its obvious that many of the people cheering oj on the chase were just ****ing around. i doubt most of them really thought he didnt do it or liked him that much. it was a party

Well at the time they probably had no idea whether he did it or not and were really cheering for him because he was a celeb/star.

It isn't like everyone was aware of his DV past in the pre-internet era.

I don't know, people did read newspapers back in the day, i'm sure it made news in the LA Times

http://articles.philly.com/1994-06-2...sal-abuse-case

I get what you are saying, some people probably were just bored and thought it was a surreal moment so they got in on the fun of the chase. Almost like they had a real life view of a movie scene.

But I do think OJ was also a loved hero in LA at the time and people probably didn't fully grasp the "holy **** how could he do this?"

**** man i bet most people in LA didn't even know OJ lived there. They might have still loved him, but not sure he was really well known as a LA guy.

Their minds were like "RACISM!", "F THE LAPD!", "SLAVERY!"

They're not thinking about the details of the case, just looking for a chance to speak out against past history. I think you see a lot of this mentality in today's riots.

well it was fresh off of the RK beating

I thought it was weird when the prosecution said they simulated juror reaction to Marcia Clark and found that the reaction was very negative from black women. But then she leads the team anyway, with a jury with quite a few black women - and the older black lady gives her the thumbs down. Sounds like she just talked her way onto the team. So many mistakes made.

my conspiracy theory on this is that the city wanted to lose the case, to avoid another riot.

I guess you can say they played it like a parent might play a game against a little kid - handicap yourself enough intentionally so the child wins and doesn't throw a hissy fit

Considering how long the case went on, would that have even happened by the time the verdict came down?

oh **** ya there would've been another riot

aside: my jr high science teacher wheeled in a TV so we could all see the verdict live. Only thing in my school life of that sort.

I'm thankful they had that perspective but it was somewhat self-evident. My mom watched Greta Van Sustern get herself famous discussing the trial along with Roger Cossack on TV during dinner for what felt like forever. Was the entirety of the trial and speculation leading up to it. **** I got my fill of this as a kid.

Definitely some disturbance but you think would've been that bad? Like the King riots all over again?

it's not merit based when people are lookin' for a fight

the decision quelled the rumble, would've thrown gas on it otherwise

The trial was a huge deal at the time. And if you watched the thing on ESPN it showed how much of the trial became about race. It made the LAPD look really racist to a lot of people (well the LAPD looked racist to them anyway but the racist stuff in the trial would have angered them). The verdict wasn't about just OJ. It was about Mark Furhman and the LAPD and a guilty verdict would have greatly reinforced the idea to a lot of people that the racist LAPD could do whatever they want, including planting evidence and getting away with it.

When Cochran compared Furhman to Adolf Hitler you can see how far he was pushing it. And those Furhman tapes were a huge bombshell and resulted in angry protests. People didn't just ignore the trial for 9 months. They were hearing bombshells during that trial which further angered them and a guilty verdict would have infuriated them. Especially the people who just didn't want to believe that OJ was guilty. Look at how emotional some of the comments were from people who refused to believe he did it. They thought OJ was a victim and the police were the bad guys.

I was in high school living in la during the trial an I fully remember people and local police preparing for riots if guilty verdict came

The clown show robbery at Palace Station was just amazing. The guy who tipped off OJ with the mistaken info that the victim had rare personal items, taped the robbery and sold it to TMZ for $150k, and then got total immunity to testify against everyone else while avoiding prosecution is an unbelievable scum bag.

I like when he asks OJ to sign 200 books for him, OJ says I'll sign them saying it is BS.

The guy is like ok cool, whatever.

I think the longer it went, the more emotionally invested people got into it. and race just kept getting pumped into it

Really enjoyed the Ron Goldman lawnmower clips

"Once Brothers" for those interested.

Spoiler Alert:

I doubt this was covered in the doc but on NBA Open Court both Reggie Miller and Steve Smith said that Drazen never showered and it made him tougher to defend.

Just finished binge watching this thing with the girlfriend this weekend. It was excellent. We had tons of conversation about it and she had her eyes opened on race relations quite a bit.

That doc and straw one looks awesome

so according to judge in vegas (Glass), oj turned down a plea deal that woulda given him 2-3 years

I hope he gets parole in 2017, just so we can see what happens next