“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible”
Reinhold Niebuhr
As a rule, the murder of a young man and women, however tragic, rarely receives little more than passing notice by the media in most major metropolitan areas. However, when the prime suspect is one of America’s most respected sport’s icons, the story is suddenly transformed into a national soap opera.
Sensing the public’s “hard copy” appetite for titillating and gruesome chronicles of the famous and infamous, the media instantly pounced on O.J. Simpson story, detailing armies of journalists and camera crews to Los Angeles. Only hours behind were the hungry legions of tabloid reporters.
Unfortunately, lost amid the sensationalism and speculation have been several related stories, each a credible commentary on American society and its system of jurisprudence.
The first such story emerged as a fleet of police cruisers pursued OJ’s white Bronco through Los Angeles. During its live coverage, justifiable concern was raised that speculation, innuendo and editorial comment was creeping into what was being billed as hard reporting. Concurrently, questions were asked as to whether the media had tripped over the line between reporting and participating in the development of a story.
Meanwhile, in their ratings-driven pursuit of anyone even remotely related to the tragedy or its central participants the tabloid troops may have seriously compromised the credibility of certain key witnesses.
Finally, with the nationwide, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the probable cause hearing, questions have been raised as to the ability to seat an unbiased jury. It’s a profound conflict between the rights of free speech and the rights of an accused for which there is no simple answer.
Meantime, is the almost forgotten reality two innocent lives were brutally extinguished; one of whom has simply become “her (Nicole’s) male friend”. It is a sad commentary when victims of crime are so quickly relegated as mere footnotes when prominent persons are involved.
Other than Sharon Tate, can anyone recall who Charlie Manson’s psychos slaughtered?
A sidebar to this tragedy which has received attention is domestic violence. Rightly, people are finally recognizing no one should be permitted to brutalize their spouse with impunity.
Yet, in its efforts to focus attention on this issue, the media has swallowed, without question, every statistic fed to it by assorted advocates for the rights of victims of domestic abuse. Unfortunately, some of those figures are blatant misrepresentations, such as those claiming several thousand more women were abused during a given year than existed in the general population.
The media’s growing failure to sanitize information before reporting it does a great disservice to those affected, frequently undermining the social causes they wish to promote.
Meantime, as O.J.’s probable cause hearing began, another disturbing story filtered into the spotlight and then, just a suddenly, was quieted. Several female activists in the African-American community began a smear campaign, deriding O.J. Simpson for marrying a non-black. Their shallow calls for the preservation of black racial purity echoed the same type of divisive and repulsive rhetoric for which white supremacists groups have justifiably been reviled.
The marriage of individuals from differing religious, ethnic or racial groups represents the ultimate act of acceptance and integration. As such, they should be embraced as positive steps for mankind toward its long sought goals of human equality and universal brotherhood.
Within the past week still another story has surfaced underscoring the fragile nature of the trust relationship between blacks and whites and America. Recent polls indicate a deep chasm in perceptions about the fairness of our American justice system in general, and the O.J. Simpson case in particular.
While more than two-thirds of whites tend to believe O.J. is probably guilty, only a quarter of blacks agree. In fact, many African-Americans believe Simpson not only didn’t kill his wife, but has been framed.
This long ignored discrepancy between the way blacks and whites view the police and courts evolves from historic racial bias and, frequently, personal experience. This sad commentary on U.S. race relations is supported by a Gallup poll in which 74% of blacks, but only 35% of whites, believe the justice system treats blacks more harshly than whites.
If these polls reflect reality, it further jeopardizes Simpson’s ability to receive a fair trial by a jury of his peers … while at the same time leaving the community with a sense all the evidence presented was fully reviewed and impartially considered, absent any consideration of the race of either the accused or the victims.
Despite the outcome of the probable cause hearing, most Americans, black and white, continue to hope O.J. will be able to establish his innocence. However, whether innocent of guilty, his trial, in of itself, will have but minimal effect on our lives.
Yet, the final resolution of these and other related matters which have emanated from O.J.’s tragic saga will speak volumes about the future of American society, the credibility of its system of justice and the prospects for blacks and whites “to learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
