The comparison hadn’t occurred to me. although I guess it should have.
Murder.
Police pursuit.
Allegations of racism.
Extraordinary media coverage.
A white perception of a murderer on the run.
A black perception of a hero wronged and the need to balance the scales.
What put these similar aspects of former football star O.J. Simpson’s 1994 Bronco chase and subsequent trial and last week’s manhunt for former U.S. Naval officer and L.A.P.D. cop Christopher Dorner on my radar was the reflections and insights of Politics365 blogger Jeneba Ghatt’s piece, “Christopher Dorner is the new O.J. Simpson” in VOXXI’s “Opinion Corner”. http://www.voxxi.com/why-christopher-dorner-new-oj-simpson/
As I read Ghatt’s conflicted thoughts, I rehashed my own. My vacillation from one day to the next during Simpson’s trial as I describe in “Anatomy of a Trial” to my reaction at the verdict to an evolving understanding in subsequent years of many African-Americans’ satisfaction and even jubilation over the outcome.
I attribute some, if not all, of that evolution to changes in my psyche that includes an awareness and understanding of white privilege, an ongoing education on what it means to be black in America and how unlevel the playing field continues to be for citizens in this country who are not Caucasian/European-American.
Ghatt’s piece is thought provoking. I recommend it.
Anatomy of a Trial blog 