Where were you, when the OJ Simpson murder trial verdict was read?

I was in seventh grade. The teachers either played it on the radio in every classroom for the students, or the principal broadcast it over the PA system (lol), I can't remember. All the black kids cheered. The white kids, not so much.

In a puddle.

I was at home, on the phone with my boyfriend (an attorney). He was not surprised at all, I was stunned.

Living in the back room of an apartment on South Elm Street in Beverly Hills. The apartment was owned by a one Eileen Diamond Schultz. I was addicted to meth at the time. I was 25 years old.

I was between benders. I was excited to hear the verdict, so I turned on the TV at the appointed time. I sat nervously listening. As soon as I heard the phrase "Not Guilty" for the second time, I disgustedly turned off the TV. I didn't want to hear any analysis, or anyone discuss it.

On 9/11 I actually had a similar reaction. While many were glued to their televisions, I turned on my TV for 10 seconds to see the smoke coming out of the WTC, and quickly turned it off. I didn't need to hear anything about it. I was way too sad.

At work. My coworkers acted like it was my fault because I'm a liberal.

Funny, I can't remember. I remember when Diana died, and JFK, Jr, and many others, but I can't remember when OJ's verdict was read. I think I was burned out on watching the trial by that time. Although I distinctly remember the glove debacle, and knew it was a stupid, stupid move. Anybody with any sense would know that leather shrinks when wet (with blood) then dries. I think I gave up at that point.

In college, in the main building's coffee area. A whole crowd of us gathered around a large screen TV. All the black students were wearing empty orange juice (OJ) plastic bottles around their necks (for support). They cheered loudly. The white students were kind of bummed. I could have given two shits less, I was just glad it was finally over.

Fast forward a few years later (1998), my friend I were walking down Ventura Blvd looking at tattoos in a window shop display. This must have been around 11pm. Guess who walks up to us and just stares us down... OJ Simpson. It was very bizarre. He never said a word. Just stopped dead in his tracks about 5 feet away from us. He was breathing heavily and just gave us this angry glare. I remember being beyond freaked out and just said, "Hi....OJ." Then he turned and walked away from us, never said a word. My friend was terrified. At that point I realized he probably had killed his ex and that waiter.

R7, that didn't even make sense, lol! Try harder next time.

Century City, hotel lobby TV. About 30 people crowded around a single set.

You sound like a neurotic gay man with a vivid imagination r7

Maybe you could write a screenplay for a three-man play chronicling your encounter. Madea would like to play the role of OJ.

I'm with R10.

Well it happened. Believe me or not I could care less.

I was six years old then.

Then stop caring so much R7/12.

I COULDN'T care less.

Fixed it for ya, r7

I was drinking an Orange Julius @ Simpson's.

I was a senior in college. We were doing A CHORUS LINE. I was too wrapped in that production to pay attention. SHABBA!!!!

I don't remember. I think I was pretty sick of the media circus by that time. I DO remember where I was during the Bronco chase, but that's about it.

They said on the news tonight that a recent poll found that 75% of Americans, including black Americans, believe Simpson did it as opposed to about 62% at the time of the trial.

I wasn't born yet. Lol!

I hated that case. It really was the start of the media circus-infotainment journalism we have today. Every news story is now a football game. I never thought OJ did it anyway. To this day, I believe it was his son.

The night of the Bronco chase, my parents and I had gone to eat Chinese and then came home. I was bored and started watching an old movie I rented. It was near the beginning of the film and I had to pee, so I hit stop on the vcr and there on the tv was the Bronco chase out in LA. The strange part is that the old movie I rented was TOWERING INFERNO in which Oranthus James had a bit role. I was just watching him in a movie and there he is on live tv trying to escape the double murder he committed. Odd.

Learning to use the potty.

I was working at The Four Seasons Chicago, on my lunch break. When the verdict was announced all the black people leapt from their seats, screaming "yes, yes!" and jumping up and down like Oprah had just given them all free cars. Everybody else was kind of stunned, both by the verdict and their behaviour. It didn't make sense that they were cheering a murderer but I guess they thought it was a win for their team. I had never thought that the trial was a question of race.

R22, nobody asked about the Bronco chase. Stay on topic.

R24 you must not have watched or followed the trial, or be willfully ridiculous.

The sky was so blue that day.

[quote]They said on the news tonight that a recent poll found that 75% of Americans, including black Americans, believe Simpson did it as opposed to about 62% at the time of the trial.

That was mentioned last night on 20/20. They showed some of the deposition tapes from the civil suit. It was done to promote the upcoming The Secret Tapes of OJ documentary on LMN and A&E, this coming week. I'll probably watch that stuff even though attention whore Kris Jenner was interviewed for it.

Java House on Q Street in Dupont Circle. The TV was on. People just stared at each other and pretended it hadn't happened.

Video of Oprah's audience at Harpo reacting to the verdict.

I was home sick that day with the flu. My best friend, who was then-unemployed, and had watched a great deal of the trial, came over with bagels & coffee, to watch the verdict. We were both stunned. Even though there weren't a lot of people around the apartment building that time of day, whoever was home, had their t.v.s on, and you could hear (we had a courtyard that echos) a little chorus of "No way!"/"Are you kidding me?!" etc.

Black people knew OJ did it. They just wanted him to get off as a fuck u to white America and the media basically

It was my last year of college. I had apparently made my way over to the campus Student Center (probably intentionally) to watch the verdict live. When the verdict was read, I wasn't really surprised in the least. In fact, I had called into a local radio station the evening before and opined that - though I thought that he had done it - he would get off. It was a "black" (R&B/hip-hop) radio station, and the radio host sort-of acted as though I had just spoken Latin. I don't think I was the only caller with the opinion that O.J. was guilty - but, IIRC - I was in the distinct minority.

Unlike scores of other black people across the nation, I did not register much emotion when the verdict was read. I think my reaction was a milder version of how Robert Kardashian looked the moment the verdict was read. There were several other students in the vicinity - all looking at the CRT TV. I don't remember any memorable, over-the-top reactions. Were there any other black students in the area of whom I was embarrassed? I don't remember...so whatever black students were around must have been low-key.

I even remember the totally-unremarkable clothes I was wearing that day, for some odd reason. The orange tee I was wearing may actually be hiding in my bedroom somewhere - right now. The jeans are - shall we say - now a few sizes too small.

Just a couple of weeks ago - for the first time in ages - I found myself inside of the Student Center where I saw the verdict (I happened to be on campus for an event). The place has been extensively revamped - but the general area where I watched the verdict is still a TV/lounge area. The TV is on the other side of the room, now - and the 1995 TV has obviously been upgraded to a large, wall-mounted LCD TV. It didn't occur to me at the time to seek out the very spot where I watched the O.J. verdict...but I got VERY close to standing on that exact spot.

[quote]Black people knew OJ did it. They just wanted him to get off as a fuck u to white America and the media basically

And white people replied by ending Welfare, and shooting black kids like dogs on the street.

And OJ never cared much for the black community

Sad

It was a stupid jury and I bet all of them feel like sh*t knowing he did it.

Learning proper comma usage.

I never watched 5 seconds of any coverage of it.

At work. The only TV was in the employee's lounge; it was so crowded that people were standing on tables to get a better view of the screen.

I was working as a court clerk. The judge took a recess and had a TV brought into an empty jury room, where he and the staff sat in silence waiting for the verdict.

That case truly was the beginning of the celeb infused news culture we have today. Al Gore even said the same thing. It also gave us the Nancy Grace's and Jeanne Shapiro's that infuse our news channels. I also believe it helped to give rise to reality television and more morning infotainment type programs. I don't think any of the soaps were on that much for that year of the trial (at least in NY) With the amount of viewers watching each day, I can't imagine that didn't go unnoticed by the networks.

I never got the intense fascination over it. Between the news reports over Marsha Clark's haircut to how she liked to play backgammon. Making Kato Kaelin a celebrity for fifteen minutes. Faye Resnick making the rounds of every talk show. It was just a ridiculous media circus. You now wonder how Kris Jenner didn't work her way in there.

[quote]It was a stupid jury and I bet all of them feel like sh*t knowing he did it.

