OJ Simpson freeway chase, 1994

On June 17, 1994 celebrity and NFL player OJ Simpson had failed turn himself in to the LAPD in connection with the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

He was spotted on the 5 Freeway in the back seat of his friend Al Cowlings’ Ford Bronco, sobbing and holding a .357 revolver to Cowlings’ head as he drove.

Simpson’s former football coach John McKay pleaded on the radio for Simpson to surrender. While watching the events unfold, Tom Lange realized he had Simpson’s cell phone number and managed to connect to him. Eventually Simpson was talked into surrendering.

The chase ended at 8:00 pm at his Brentwood estate, where 27 SWAT officers awaited. After remaining in the Bronco for about 45 minutes, Simpson exited and went inside for about an hour; a police spokesman stated that he spoke to his mother and drank a glass of orange juice.

Inside the Bronco, police found $8,000 in cash, a change of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a United States passport, family pictures, and a disguise kit with a fake goatee and mustache.

Photo and info source.

Wikipedia.

Eggyhead,

The number of police cars they decided to scramble for that chase is absolutely absurd in retrospect. They must have done that for show.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I’m sure people will downvote me for this, but…

I remember my parents glued to the TV at the time and I, at 16, said, “who gives a shit? It’s just a football player.” And then there was the trial and my parents watched it every day and laughed at the Dancing Judge Itos on Leno and I said, “who gives a shit? It’s just a football player.” I mean yes, it’s a miscarriage of justice that he got let off when he was so obviously guilty, but that’s what happens when you can afford really expensive lawyers.

I have never understood why people are so obsessed with it. The only time I ever even think of it is when someone claims that “X is innocent because the court found him innocent” and I ask the person if that means OJ is innocent.

nepenthes,
@nepenthes@lemmy.world avatar

From the BBC (2016):

The OJ Simpson murder case carried serious implications for a number of major issues: race relations, police treatment of African-Americans, domestic violence, and the effects of money on the justice system.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I’d like to read the whole thing, because I would say the first two were more brought into the American consciousness by the L.A. riots. The other two- I can see domestic violence and I already mentioned the effects of money on the justice system.

In fact, I would say the fact that he was able to buy his way out of it says very little about the plight of the average black person in the justice system.

Yewb,

I lived in a mostly black neighborhood during this time, this was being looked at as Rodney king 2.0 and if he was guilty there were going to be riots, kinda hard to conceptionilize what it was like during that time period.

GrundlButter,

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/d5c306af-bfe1-4355-968e-4daca40397f5.jpeg

big_slap,

wow, I did not know about the fake disguise… totally something an innocent person would do

iknowitwheniseeit,

My ex-wife and I bonded at a party together when this came on TV and we both thought OJ was a basketball player.

downhomechunk,
@downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

Holy crap. I thought he was driving the car. I didn’t realize he was a passenger holding a gun to the driver’s head.

streetfestival,
@streetfestival@lemmy.ca avatar

How does this rank in terms of (in)famous highway chases from police? I’m asking because I’ve seen this scenario in the Simpsons, I think, and other fictional shows and I am wondering how much of a reference to OJ these are

ramble81,

Part of the reason they don’t sell new Broncos in white. I just pulled that out of my ass, but realized I haven’t seen a new white Bronco yet.

SatanicNotMessianic,

Unless Trump tries to run for it in his limo, I think it’s pretty safe to assume the OJ chase in the Blanco Bronco will remain the most famous of all time.

Subverb, (edited )

I was 30 when this went down. It’s hard to overstate what an impact the events and subsequent trials had on the American phyche at the time.

It had everything. Murder, California, cars, celebrities, sports figures, wealth, lawyers, drama galore for months years to come.

streetfestival,
@streetfestival@lemmy.ca avatar

Great points! Also, “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”. That kind of reducing an issue to a single point and putting a catchy spin on it seems rampant in political messaging and advertising these days

setsneedtofeed,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

In the 1860s, the practice of lying, misrepresenting, and focusing on catchy and lurid topics was known as “yellow journalism.”

The phrase was later shortened to “journalism.”

streetfestival,
@streetfestival@lemmy.ca avatar

I believe that’s factually incorrect. “Yellow journalism” became a known term circa the mid-1890s (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism#Etymology…). Meanwhile “journalism” has essentially meant what term means today from an earlier time and has a different etymology:

journalism (n.) “business of writing, editing, or publishing a newspaper or public journal,” 1821, regarded at first as a French word in English, from French journalisme (1781), from journal “daily publication” (see journal); compare journalist. (www.etymonline.com/word/journalism).

setsneedtofeed,
@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world avatar

I was borrowing a joke from “America, The Book.”

espentan,

All that ruckus and he turned out to be completely innocent! /s

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • historyporn@lemmy.world
  • ethstaker
  • DreamBathrooms
  • normalnudes
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • GTA5RPClips
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • osvaldo12
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • everett
  • megavids
  • Durango
  • Leos
  • cubers
  • mdbf
  • khanakhh
  • tester
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • tacticalgear
  • provamag3
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •