Control It?
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

They all work!
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:51 AM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


Karma Chameleon?
posted by tkchrist at 11:53 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


I don't know if I can get more 90's than that.

Well, if you're wearing a flannel shirt and Doc Martens, you've 'bout done it.
posted by grubi at 11:53 AM on December 5, 2008


How is the Long Island Lolita doing these days? Was Kurt Cobain murdered? What is Monica Lewinski up to anyway?

Embroiled in a sex-tape scandal. Still yes. Recently got her masters from the London School of Economics.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:53 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


"Boy Boy (I'm the Boy)"? "Mistake No. 3"?

Ska will be blaring in the background. I don't know if I can get more 90's than that.

Ska-core, surely?
posted by kirkaracha at 11:58 AM on December 5, 2008


sipping the last of my Zima

I was at an antiques store last weekend and saw a Zima neon sign. I always wondered what would happen to the 90s, and apparently it's been consigned to a dusty corner of a junk pile in an antiques store.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:58 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


The LA Times timeline doesn't start far enough back. O.J. started getting off easy when he was still a teenager because of his athletic ability.

... Raised in the tough Potrero Hill district of San Francisco, he had long since buffed his rough edges, a process that began when no less a hero than Willie Mays had stepped in to interrupt Simpson's troubled young life. Arrested for robbing a liquor store, the 14-year-old Simpson spent a weekend in juvenile hall and was greeted upon his release by the San Francisco Giant superstar, who persuaded the youth not to waste his already apparent talent. Remade by athletic success at Galileo High, City College of San Francisco, Southern Cal and then the NFL, Simpson was so self-effacing and eager to please that he was deemed unthreatening to whites and thus became the first black athlete to be embraced as an endorser of products not marketed solely to blacks. Exposed to the good life, he belonged to the best country clubs and moved in the best social circles. He lived a seemingly lucky life. ...
posted by Carol Anne at 12:02 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Ska will be blaring in the background. I don't know if I can get more 90's than that.

Not ska. Swing music.
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:05 PM on December 5, 2008 [7 favorites]


Justice is not served when one is sentenced for previous crimes.

Every crime you've committed was previous. /mitch hedberg
posted by Dennis Murphy at 12:06 PM on December 5, 2008


I'm just glad that this time around I didn't have to hear nonstop blather about the idiotic minutiae of his time in court. I was driven nuts and we had neither television nor newspapers at my house (more because of borderline poverty than any sort of high-flown aesthetics). I can't imagine what it must have been like for someone who actually watched TV back then.
posted by Scattercat at 12:06 PM on December 5, 2008


I'll Tumble 4 ya?
Crime Time?
The Crying Game?
posted by Sailormom at 12:11 PM on December 5, 2008


Too bad they already remade The Longest Yard.
posted by rocket88 at 12:15 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


A Chesterton man suspected in a string of business burglaries committed last year in Northwest Indiana—including a rash of them in Downtown Chesterton in the summer and fall of 2007—has been sentenced to eight years in the Department of Corrections (DOC), after pleading guilty to two counts of burglary.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 12:16 PM on December 5, 2008


The tough Potrero Hill district of SF? I guess they mean towards the projects, cos the area near Chez Papa... not so tough these days
posted by jcruelty at 12:16 PM on December 5, 2008


Well, if you're wearing a flannel shirt and Doc Martens, you've 'bout done it.

I realized the other day that while I do a pretty good job of hiding it*, my idea of what "cool" is was burned into my head in 1992, when I was fifteen. Specifically, "cool" is the style the Beastie Boys employed during the Check Your Head era. Those three guys at that moment in time will always be impossibly cool to me. And the farther away in time that moment becomes, to more and more I'm like a mulleted fortysomething dude in a Camero blaring "Godzilla."

And I'm learning to be okay with that.