They should have been forced to fight the civil trial jury.

[quote]It also gave us the Nancy Grace's and Jeanne Shapiro's that infuse our news channels.

Don't forget about Star Pig Jones and Jane Velez-Mitchell.

Don't forget that it also gave us Harvey Levin and what morphed into TMZ.

I went to Ole Miss at the time and at the time of the verdict the Black Student Choir just "happened" to be singing in the Student Union. Just a singin' praises and hallelujahs at the sound of "not guilty".

"And white people replied by ending Welfare, and shooting black kids like dogs on the street."

You think black kids WEREN'T shot like dogs in the street before this? Really?

The ONE good thing about the OJ verdict: framing the black guy actually backfired. Even though he was truly guilty. To me, the OJ case was all one of piece with Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, etc., etc., etc. In other words, just another part in the history of American racial injustice. With one exeption: It humiliated the police on a national level for their sloppy ass police work and prejudice. That whole mind set of" the guy's guilty so we don't actually have to do the right thing" that is so prevalent among LEOs that it's a movie/tv cliche. Of course, in the movie the bad cops are a minority, when the reality is, the majority of LEOs they are the judge juries and executioners. And in the movies the good cops are protecting an falsely accused innocent, and not a psychopath.

I was 15 or 16 (but I didn't look a day over 12). I watched it in HS on the only tv we had in the school that students could use.

There was a big crowd of people who also had a free period around that time (or lunch?). I remember people were shocked as hell... I didn't really care that much since I hardly followed it in the news. People were like "can you believe this??" and I was like "oh - yea it's crazy..." - no clue about the larger picture. I was more excited that one of the really popular senior girls was sitting next to me and talking to me.

Many years later, I was kind of captivated by the Conrad Murray trial...at least he was found guilty, but the punishment wasn't much (4 year sentence...served 2 and out for good behavior).

If Nicole or Ron were black, their families would be called opportunists looking for a hand-out.

Sure R47

(And) if Nicole had been black, would so much of black America reacted the same way regarding the verdict ?

Well ?

(And) if Nicole had been black, would so much of black America reacted the same way regarding the verdict ?

Actually, yes. Black Americans love sports heroes above their own women.

So do white people, R49.

I'd go with many men love sports heroes more than they love women. Their color is irrelevant.

Exactly R51

I had just started working at a Wall Street law firm and I think someone came into my office and told me the verdict. (I was a retread and had been out of college for seven years before I went to law school so I was much older than other first year associates.)

Just goes to show how long that damn trial went on -- I was in the first semester of my third year of law school when jury selection started!

Who the fuck is "Oranthus James"?

Oh dear sweeties, he lived in Brentwood for heaven's sake. Past Bel Air someplace. Can you just imagine? How could we possibly be interested. But Chalondra was up to the house to do my nails and well, she wanted to see and I being well bred and courteous and always polite, even to the help, we watched.

I remember this though, the pool boy Raul arrived soon thereafter and well, the whole unpleasant verdict became nothing but a distant memory. And I was dressed in lavender. That I remember too.

I'm old. I was working as a legal assistant at the small SF office of a large nationwide labor law firm. The office administrator, attractive but dim blonde, white woman, was married to a black guy. The whole office (90% white) was gathered around the conference room TV; I refused to go. When the verdict was announced, she came out cheering up and down the hall. I was disgusted beyond belief, but knew better than to say anything.; I contented myself by sputtering and muttering how STUPID the jury was. Stand by that to this day.

Christ, R54. Unless you're the 22- or 18-year old upthread? That. Is.OJ's (O? J? get it?!) REAL name. Duh.

Orenthal. Not Oranthus.

Double duh.

White people too mad, black people too happy!

I ain't seen so many mad white people since they cancelled "M*A*S*H"!

An' then black people be all, "We won! We won!"

What we won?! What we won?! I been down to my mailbox every day, an' I STILL ain't received my "O. J. Prize"!

R59, trying so desperately hard to be funny and he ends up coming across as dumb and bigoted. Oh well, c'est la guerre.

It's from a routine done on "Saturday Night Live."

