Speaking on George Floyd’s death, Simpson said, “The only time it’s gonna stop is when you start truly holding the perpetrators to account, start putting them in jail.”
There are many thing about 2020 for which I have been woefully unprepared. O. J. Simpson talking about alleged murders and Mark Fuhrman talking about racism were two of them.
Simpson shared the following video Friday, and if you can get past the abject class division between himself — a famous millionaire — and George Floyd — who by all accounts was neither famous nor a millionaire — it’s a solid message.
Simpson called the killing of George Floyd a “sad day” and said that rioting is based on a “fear that nothing is going to be done about it,” because “that’s been the case in the past.”
Right now is the time when I want to hear the privileged stand up for the disenfranchised, and I agree fully with everything Simpson said. But I want literally anyone else to be saying it. Yes on the message; no on the messenger.
Simpson continued in the video to talk about the Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict. That case, nearly 30 years ago, was the trial of four Los Angeles cops caught on tape brutally beating King, a young black man; the officers were acquitted, and L. A. burned for nearly a week. The case became the quintessential example of America’s parallel justice systems. It was a little icky to hear Simpson discuss those riots, as the residual racial tensions were precisely what his defense team exploited during his trial. And like the officers who beat King, Simpson too was acquitted.
