OJ Simpson's Dead

O.J. Simpson died today. Cancer took him. I have nothing more to say on that.

It was October, thirty years ago, when Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman were brutally slain outside her apartment, with the kids sleeping just yards away upstairs. Ron was simply in the wrong place at the wrong moment. He was returning Nicole's glasses to her. She had left them in a restaurant where he worked as a waiter, after taking her two kids to dinner following her daughter's recital. Nicole's mistake? O.J. was at the recital and she told him he couldn't come to dinner with them after. And the rage and anger built up inside him until he went over and got rid of it. And her life. And Ron's life. And his children's lives. And, and, and.

I had just founded the Women's Resource Center in New York City a few years earlier. We had been given money by the Dinkins administration to track the zip codes of the women calling into our hotline to ask for help with domestic violence. The shocking takeaway? The zip codes were heavily represented by areas like 10021, 10022, 10023. "What zip codes are those," you ask? Fifth Avenue. Central Park West. And if Nicole had lived in New York City, it might have been her on the phone. She called the police tens of times in fear for her life.

We were called on to help with information for the news agencies. I had a particularly telling conversation with one outlet and explained that O.J. had pleaded guilty to domestic violence in court, in California, where there was a mandatory sentence of attending one year of counseling in a program that was helping men overcome their out-of-control anger and rage. But when O.J. appeared in front of the judge, he got community service. And so it went.

From The New York Times, June 1994

In a letter read today by Robert Kardashian, a friend, Mr. Simpson said: "I took the heat New Year's 1989 because that's what I was supposed to do. I did not plead no contest for any other reason but to protect our privacy, and was advised it would end the press hype." Speaking about Mrs. Simpson, he said, "At times I have felt like a battered husband or boyfriend, but I loved her."

The prosecutor in the 1989 case, Deputy City Attorney Robert Pingle, said in an interview today that because of the severity of the beating, he had requested that Mr. Simpson serve 30 days in jail and undergo an intensive yearlong program for men who batter their wives. Instead, he said, Mr. Simpson was allowed to receive counseling from a psychiatrist of his choice. That arrangement was characterized by domestic violence experts today as highly unusual and ineffective.

Mr. Pingle said the judge might have been trying to accommodate Mr. Simpson's busy schedule. "It had something to do with a new television program, something for one of the networks," Mr. Pingle said. "Because of his schedule, it's possible that he asked that some of his contacts with his psychiatrist be by telephone."

Domestic violence experts, including the domestic violence coordinator for the City Attorney's office here, said today that group therapy for men who batter women was far preferable to counseling.

Mr. Simpson was also given special treatment with regard to the community service required by the court, Mr. Pingle said. He said Mr. Simpson had been supposed to report to a volunteer center. Instead, Mr. Pingle said, Mr. Simpson chose to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House.

When he found out that Mr. Simpson had selected his own community service, Mr. Pingle said, he asked the court to find him in violation of his probation. He said Mr. Simpson had appeared in court for a hearing on the matter. "I really started yelling," Mr. Pingle said. "I remember telling the judge, 'It's not up to Mr. Simpson to decide. It's all part of his job. We're not here to have him do what's part of his job.' Then O. J. Simpson decided to start talking. He was really upset, saying he doesn't know why he had to do this, that he had done more community service, more charity work, than everyone in the courthouse combined.”

And, then, just a few short years later, he murdered two innocent people. And, he was tried. In a trial that sang of what the prosecuter was wearing, and how she looked, and then the gloves that didn't fit. And, the circus around him every single day, and the beginning of the name Kardashian as a brand.

And, then OJ was acquitted.

And, then many people took to the streets to celebrate. They felt that a man of color being acquitted made up, if just a little bit, for all the black people who were unjustly accused and convicted, which, cannot be disputed.

And, now he's gone. Died surrounded by family and friends.