Full disclosure. I am obsessed with the whole O.J. Simpson saga. Like me, I am guessing you remember where you were when the white Bronco chase began June 17, 1994.
I had just moved to Barrie and everything was new to me. Perhaps, that’s why that daily gavel-to-gavel trial coverage, which went on for eight months, became so important to me. I am intrigued by a true crime story and this one had everything – celebrity, race, wealth, sex, violence and a media circus from which I could not look away. I know I was not alone.
That cast of characters was in our homes every single day. Who will ever forget Kato Kaelin, Mark Fuhrman, Marcia Clark, Lance Ito? I actually wrote to defense lawyer Johnnie Cochrane and got back an autographed 8 x 10 glossy. Who knew attorneys had head shots? Only in Hollywood, I guess.
I was NEVER on Team O.J. and always believed he truly did get away with the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
So, it was with great interest I watched with rapt attention the recent O.J. Simpson parole hearing in Nevada.
While he was seeking parole not on the murder charges, from which he was acquitted, but for armed robbery and kidnapping, one could not help think back to all we now know about the man.
We know he’s a liar, a domestic batterer, a narcissist and a bully.
Sitting in front of the parole board I saw all the same traits but in a 70-year-old shell.
He was still talking non-stop and nonsensically about the armed robbery in Las Vegas – still deflecting, blaming others, painting himself as the victim (I didn’t have a gun. I didn’t point a gun). Did you notice his hair trigger temper actually flared when one of the parole board members questioned the fact the memorabilia he was trying to get back was actually his? He was still taking no responsibility for his poor judgement or for why he ended up in jail for nine to 33 years.
I thought the parole board was treating him with kid gloves (oh no, not gloves again). There were no really pointed questions. No follow ups to answers that were non- answers. Did you catch him say that he didn’t go to AA classes as he had promised because he was too busy in jail?? One parole committee member was even wearing a football tie? What? How is that appropriate? I thought the court clerk and the prison guard were overly friendly. None of this is a joke! I do agree, according to Nevada law, he was probably due for parole whether I like it or not.
I felt my skin crawl as he described himself as “a good man” who has lead a “conflict- free life” (well, y’know except for a double murder, beating up two wives and a few girlfriends, some road rage and a kidnapping and armed robbery). Sure, he inserted the obligatory “I want to be a better Christian” and “I am sorry for any trouble I caused.”
I don’t think he is sorry for anyone but himself and how many potential golf games he has missed while locked up.
Usually, there is some redeeming quality in a person. I don’t see any in O.J. Simpson. I don’t see remorse for anything he’s ever done.
My hope is that he just keeps being himself and in so doing he will screw up again and be back in jail hopefully before the next girlfriend is battered or worse or the next friend is scammed or the next family member is hurt again.
I wish for him a miserable rest of his life and for that I have no remorse. That would be some form of justice!