*not that I lie about it or anything. I'm just not walking around in gigantic jeans and a XXXL bowling shirt anymore.
posted by Bookhouse at 12:17 PM on December 5, 2008 [7 favorites]


his defense lawyers are asking Judge Glass that the former football player be given the minimum six-year sentence

Lawyer: Judge, we ask that you give our client, the former football player, the minimum six-year sentence.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:17 PM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


I bet OJ still plays football. He just now ploays it with stolen equipment and severed heads.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:20 PM on December 5, 2008


D'oh!
posted by JHarris at 12:23 PM on December 5, 2008


was it "I'm Going To Chain You Up Like A Norwegian Manwhore?"
???
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:25 PM on December 5, 2008 [5 favorites]


I was completely infuriated by this earlier today. Not the sentencing itself, but the reaction to it: by nature of the work I do, there are a lot of TVs hung around the office, their omnipresence ensures that people rarely actually look at them unless something exciting is happening. I'm sitting at my desk and I notice about five people gathered under one of them, a glance in the other direction reveals almost fifteen staring with rapt fascination at another.

I started getting worried, I mean, with the recent attacks I figured it must be something really terrible to draw such an audience. I walk over, dreading what horrible news I would see, and that's when I realize that it's about fucking OJ Simpson.

Are you kidding me? No one even glanced at the TVs when the bombs were going off last week, but OJ Who Gives A Fuck Simpson still manages to draw a huge crowd?

Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move? I mean, I get the weirdness that after his big trial that he'd be dumb enough to be put in a situation where he was accused of another crime, but beyond that, why does he still command such interest?

I don't know. I just know for some reason, that it irritated me to no end.
posted by quin at 12:25 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


was it "I'm Going To Chain You Up Like A Norwegian Manwhore?"
???

Wait nevermind that was Dead or Alive. I'm stumped!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:29 PM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


In response to the OJ verdict, President-Elect Obama will be addressing the nation tonight at 8 PM EST on all the major news outlets, including Larry King.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:30 PM on December 5, 2008


Those three guys [beastie boys!] at that moment in time will always be impossibly cool to me.

That made me sad. I so am sorry that happened to you.
posted by milarepa at 12:30 PM on December 5, 2008 [6 favorites]


It really bothers me that quin paid attention to those people paying attention to OJ. There are so many better things in the world to be peeved about--and this is what commands his interest? Disgusting.
posted by found missing at 12:31 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


The 15 or 16 year figure is misleading.

OJ is parole eligable after 9 years or so.

To do that, he has to make his first parole board for each of the consecutive counts. There are 4 consecutive counts. Each time he is eligable for parole on 1 of those counts he has to appear before the parole board and get them to agree to parole him on that count before he starts serving the next consecutive sentence. Putting a number on the maximum possible time he could spend in custody is difficult because of the way "good time" credits are awarded in the prisons here. Personally, I would be shocked if he spent more than 15 years in, and I think he'll make parole after about 10 years.

It gets even more complicated if any of the counts are overturned on appeal (which the kidnapping may well be).
posted by falconred at 12:32 PM on December 5, 2008


I'm sick and tired of people who pay attention to when other people pay attention to what other people are paying attention to. Shame on you, found missing.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:34 PM on December 5, 2008


They all work!

...

I'm Afraid of Me
Victims
It's a Miracle

Yeah, I think we definitely know who's snagging the soundtrack for the movie.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:37 PM on December 5, 2008


Bookhouse - you are right, the rest of the world is wrong.
posted by Artw at 12:39 PM on December 5, 2008


by nature of the work I do, there are a lot of TVs hung around the office
It really bothers me that quin paid attention to those people paying attention to OJ.

It bothers me that quin refers to his local sports bar as the office.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:39 PM on December 5, 2008 [5 favorites]


The 15 or 16 year figure is misleading.

OJ is parole eligable after 9 years or so.

Six years, according to Bloomberg, which is why I put it in the FPP itself. And I don't understand how it's "misleading" - every sentence carries with it the possibility (or not) for parole, not to mention early release for good behavior or overcrowding. 16 years was his sentence; that's not an assertion that he will be in prison for 16 years.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:39 PM on December 5, 2008


It bothers me that quin refers to his local sports bar as the office.

