The trial of the former Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin has been catching the headlines of late. So much so, that OJ Simpson shared his 2 cents on Twitter.
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Yesterday, the Hennepin County court found Derek Chauvin guilty of all 3 charges he was put on trial for. Chauvin was the police officer responsible for the murder of George Floyd last summer in Minneapolis, which eventually sparked demonstrations advocating for racial justice all over the planet.
Included in these demonstrations were many tributes and calls to actions from athletes such as LeBron James. Although nearly the entire world of sports was actively involved, an unlikely voice was heard before the verdict came out.
This voice belonged to OJ Simpson, a former NFL star RB who is perhaps more well known his off-the-field life. In 1995, Simpson was the defendant in what later became known as the “Trial of the Century”.
He was accused of murder, but was acquitted by a jury after a long and highly publicized trial. The case, similar to the Chauvin case, was highly racially charged.
To this day, many believe that Simpson was indeed guilty, but the racial factors played in his favor and led to a poor decision from the jury. Regardless, he had quite a bit to say about the Chauvin case.
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OJ Simpson: “I think the man deserves it”
“I thought it was a classic case of depraved indifference. I thought it was unnecessary force and no matter which side you’re on, I think everybody would pretty much have to agree that if those deputies and Chauvin would have gotten off of George Floyd, there was no chance George Floyd was going to get up and try to run… try to attack them in handcuffs, ” OJ said.
“That didn’t seem to be his personality. It seemed that the only problem was that, he has a little problem with claustrophobia, I guess, and the smallness of the backseat of that (police) car, which had to be pretty tough on a guy his size,” explained.
He also said that while he understood Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ comments on getting “confrontational”, she should have phrased it better.
“I understood what she was saying. It was a call to arms,” Simpson said. “Not to necessarily physical arms but a call to come out and work and vote.
“But she’s got to understand that her words matter and she’s got to be a lot clear about how she says them because you can’t be critical of the other side during the insurrection when they were saying ‘Get out and fight,’ ‘You’ve got to fight,’ and criticize what they were saying when they claimed later on that they meant pretty much what Maxine Waters meant.”
“You would think these politicians could communicate a lot better than evidently than they’ve been doing.” Closing the 2 minute video posted to his Twitter account, Simpson said he hoped there is “some kind of verdict, a conviction. I think the man deserves it.”
