Former reader Spencer's basic argument is: Simpson beat his wife and we know he killed her, so he should be convicted, regardless of the evidence and cops' actions. That's a dangerous position for the working class to fall into, and one that doesn't advance women's right to be free from domestic violence either.
The presumption of innocence, the ability to challenge your accuser, and democratic safeguards against police manipulation of "evidence" are rights that the working class has fought for and jealously defends. Once the cops' behavior was exposed, the jury decided to not just take their word in the O.J. Simpson trial. They decided the evidence wasn't good enough, and they were right to return a not guilty verdict.
Simpson's attorneys pointed to the cops' records - including detective Mark Fuhrman's racist comments and the mishandling of evidence by various officers - and challenged their testimony. The police searched Simpson's home without a warrant, haphazardly carried a vial of his blood around, and covered up Fuhrman's racist record.
The police, by their actions, have made it virtually impossible for whoever killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to ever be brought to justice.
Many reporters and columnists present the verdict as a reflection of the "racial divide" - a decision by a mostly Black jury to acquit Simpson because he is Black. Spencer criticizes defense attorney Cochran for "playing the race card." The jurors' sensitivity to racism did have something to do with the verdict, but the exposure of the standard operating procedure of the Los Angeles police was the most compelling factor.
Simpson's lawyers put their finger on the frame-up methods that the cops routinely use against thousands of working people who they assume must be guilty of something. For instance, nine more people in Philadelphia just had criminal convictions overturned after six cops confessed that they lied on reports and planted drugs in people's homes in order to ensure convictions. Thousands of other arrests there are now under review. These abuses, which are not at all unique to Philadelphia, occurred largely in the city's Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods.
The cops routinely victimize and frame up working people of all nationalities. But workers who are Black receive especially harsh, racist treatment, which leads many more of them to draw the conclusion that a cop's word can't be trusted.
Many workers who are white distrust the cops too, as they learn from experience how common police frame-ups and beatings are against working people - white and Black. A poll by Newsweek right after the Simpson verdict found that one-third of whites agreed with the jury's decision and half thought the jury was fair and impartial - hardly a solid "racial divide."
It's important to remember that workers don't get the same kind of "day in court" O.J. Simpson got. The jury made the right decision, but that doesn't mean the justice system is any fairer to working people today.
In regard to the other letters, reader Robbie Scherr is correct in noting that the Militant's previous article on the Simpson verdict was not simply a news item. It was a news analysis, which should have been indicated.
Fred Feldman points out that the Militant should have been more accurate in attributing statements by a juror and her daughter. All of the quotations cited were indeed from the daughter. Ascherback herself has made similar statements since, however. And while jurors pointed to a range of problems with the cops' evidence and behavior, Fuhrman's record did play a key, if not decisive, role in the verdict.
- NAOMI CRAINE