Detective Columbo is on the case. Oh wait, that's from the 80s.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:43 PM on December 5, 2008


Well, if you're wearing a flannel shirt and Doc Martens, you've 'bout done it.

I almost bought this a while back. I think if I wore a flannel shirt over that, I'd be gold. If I throw in the old Powerbook 540c I have lying around, I've got myself a Halloween costume.
posted by hellojed at 12:49 PM on December 5, 2008


"Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move? I mean, I get the weirdness that after his big trial that he'd be dumb enough to be put in a situation where he was accused of another crime, but beyond that, why does he still command such interest?"

If they're my age, it's because they probably watched the verdict the first time around in high school. We even had a TV in the lunch room for it.
posted by klangklangston at 1:08 PM on December 5, 2008


Charged with the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, a former professional football player and actor, once acquitted, vows not to rest until he finds the real killers. When all his clues lead to men already behind bars, he realizes his only choice is to get himself arrested for armed robbery and thrown in prison in order to clear his name and find the truth.

Prison Break:Season Five

Starring O.J. Simpson

You're welcome, Fox.

(Except from what I hear, this plot is too realistic for the comedy that is now Prison Break.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:10 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


hellojed (great nick btw....*I* get it, my copy I had Doug sign) We have that Power Computing poster (the one that says Lets Kick Intels Ass) in the closet at the shop where I work.

and Bookman you totally described what in my closet right now. I was so excited when I found a pair of US made Chuck Taylors at the Thrift Store.
posted by ShawnString at 1:22 PM on December 5, 2008


That Hertz.
posted by not_on_display at 1:47 PM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


The tough Potrero Hill district of SF? I guess they mean towards the projects, cos the area near Chez Papa... not so tough these days posted by jcruelty

O.J. is 61 years old. Potrero Hill was a blue-collar neighborhood back then.
posted by Carol Anne at 1:51 PM on December 5, 2008


16 fucking years for robbery? Sickening.
posted by autodidact at 2:03 PM on December 5, 2008


Are you kidding me? No one even glanced at the TVs when the bombs were going off last week, but OJ Who Gives A Fuck Simpson still manages to draw a huge crowd?

Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move? I mean, I get the weirdness that after his big trial that he'd be dumb enough to be put in a situation where he was accused of another crime, but beyond that, why does he still command such interest?

I don't know. I just know for some reason, that it irritated me to no end.

It's not like the guy's Paris Hilton -- he's one of the biggest athlete/celebrities of his era and an unconvicted double-murderer of the most gruesome sort, who is now reaping the delayed rewards of a lifetime of criminal misdeeds. How is that not a reasonable thing for people to be interested in? And before you return to your point about Mumbai, I have to assume you probably weren't chastising the people who were paying attention to the terrorist attacks for not instead paying attention to the election riots in Nigeria, which left twice as many dead, right? I don't mean to jump on you -- it just doesn't hurt to remember that "importance" is not an absolute, inherent value.
posted by Amanojaku at 2:03 PM on December 5, 2008 [7 favorites]


How will Hollwood recover, that's what I'd like to know.
posted by swift at 2:10 PM on December 5, 2008


Is there anything funnier than prison rape?
posted by found missing at 2:17 PM on December 5, 2008


And I don't understand how it's "misleading" - every sentence carries with it the possibility (or not) for parole

Sorry, I was specifically taking issue with some major media outlets (MSNBC, CNN) who were originally reported he was sentenced to "at least" 15 years, etc. And while it is called the "possibility" of parole, it is a very rare case when someone does not get paroled before the end of their sentence. Plus with good time credits it is also very rare for someone to actually serve the full upper end of their sentence.
posted by falconred at 2:19 PM on December 5, 2008


I can't imagine his previous trial didn't color the outcome of this one. Did he really think that planning this armed robbery was such a good idea?
posted by dunkadunc at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2008


Sorry, I was specifically taking issue with some major media outlets (MSNBC, CNN) who were originally reported he was sentenced to "at least" 15 years, etc.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I just saw a headline at MSNBC saying "OJ Could Get Up to 22 Years". I'm hoping CNN or Fox will raise the ante to "OJ Could Be Keelhauled" or "OJ Must Battle the Kraken".
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:28 PM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]


In Hunter S. Thompson's "The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy, O.J. shows up hawking Chevrolets at a car show. When I read it now, I think about the futures waiting for both men. I'm morbid that way.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:30 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


16 fucking years for robbery? Sickening.

