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OJ Simpson freeway chase, 1994 (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world to c/historyporn@lemmy.world
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On June 17, 1994 celebrity and NFL player OJ Simpson had failed turn himself in to the LAPD in connection with the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

He was spotted on the 5 Freeway in the back seat of his friend Al Cowlings’ Ford Bronco, sobbing and holding a .357 revolver to Cowlings' head as he drove.

Simpson's former football coach John McKay pleaded on the radio for Simpson to surrender. While watching the events unfold, Tom Lange realized he had Simpson's cell phone number and managed to connect to him. Eventually Simpson was talked into surrendering.

The chase ended at 8:00 pm at his Brentwood estate, where 27 SWAT officers awaited. After remaining in the Bronco for about 45 minutes, Simpson exited and went inside for about an hour; a police spokesman stated that he spoke to his mother and drank a glass of orange juice.

Inside the Bronco, police found $8,000 in cash, a change of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a United States passport, family pictures, and a disguise kit with a fake goatee and mustache.

Photo and info source.

Wikipedia.

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[-] espentan@lemmy.world 106 points 10 months ago

All that ruckus and he turned out to be completely innocent! /s

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Murder is legal in the state of California!

[-] downhomechunk@midwest.social 58 points 10 months ago

Holy crap. I thought he was driving the car. I didn't realize he was a passenger holding a gun to the driver's head.

[-] espentan@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

Very common behavior in innocent people. /s

[-] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 57 points 10 months ago

I still can't believe this fuck had the balls to put out that book.

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

How does this rank in terms of (in)famous highway chases from police? I'm asking because I've seen this scenario in the Simpsons, I think, and other fictional shows and I am wondering how much of a reference to OJ these are

[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago

Very famous and recognizable, at least for people old enough to have seen it happen live. It has been referenced in South Park for sure.

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

I love SP! I'm going to rewatch that episode :D

[-] camr_on@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Easily #1. It's probably the only one most people think of when they think "police chase"

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

The words "police chase" always make me think about The Blues Brothers before anything else.

[-] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Definitely #1, although I do think about the guy that was joy riding a tank, think it was in San Diego. It was on one of those "wildest police chase" TV shows and they kept playing the same clips over and over, the tank running over cars and stuff like that. Also not sure if it really counts as a police chase, but there is the kill dozer.

[-] camr_on@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

That's true, the killdozer does live prominently in my memory.. I guess not as a police chase? It kind of is though

[-] xpinchx@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Or "Bronco" tbh

[-] StorminNorman@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

It has to be close to number 1. I'm Australian and was only 9 at the time, and remember watching it on tv back in the day. The only other ones that have really stood out like that to me are the ones that end with the driver committing suicide on live tv...

[-] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 13 points 10 months ago

Unless Trump tries to run for it in his limo, I think it’s pretty safe to assume the OJ chase in the Blanco Bronco will remain the most famous of all time.

[-] LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

FWIW, I cant recall a single other person's name from a car chase, but I have this entire day on recall. What I was doing, the incident etc. I've only got that with one other day. 9/11.

OJ was a huge household name, LAPD was beating prime left and right, racial tension was at an all time high type explosion. And Internet wasn't a thing but 24 hours news was, that brown bronco was on repeat for months, y maybe a year until that trial was over.

[-] skydivekingair@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

Brown Bronco? Is this a Mandela Effect, I clearly remember it was a White Bronco, and the photo this looks white as well…

[-] Tier1BuildABear@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

I think it's simply the number one car chase ever, with Bullitt pulling up the rear

[-] Subverb@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Bullitt chase scene is a close second though.

[-] Subverb@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I was 30 when this went down. It's hard to overstate what an impact the events and subsequent trials had on the American phyche at the time.

It had everything. Murder, California, cars, celebrities, sports figures, wealth, lawyers, drama galore for ~~months~~ years to come.

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

Great points! Also, "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit". That kind of reducing an issue to a single point and putting a catchy spin on it seems rampant in political messaging and advertising these days

[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

In the 1860s, the practice of lying, misrepresenting, and focusing on catchy and lurid topics was known as “yellow journalism.”

The phrase was later shortened to “journalism.”

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

I believe that's factually incorrect. "Yellow journalism" became a known term circa the mid-1890s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism#Etymology_and_early_usage). Meanwhile "journalism" has essentially meant what term means today from an earlier time and has a different etymology:

journalism (n.) "business of writing, editing, or publishing a newspaper or public journal," 1821, regarded at first as a French word in English, from French journalisme (1781), from journal "daily publication" (see journal); compare journalist. (https://www.etymonline.com/word/journalism).

[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I was borrowing a joke from “America, The Book.”

[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Part of the reason they don’t sell new Broncos in white. I just pulled that out of my ass, but realized I haven’t seen a new white Bronco yet.

[-] GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 10 months ago

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I had just finished third grade when this happened. I was hit by a car the last week of school and was in a full body cast that went from my rib cage down my left leg to my foot. I watched the chase on tv and the subsequent trial while I healed. I had no frame of reference at the time but damned if the trial didn't happen pretty quickly after the event. The chase itself was on just about every channel of network tv from what I remember. Formative memory.

[-] marito@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

I remember it was the same day the 1994 USA World Cup started.

[-] Apollonius_Cone@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Inadmissible. This event doesn't exist in the eyes of the law.

[-] big_slap@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

wow, I did not know about the fake disguise... totally something an innocent person would do

[-] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 10 months ago

My ex-wife and I bonded at a party together when this came on TV and we both thought OJ was a basketball player.

[-] Eggyhead@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

The number of police cars they decided to scramble for that chase is absolutely absurd in retrospect. They must have done that for show.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I'm sure people will downvote me for this, but...

I remember my parents glued to the TV at the time and I, at 16, said, "who gives a shit? It's just a football player." And then there was the trial and my parents watched it every day and laughed at the Dancing Judge Itos on Leno and I said, "who gives a shit? It's just a football player." I mean yes, it's a miscarriage of justice that he got let off when he was so obviously guilty, but that's what happens when you can afford really expensive lawyers.

I have never understood why people are so obsessed with it. The only time I ever even think of it is when someone claims that "X is innocent because the court found him innocent" and I ask the person if that means OJ is innocent.

[-] Yewb@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I lived in a mostly black neighborhood during this time, this was being looked at as Rodney king 2.0 and if he was guilty there were going to be riots, kinda hard to conceptionilize what it was like during that time period.

[-] nepenthes@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

From the BBC (2016):

The OJ Simpson murder case carried serious implications for a number of major issues: race relations, police treatment of African-Americans, domestic violence, and the effects of money on the justice system.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I'd like to read the whole thing, because I would say the first two were more brought into the American consciousness by the L.A. riots. The other two- I can see domestic violence and I already mentioned the effects of money on the justice system.

In fact, I would say the fact that he was able to buy his way out of it says very little about the plight of the average black person in the justice system.

this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
316 points (98.8% liked)

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