Reply #150: Whites did not hate oj. Not for a long time. They loved him all over the Westside of L.A. [View All]

where he was embraced at the nearly-lily white Riviera Country Club, and elegant Westside restaurants where a minimum dinner for two is at least 100 dollars not counting the fine wine. It could, I suppose, be argued that it was oj simpson who turned HIS back on his own. He only wanted to hobknob with whites. He frequented mainly upper-income white venues (shops, country clubs, restaurants, executive suites, etc.) and never hung around anywhere close to South L.A. He built his movie career in mainly anglo productions with majority white casting. And he was idolized by the local LAPD. They loved coming over to his house and having their pictures taken with him. They'd had a number of opportunities to arrest him for stalking and threatening and terrorizing Nicole, and beating her, and they repeatedly refused to pursue any of it. They ROUTINELY let him off with a warning. REPEATEDLY. They gave him a break, EVERY TIME. When he'd beaten her while they lived on Rockingham Avenue, when he broke down her doors, roaring and terrorizing her and she called 911, when they had photos of her documenting how he'd beaten and abused and bruised her - they NEVER pushed it. EVER. Anyone who was predisposed toward racism in his case would NEVER have cut him any slack with these repeated offenses. However, the local LAPD CONSISTENTLY did. At most, they gave him a verbal warning and went away. As a matter of fact, it was argued at the time that he did NOT face a jury of his peers during the criminal trial, because he never lived with or associated with the kind of folks (including the non African-Americans) on that jury. The middle class and lower-middle class members of that jury weren't his peers in ANY shape or form. A more true and realistic "jury of his peers" would have been a lot of anglo actors and other celebs, directors, producers, publicists, agents, talent managers and other industry people, team owners, big-name advertisers, sports equipment manufacturers, and CEOs, plus a few superstar athletes, both black AND white. The people he hung with, routinely, and socialized with and played golf with and worked with, were, in the VAST majority, affluent caucasian. And his house on Rockingham Avenue was in one of the ritziest neighborhoods in Los Angeles - in some cases moreso than even Bel-Air and Beverly Hills. And his neighbors were - you guessed it - white and hugely wealthy. One of his neighbors was TV producer David E. Kelley and his wife Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Ovitz, who at the time was virtually the emperor of Hollywood as the chief of Creative Artists Agency - the top agency in town whose talent roster was absolutely five-star (the Tom Cruises and Demi Moores and other stars of that ilk).

Furthermore, one of the jurors overheard in the lunchroom by several of my former colleagues had been heard to say "it's PAYBACK time!" - especially following the questioning of Mark Fuhrman about a salacious and provocative script he was working on as a consultant, which if I recall correctly, involved a character who was a racist cop.

Now, having said that, you can go ahead and call me a racist if you feel you need to. You would be wrong, of course. I lived in that area and saw her frequently around the neighborhood in her white L84AD8 licence-plated sports car. Her kids, when at Paul Revere Junior High, were friends with lots of kids whose families I knew. EVERYONE whispered about how he beat her all the time. And how he always got off, WITH THE COPS, with nary a hand-slap. All the women talked about it.

There was a MOUNTAIN of evidence. There were several MOUNTAIN RANGES of evidence. But there was enough to create a "reasonable doubt" bail-out for him and they jumped at it. So he beat the rap. But that jury found him NOT GUILTY. Which is NOT the same as "innocent."