Almost 32 years have passed since Nicole Brown and her friend, Ron Goldman, were murdered outside her home. The chief suspect in the case was O.J. Simpson, Brown’s ex-husband. Simpson was later charged, tried and acquitted of the double murder. No one else has ever been charged in connection withe case.
On the night of June 12, 1994 when they were murdered, Mark Fuhrman just happened to be one of the detectives to respond to Brown’s residence. However Fuhrman didn’t have the rank and seniority to be a lead investigator on a double homicide. But he knew Simpson lived in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. So naturally Fuhrman accompanied Tom Lange and Phillip Vannatter, who would be the lead investigators, to Simpson’s house.
Hindsight is 20/20 and with it being 1994, time is essential in murder cases, so when the detectives say they spotted blood on Simpson’s Ford Bronco parked outside his property along the street, it was only natural to hope the gated fence. They had probable cause and if it had been any other case, it wouldn’t have affected the price of tea in China. Also, calling a judge in the middle of the night might not lead to a search warrant but a lot of criticisms on obtaining more evidence.
Simpson wasn’t home as he had taken a business trip to Chicago. But it would lead to one of the biggest hurdles the prosecution would have to overcome. Regardless, they were unsuccessful. Fuhrman was typical of LAPD cops that had come to light following the Rodney King incident in 1991.
For most of Middle America, aka white people, L.A. was a neutral zone. Everyone assumed the corrupt bubbas who turned fire hoses on black people in the south and beat them with billy-clubs for trying to vote were a thing of the past. Yet it’s no surprise that William Parker was able to get those same cops to move west in the 1960s as he built the LAPD into something that looked respectable on “Dragnet” and even funny in the “Lethal Weapon” movies. But people knew the Rampart Division was far different in real life than it was on “Adam-12.” Fuhrman had been reported using abusive tactics such as the chokehold on people. And anyone who had seen the fate of Radio Raheem in “Do the Right Thing” didn’t see it as an effective maneuver but instead it looks like murder in the guise of law enforcement.
And Fuhrman was known to drop racial slurs such as the N-word. Growing up in the South, hearing white men and women say the N-word was like seeing dusty yellow pollen on surfaces during Spring. It was typical. And yes, the people who said it went to church and had families they loved and worked hard to provide for.
But racism is still racism. And racists don’t always wear white hoods or have skinheads. They dress nice and work respectful jobs like police officers. And that’s why Simpson’s defense team built reasonable doubt that Fuhrman had planted evidence such as the bloody glove.
And his stance of neither admitting nor denying his past behavior by stating his Fifth Amendment only made him look more plausible of someone who had a grudge against black people. Even if the jurors weren’t allowed to see these televised hearings, their spouses probably passed along the details while they were sequestered.
Fuhrman was one of the key factors that lost the prosecution the case. And while Fuhrman retired in the aftermath, he went on to write books about it and other crimes. He was an opportunist who used the murder of two people to fill his pockets and ride the fame as well as a lot of others connected in some way to the case. Even watching Fuhrman in documentaries, he seems cocky and arrogant deflecting questions. He even points the finger at us, the general public and says in the award-winning documentary “O.J. Made in America” that he found a second family in the LAPD and we destroyed that. No he destroyed his reputation.
But just because you treat your so-called family well while hating on those you’re paid to serve and protect doesn’t make it right. And I’m sure some of those black cops didn’t think the same about him. Fuhrman and other white cops only liked them because they were “Some of the good ones.”
Fuhrman passed away on May 12 at the age of 74 in Idaho, a state which is notorious for its right-wing and somewhat racist views. Sometimes it’s what we don’t say shows our true colors.
Zane Says 