By Chris Rock.

Which makes R60 the absolute, hands-down, biggest DUMB-FUCK in the history of DataLounge. Congratulations, cunt.

At my first apartment after college. Was working free-lance so off that morning. Got on the floor up close to the TV..and then pounded my fists on the carpet in frustration. (Was at the apartment pool during much of the slow Bronco chase, but that's another story.)

Geez r60 -- everyone knows that skit.

Sorry, I don't know that skit. I've never seen it, never heard of it, nothing.

R59, I apologize for insulting you. I thought it was one of our resident racists doing a horrible fake Black dialect and trying to be "funny" as I've seen them do sometimes. I had no idea it was a well-known comedy routine.

[quote]Now 75% of African Americans believe that OJ Simpson is guilty of the murders of Nicole and Ron Goldman compared to the 62% who believed he was guilty at the time of the verdict.

Some people are a little slow to realize what everyone else does but there's always a need for help, domestic.

Oh, shit! My mistake. Oranthus James went to camp with me when I was a kid. Everyone called him OJ, unless he was in trouble, and then they'd yell out "Oranthus James!"

Black people knew all along that he did it. Everyone knew. It's just as was stated above, between the racist cops, the fact of police brutality against blacks, which no one really believed until cell phones with cameras became ubiquitous, and even then no one gives two fucks... and everything else they have to deal with, they were like, "you know what? To hell with everything, I want to see a black guy come out on top for once, even if he is guilty."

I can't agree with this way of thinking, but I do understand how and why it happened.

We were living in a beautiful apartment in Amsterdam and we nearly cried tears of joy when we saw the verdict being read.

[quote]It didn't make sense that they were cheering a murderer but I guess they thought it was a win for their team.

It was more about how the LAPD had done some pretty questionable things during the investigation, like when they searched OJ's home without a warrant and flimsy probable cause (at that time), etc. Also a lot of people just felt the prosecution had this "whatevs, he's black, he'll be convicted even if we can't do our job properly" attitude.

In the years since, the people I know who were happy about the verdict (they weren't all black, fwiw) have mellowed somewhat and said that they think he did it but justice wasn't served by the way the LAPD and prosecutors operated. And I think more people realize that the situation was fucked up because anyone who wasn't filthy rich would have been railroaded even if they were innocent, and OJ only got off because he had money.

[quote]I think my reaction was a milder version of how Robert Kardashian looked the moment the verdict was read.

He looked sick. I remember that so well. I was at home, having finally decided to give up on college, and was watching a lot of Court TV. I can't remember how I felt about the verdict, though, but I wasn't surprised -- that Rikki lady on Court TV had reported the jury was having a party the night before the verdict was read so I figured that meant a not guilty was coming.

[quote]how Robert Kardashian looked the moment the verdict was read.

A man who looked like he knew the end of his life would be hell, and then he'd go live there.

Odd because he was filmed carrying a bag out of OJ's home and some believe it contained the murder weapon.

In for a penny, Bob, in for a dollar.

Didn't the Robert Kardashian/OJ friendship, end a few years after the trial?

Barry Scheck was my trial fave. I whacked off thinking about him a few times.

Are there nude photos of Mark Fuhrman?

[quote]If Nicole or Ron were black, their families would be called opportunists looking for a hand-out.

The Goldman Family and their money-grubbing actions were beyond legendary (and shameless).

Didn't Nicole's sister fuck Geraldo? And she was selling faux gold pins?

I thought that OJ had never paid the Goldmans a dime?

I really felt the civil trial was more about their need to have at least one court find OJ guilty, albeit at a lower standard of evidence.

Jesus, R72, take out that bizarre comma.

WW for r77.

The judge in the civil trial was a real judge, unlike the perpetual victim Lance Ito (who only got into law because he was once mistreated for being Japanese) so there was no bullshit in that trial, and a more realistic verdict.

Also, the prosecution in the criminal trial allowed the case to be tried in downtown LA. Had it been heard in the Santa Monica court where it belonged, there would not have been jury antics to add to those of the judge.

