ISSUE: O.J. Simpson's arrest

OUR VIEW: Ex-football star's case should be measure of justice system

Once O.J. Simpson gave lessons to NFL defenses as a star running back. He later brought new insight to the broadcast booth as a network analyst covering National Football League games.

For more than a decade now, Simpson has shown Americans the ins and outs of our legal system -- and in so doing has become a lightning rod in debate about justice and racial bias.

Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Orangeburg this past week addressing inequities faced by African-Americans. In urging students to become activists -- and voters -- he blasted South Carolina for the high number of African-Americans the state locks up each year -- and he warned that the plight of six black students charged with beating a white student in Jena, La., is not isolated. That incident capped months of tension at the Jena high school after white students hung nooses in a tree that supposedly was to be a site for only whites to congregate.

Jackson's appearance was followed a day later by a statement by presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards: "When a 'white tree' stands outside a public school, marking a place where white students sit but black students are not welcome, there is something so wrong that the right words are hard to find. When children have learned to intimidate each other with age-old, hateful symbols of racial terror, we are reminded that we cannot take progress for granted. And we must turn to the larger truth: That we still have two criminal justice systems in this country -- largely defined by race and class."

The weekend before, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton told the S.C. NAACP regarding the "Jena 6": "There is no excuse for the way the legal system treated those young people."

"We have to believe justice is blind in America," she said.

Which brings the nation back to a focus on O.J. Simpson, the man a majority of Americans believes got away with murder in being acquitted in 1995 of killing his estranged wife and another man in California.

Simpson's plight became the source of a major racial divide and debate about the fairness of the legal system, with African-Americans finding reason to celebrate a verdict that even many believed did not reflect justice.

But not guilty of that crime Simpson was -- and is. That is the American system. Were he to go on national television and announce that he indeed did kill the two people, there is no retrial. In America, there is no double jeopardy.

Further dividing Americans over Simpson was the civil trial that followed this criminal case. There Simpson was found liable in the deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman and ordered to compensate their families.

The former player moved to Florida, where the legal system has allowed him to shelter assets away from the victims' families. Through it all, Simpson continues to surface periodically, often in controversial situations. He has had a number of brushes with the law.

Now comes the most serious. He stands accused in Las Vegas of armed robbery and kidnapping in association with an incident at a hotel in which Simpson says he was attempting to recover collectibles and memorabilia that belong to him. With guns allegedly involved, the situation is serious.

Simpson's arrest is no less controversial than seemingly everything that bears his name. The parties to the case are of questionable integrity -- and even those associated with Simpson apparently are ready to turn on him to lessen their legal problems.

Couple that with Simpson being in jail awaiting bond while others went free, plus questions about why the entire episode was audiotaped, and the conspiracy talk is cranking up.

Simpson is again getting sympathy -- and his latest case again is prompting people to question whether he is the victim of a biased system determined to get him on something.

How sad. O.J. Simpson is a wealthy ex-football star who has shown time and time again he has no association with broader social issues impacting African-Americans -- or all Americans for that matter.

He has turned his chin up at the system of justice and seemingly believes he is above the law. He is not an individual whose case should become the measure of justice.

As much as there are serious questions about the case against him in Nevada, there will be answers forthcoming in legal proceedings.

Regardless of the outcome, there should no more be celebration over Simpson again going free than over him being jailed in this latest episode.

Edwards says that "fortunately, we also still have in this country the desire for racial justice, understanding and tolerance."

Indeed. And O.J. Simpson and his troubles are the measure of none of the above.

You must be logged in to comment.