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| Funds raised by PEARR go to Women In Distress of Broward County, Inc., the only state certified, nationally accredited, full-service domestic violence center in the county. Women In Distress provides victims of domestic abuse with a 24-hour hotline, shelter, counseling, and educational programs. |
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Domestic Violence is not another amorphous social injustice. It has a face, whether it be the face of the person sleeping next to you or the face of the person living next door to you. Of course, the most famous face of domestic violence is that of O.J. Simpson. We must admit that it gives us a little twinge of angst to even utter his name in the forum, where he so appropriately belongs. And that brings us to the crux of this blog entry. How much “face-time” does O.J. deserve in the raging battle against domestic violence?Denise Brown is the sister of Nicole Brown, former wife of the infamous murderer, who succumbed to domestic violence at its most extreme form. How ironic it is that so many of us refer to him as a murderer, fully knowing that he was acquitted of double homicide. This is just another reminder that “not guilty” is not synonymous with “innocent.” But we digress…Denise Brown is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at WID’s annual gala. She has been in the news most recently opposing the publication of O.J.’s tell-all book. We want to know your thoughts about this.
The Goldman family, having been granted rights to the book, has decided to publish O.J.’s book, If I Did It. Their position is that this is an opportunity to show a murderer for who he is, to put a “face” on those hideous actions. At the same time, they also hope to reveal the heroics of Ron Goldman, as he stayed in the house with Nicole in an effort to help her, rather than leave and theoretically, stave off impending death.
On the other hand, Denise Brown has been adamantly opposed to the book’s publication, fiercely arguing that there is no need to make their children relive the horrors that their father inflicted upon their mother. She further contends that publishing this book is tantamount to providing a “How To” manual for committing murder. It gives O.J. a forum to broadcast his deeds without repercussion to a world who, for the most part, already knows he did it.
With whom do you agree? The Goldman family has said that this will give readers an opportunity “to decide for themselves” whether O.J. did it. But after more than a decade after these murders, are people really on the fence? Even if there are some “undecideds” out there, does it really matter what they think? Realistically, the only opinions that mattered were those of the jurors at the time of the verdict, and we can see how that turned out. Now the defendant can declare his guilt and there is nothing that any of us can do about it. But maybe that declaration of guilt offers some kind of vindication for the Goldman family. After all of these years of grief and anger, despite the jury’s acquittal, their son’s killer is finally admitting that he did it and they want the world to hear it.
But is it worth making all the world a stage for a person who has already gotten away with murder? As Denise herself has said, the majority of us knows that O.J. murdered Nicole and Ron. In fact, many knew while watching the infamous Ford Bronco chase. After all, nothing reveals a guilty conscience like fleeing from the police who are searching for the murderer of your children’s mother. Publishing this book is akin to etching his confession into stone and there is nothing anyone can do about it. It’s like continuously pouring salt into an open wound that will never heal. Is allowing O.J. the last laugh worth everything the Goldmans hope it symbolizes?
Along the same lines, there once was a young man on trial for armed burglary of a pawn shop. His fingerprints were found inside the pawn shop, but explained away because he had been a customer there. The stolen guns were found inside his bedroom. His grandmother, begrudgingly told the jury that her grandson explained to her that he "got" them at a pawn shop. But she was painted as a liar when she admitted that in the past, she had reported her grandson for beating her (thereby somehow showing she would have a motive to make up his admission about the guns). Despite other damning evidence, the jury, never knowing about his prior armed burglaries or robberies as a juvenile, or the various other pawn shop burglaries of which he was suspected, acquitted him. After the verdict was read and the jury filed out, the defendant turned to the already disgusted prosecutors, and announced, “Now I can say I’m guilty and there’s nothing you can do about it.” He was right. What were those prosecutors to do? Run after the jury and tell them about the bad guy’s announcement? They would find out soon enough of their mistake when he did it again. Call the victim and tell him of the defendant’s announcement? That just seemed to make it worse, as he had already gotten away with it.
This young armed burglar took a page out of O.J.’s book, so to speak. What good does it do? Make us sick to our stomachs, bitter at double jeopardy, remind us that sometimes there isn’t justice? Or is this the Goldman family’s way of finally getting justice?
As always, what do you think?
3 Comments:
Assuming we all agree that he is guilty-which I do-shouldn't we be concerned that he might kill again? Is the book letting him release without reacting the crime again? If it helps the Goldman's even just a little-it's worth it.If it helps OJ at the same time-it's just a shame-the jury already helped him.
"Help" is relative to the person who receives it. None of us can judge the Goldman's needs, or Denise's for that matter. What I strongly feel is that all proceeds should be going to a good cause. To borrow a trite cliche, we can't change the past. We can though, have some affect on the future.
A very interesting commentary. Assuming the book gets published, even if the Goldmans have the "rights" to it, who controls distribution? Other than a possible financial motivation, what use is there in publishing this book? I don't necessarily agree with Denise Brown's objections because the murders occurred more than 13 years ago and the "children" are now almost adults. Plus, I am sure they have been living with this their entire lives so publishing the book won't really have any impact. Plus, their FATHER wrote it, so why not let them see it? But, still, I don't know what publishing the book will achieve? Are the Goldmans going to donate all proceeds to WID or some other charity? If so, I'm all for publishing the book. If not, what's going to happen to the funds? If they are going to get the monies to satisfy their judgment against O.J., then I am opposed to it being published because, at that point, aren't the Goldmans really exploiting the crime? Yes, they lost their son (which is horrible and I can't even imagine), but collecting from OJ won't bring Ron back and I still need to see the upside of the publishing.
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