Plan B Forum

I’m always grateful to see a domestic abuser gone from this world and am just sorry that his battle with cancer was so short compared to the long and awful battles I’ve seen so many good people suffer through.

Some years ago I watched the extraordinary 2016 documentary OJ: Made in America, which is less about OJ and more about American race relations, injustice and inequality. Highly recommend it to anyone with 7.5 hours to spare on a truly brilliant work of American history.

I was a graduate student applying to law schools when the trial of the century occurred - my shock at the verdict and reactions to it almost made me not go to law school, something I still feel somewhat ambivalent about nearly 30 years later. But if life is about really knowing things and seeing them for what they are and not what we wish them to be, going to law school and practicing in our broken injustice system definitely enriched my life beyond what any other path could have provided me, I think.

Thinking of the Goldmans and Browns today, and poor Sydney and Justin who have lived all their lives in the shadow of the sick secrets of their father.

I will not mourn his passing; he seemed to be a complete jerk. However, given the state of race relations at the time (remember that Korean shop owner who shot and killed a 15 year old black girl (shot her in the back of the head while she was leaving) and got 5 years probation? Just one of many examples), the verdict did not surprise me (especially since I think the prosecution was pretty poor and I still think Fuhrman was paid off to help the race card defense). And the crap in Vegas didn't surprise me either given his reputation. But I do feel for his kids--good or bad he was their father, and I have seen some kids with the shittiest fathers being the most loyal and attached to them.

The doctor's glove didn't fit, so he didn't check it.

I ran a lab dealing with environmental samples, analyzing them for toxic metals and PCBs and pollutants of all types. Because samples and testing results could be used in prosecutions against those who contaminated ground or rivers or marine waters or air, we had to have very strict chain-of-custody procedures. We had to document where the sample and all subsamples and all derived samples were at any time and in whose custody as well as prove that the lab techs had proper training and all required QA/QC (quality assurance and quality control) procedures were rigorously followed. We spent hundred of thousands on this system: and once we all had computers on our desks we developed a system of barcoding all samples so they could be scanned every time there was a transaction.

The system was largely manual until (and I'm going to take some credit for this) the first time I bought groceries when the cashier swiped the UPC instead of reading the price off the little paper label and punching that in. That was 1985-ish; and we had probably the first barcode chain of custody system in the country.

We were subject to audits from DOH or DEC or EPA or whatever they called themselves in every state with which we did business (about 15 to 20 IIRC - CA, NY, FL, NJ, MI, WA, AK, MD are some) as well as something like six federal agencies (USEPA, Navy, Air Force, Army, NIOSH, Corps of Engineers) and I'm sure I have forgotten some. (Yes - USATHAMA - US Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency - chemical warfare stuff.) Every one of those especially in the early years - late 80s - told me that we had the most comprehensive and bullet-proof chain-of-custody system they had ever seen.

Having said all that and bearing in mind I didn't watch the whole trial by any means, I thought that the evidentiary procedures, especially for blood samples, stank. Don't get me wrong, I think Simpson did it. But based on the evidence I saw on those nightly summaries and read about, I might have voted not guilty. I think the police did a shockingly atrocious job. Whether that is because taxpayers don't cough up the $$$$ necessary or because they just don't give a shit, I don't know. If it took Simpson's high priced lawyers to point out procedural errors which were probably routinely overlooked in routine cases, then they did a public service.

Years later I was given a tour of the USEPA's Region VII lab in Kansas City. I was expecting to see a glowing example of how to do this stuff - after all, they were one of the operations who audited us. Not a bit: if I had operated my lab the way they did, they would have closed us down and I might have ended up in jail.

I'm not one of those people who think that government employees are wastrels and time-servers. But whoever was running that lab was. And there have been, over the last couple of decades, plenty of examples of just piss poor practices at state and federal crime labs.

My opinion. Simpson was guilty; but the prosecutors and police failed to prove it. That whole "If the glove does not fit you must acquit" thing was bogus. Very clever by Johnny Cochran but Simpson putting on that glove was analogous to testifying. He did not take the stand: but the minute he put that glove on and 'testified' that it didn't fit - and we all remember him putting his hand up - the prosecution should have called him to the stand for cross examination. And Ito should have allowed it.

Well he can be sure now that the "Real Killer" is finally dead.

Nicole Brown Simpson would have been 64, Ron Goldman 55, today.

This piece about Nicole Brown and domestic violence is heartbreaking and chilling for knowing how nothing has changed in 30 years.

In Memory of Nicole Brown Simpson

Andy--as I recall, it was the prosecution, not the defense, who asked him to try on the gloves, pretty silly of them, but they had no right to cross examine him afterwards. He did just what they asked him to do; a big mistake on their part to ask that (one of many); I think it played will with the jury and gave us that Cochrane line.

You're right RR - it was the prosecution - I just looked it up. So my point about calling him for cross-examination is wrong.

I stumbled on this video of Norm MacDonald's epic trolling of OJ Simpson on SNL's Weekend Update - it's a blast from the past to be sure, and nice to remember Norm who is far more dearly departed from us.

BSgal, do you have you ever actually listened to norm?


i don t think that you wouldn t be offended, triggered, or appalled or something woke....


he wouldn t care tho, see you next tues. , would be his only word to you, i think...., if you were lucky....

sorry to be so toxic, i don t really mean it but, in the spirit of old dead guy, norm, i m offending you just for the hell of it.

don t kiss his ass, he shits out of there you silly bitch.

you ll catch the damned typhus or something,

just ask your resident fruitcake, he ll tell you ya damned, ewe....

jesus girl, grow a brain, you grew everything else....

norm is everything you hate

show the proper respect and have a conniption

rejoice in his death....

ah well....

at least OJ finally expired

he really could run that football tho...

he was as good as any running back in my knowledge

you should watch his highlight reels....

he was a man among men

shame he killed those white folks like that.....

wesw wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 13, 2024 1:12 am

....norm is everything you hate....

Why should BSG hate Norm Macdonald?

I love Norm. I think he’s one of the most brilliant comics who ever took the stage.

I’m keen to rent a month of Netflix so I can see his award winning final work, Norm MacDonald: Nothing Special. It’s Norm without an audience because he didn’t live long enough to film the routine as he’d planned - we just have his dry run.

Here’s a clip:

I checked Netflix and Norm has two other videos also. One is a 10 episode series "Norm Macdonald Has A Show" and the other is "Hitler's Dog Gossip & Trickery".

They're now on my list.

The Hitler's dog bit was truly inspired.