Armed robbery and kidnapping, bro.
posted by xmutex at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Is there anything funnier than prison rape?

Hans Reiser jokes?
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2008


to more and more I'm like a mulleted fortysomething dude in a Camero blaring "Godzilla."

Wait a minute . . . this isn't cool?

aw, shit.

*crestfallen look on j_p's face*
posted by jason's_planet at 2:45 PM on December 5, 2008


jason's_planet - As far as I can tell, if you get an hour or two outside of any US city it's still the 1980s there, so you might be in luck.
posted by Artw at 2:57 PM on December 5, 2008


Time to dust off my "Orange Jumpsuit" pun.
posted by psmealey at 3:07 PM on December 5, 2008


To do that, he has to make his first parole board for each of the consecutive counts.

Rehabilitated? To me that's just a made up word.
posted by maxwelton at 3:18 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oh, no, there goes Tokyo...
posted by fixedgear at 3:18 PM on December 5, 2008


NPR reported tonight that it will be at least 9 years before OJ is eligible for parole.
posted by mediareport at 3:28 PM on December 5, 2008


Perhaps the weapon that killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman was a Buck knife, and was never recovered due to its effective concealment in OJ's rectum.
posted by Tube at 4:04 PM on December 5, 2008


I really could not have predicted that I would come into an O.J. Simpson thread and find a Marathon: Infinity reference.
posted by Mikey-San at 4:18 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


Embroiled in a sex-tape scandal. Still yes. Recently got her masters from the London School of Economics.

Ah, sort of a Renaissance woman, then.
posted by krinklyfig at 4:47 PM on December 5, 2008 


Al Capone           11 years
OJ Simpson          16 years
Bernhard Goetz       1 year
George Bush          0 years

posted by king walnut at 4:47 PM on December 5, 2008 [4 favorites]


So far, king walnut, so far.
posted by krinklyfig at 4:49 PM on December 5, 2008


Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move?

The other day, I found my copy of The Book Of Lists which was published in the mid-70's. It had a list of "The Heroes Of Young America" according to a poll conducted by some magazine. Guess who was #1? OJ Simpson. There's also an old episode of Godd Times I watched a rerun of a few months back where JJ and Thelma are arguing the merits of male versus female celebrities. Thelma yells the name sof some stars of the day, and in response, JJ just keeps bellowing "OJ Simpson!"

That's how famous this guy was. And twenty-odd years later, he gets accused of murdering two people. That's a pretty impressive fall from grace. And people do like celebrity falls from grace. There had been minor celbrities accused and convicted of murder before (Spade Cooley, for instance, or Fatty Arbuckle) and God knows there'd been plenty of celebrity scandal, but nobody had ever faller so far from such a height before. The only thing remotely close would be Michael Jackson troubles. To top the OJ saga, we'd have to find out that Brad and Angelina are out serial killing homeless people with hatchets or something.
posted by jonmc at 4:59 PM on December 5, 2008


Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move?

Pretty sure he's one of the first- if not the first - black celebrity to be featured in a national ad campaign - Avis Rent-A-Car, running through an airport, leaping suitcases. About a million years before Michael Jordan.
posted by fixedgear at 5:17 PM on December 5, 2008


Pretty sure he's one of the first- if not the first - black celebrity to be featured in a national ad campaign - Avis Rent-A-Car, running through an airport, leaping suitcases.

IIRC, in one of those spots he was actually 'flying' through the airport. When I first heard about the chase, that was the first mental picture that popped into my head.
posted by jonmc at 5:21 PM on December 5, 2008


Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move?