You're a dick, R75. All they wanted was for OJ to pay for brutally murdering their son. Can you imagine how that verdict felt to them? And then how smug and cavalierly OJ continued to live his life as he claimed to be searching for the real killer - on the golf course?

The Goldmans are dicks.

When OJ was going to publish his "If I had done it..." book the Goldmans sued to have it stopped because it would have been a dishonor to Ron and his memory.

When the judge said the book could be released and all proceeds would have to go to the Goldmans then they couldn't wait for it to hit store shelves.

The father, with his Snidely Whiplash moustache, was pure scum.

Oddly enough in my Race in America class. We watched the verdict live on TV. Most of us, black and white, were shocked by the verdict. There were some guys (mostly black athletes) were happy because he "beat the man". My professor, also black, shut that reasoning down quickly - "beat the man? OJ IS the man. He got off, because he could afford it. This isn't about race, this case has always been about privilege, remember that." He then went on to compare OJ to cases like Klaus von Bulow, the Lindbergh kidnapping, Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill and Jeffrey McDonald among others. It ended up being a memorable lecture to say the least.

I still would like to know exactly what went down. While OJ is guilty, I was always thrown by Ronald Goldman, he had 20 years, 5 inches, and probably 30 pounds on OJ...never added up.

I was dead at the time.

R82 OJ was in good shape, a former athlete and on meth and tons of adrenaline. Ron Goldman was a pretty boy, who was likely overwhelmed and basically in shock at what was happening.

OJ is the scum of the earth and I pray he dies in prison.

My mom kept me home from school for almost the entire trial, she thought it was an historic event. We had one neighbor that called CPS, but they never followed up. My mom ended up harassing the snitch neighbor until she moved away.

Ron Goldman tried to fight back. He had wounds on his arms and hands.

I was at Disneyland.......I think we saw the verdict read on a TV at the Disneyland hotel and then went over to the park for the day..

OJ was strong and had a fine ass, but quel embicile. Where's my hat? Where's my glove?

I was in Ecuador on a bus going imto the Andes mountains. The passengers cheered.

We never knew there was such a thing as Jewish white trash.....until we saw the Goldmans.

Fred Goldman was the poorest Jew in LA.

What was OJ's original plan, though? What if Ron Goldman hadn't shown up? Did he plan to kill Nicole INSIDE a the house while the children were there? Did he plan to kill the children, too?

What were Nicole's last words to homosexual Ron Goldman?

"Would it kill you to bring me my sunglasses that I left in the restaurant"?

On 13thst and avenue B In NYC a bunch of black people were cheering when I realised it was becaused OJ had gotten away with it.

We also were cheering

Homosexual Goldman was returning my eyeglasses R93

The boss at my then job was a very easy going, hands off, not a lot of rules kind of guy but he very firmly laid down one rule very early on in the whole OJ business. Our work area was declared an "OJ free zone". He sensed it was going to become exactly the kind of circus that it did and he wanted none of it interrupting, distracting and dividing the department.

I was out of the building on an errand when the verdict was announced and when I got back, my boss met me at the door to tell me the news so I could vent my outrage for a few minutes before getting on with the work day.

13th street and avenue B when I heard black people cheering , and I realized he had been aquited , wrongly . I was chilled,

browsing in Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill. there were some pissed-off white people in that store.

R81 What a classy thing to say.

I was at my son's school picking him up right after having been laid off from my law firm job across the street. Not a red letter day, no matter how you looked at it.

R100 If you want class, start a thread of your own. Don’t be the one dredging up 5 year-old threads with one lame comment.

R102 I apologize. It was not my intention to do so. I have aspergers and am working thru a backlog of old threads. As soon as I eliminate the backlog, I promise to get au courant and start several Karen and COVID-19 threads!

[quote]I don't think any of the soaps were on that much for that year

They weren’t, and they never got most of their audience back, either. Yes, OJ Simpson killed soap operas.

Soaps were already fading in popularity. I was in college at the time and nobody really watched soaps, the big daytime viewing thing by then was talk shows.

I was in my high school social studies class. My teacher watched that damn trial almost everyday and acted like it was part of a learning lesson for us. He just wanted to see all the drama.