I quote James Ellroy:

This is one gigantic L.A.-set Russian novel that exceeds the most extreme visions of Los Angeles as a bottomless black hole of depravity. This is a bottomless meditation on celebrity that will not eclipse until someone more famous than O.J. Simpson is accused of murdering two people sexier than Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a considerably more outre manner. This is a story told in a thousand voices -- one of those microcosmic, kaleidoscopic, multi-viewpoint jobs that sum up a time and place with interlocking subplots that go on forever.
posted by Bookhouse at 6:12 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


Don't treat him differently than any other patron, and don't bring up the murders.

For me, these are mutually exclusive instructions.
posted by DU at 6:14 PM on December 5, 2008


Yeah, but in OJ's defense, only one of those crimes was tried during the lifespan of Court TV. That's just good PR, if you ask me.

(NOT OJ-IST)
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 6:23 PM on December 5, 2008


back in june, 1994, i'd been out all day showing some relatives the sights around town. i came home, and the future ex was watching 'the chase' on television.

'what's this?' i asked.

'oj simpson,' he said, and dutifully started to explain why he was watching a white ford bronco creep along followed by a gazillion police cars.

'no, really. what is this?' i asked again. he repeated.

'oj?' i asked. 'OJ????'

it was as unthinkable to me that oj simpson could have hurt a fly as to find out that the pope had just raped the queen. for the younger set: to find out that mr. rodgers gave mr. mcfeely his nickname based on antics back in the sweater room.

oj WAS a hero. he was an outstanding athlete, the guy who leaped through airports, and just a heck of a nice guy. or so most of america thought. it wasn't 24 hours after the initial shock set in that i realized that people aren't always what you think they are.

it's a pity. really. the man had everything--EVERYTHING--going for him. whatever other sins he might have committed, perhaps the biggest one is shattering the trust several hundred million people.
posted by msconduct at 6:29 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


whatever other sins he might have committed, perhaps the biggest one is shattering the trust several hundred million people.

Not really, no. I had zero expectations for him; he wasn't even on my radar screen. Another has-been athlete doing crappy color commentary at that point in time.
posted by fixedgear at 7:46 PM on December 5, 2008


Payback, motherfucker, she is a righteous bitch.

What that dude did, without question did, was just pure evil.
posted by fourcheesemac at 8:00 PM on December 5, 2008


>>Is there anything funnier than prison rape?

>Hans Reiser jokes?

Tail Packing.
posted by ryanrs at 9:08 PM on December 5, 2008 [2 favorites]


whatever other sins he might have committed, perhaps the biggest one is shattering the trust several hundred million people.

Pissing on the emotions and trust of a very large group is still not on the same level as murdering two people.

"It ain't the same fuckin' ballpark. It ain't the same league. It ain't even the same fuckin' sport."
posted by Mikey-San at 9:42 PM on December 5, 2008


Why is this guy still newsworthy? Why are so many riveted by his every move?

He's a famous murderer who (uniquely?) was the former before becoming the latter.
posted by scheptech at 9:54 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


The idea of bringing up the murders when OJ is waiting to see Kazam is irresistable, but I never did. Because I didn't want him to cut my head off with a knife.

No jury would convict OJ if he'd killed someone who charged him $6 to see Kazzaam.
posted by swell at 10:59 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


I remember watching the OJ verdict when I was in college. I read all of Plato's Republic twice, Milton's Paradise Lost three times, every play by Shakespeare (I'll admit, I'm pretentious that way).

This is probably my third or fourth most vivid memory from university.
posted by bardic at 1:23 AM on December 6, 2008


Quick, somebody ask a black person how they feel about it!

He knew what he was doing. I understand how he felt about the items he lost and why he would react that way, but...what can I say? Law is law. Maybe now he can work on his temper.

But personally? I don't care. I feel sorry for his kids, but I just don't care about anything else related to OJ. I don't care about much of anything these days.
posted by deusdiabolus at 2:23 AM on December 6, 2008


« Older Why should you risk your own life to save another ...  |  This is your Grand Central Sta... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments