Friday, October 28, 2016

After Ammon Bundy, Can We PLEASE Stop Obsessing Over O.J. Simpson?

Ammon Bundy and his cohort have been acquitted of all charges following their seizure of a federal Oregon Wildlife Refuge despite, you know, clearly having done it. A lot of people are upset about this, but I'm not. You want to know why?

Honestly, the O.J. Simpson trial had been getting a bit dated as a reference for "criminal trial where obviously guilty persons don't get convicted."* And with the Bundy acquittal, we can finally let the Simpson case go and focus our contempt for the criminal justice system and effective jury nullification on a more recent and topical case.

That's precisely how this will work, right? We are all equally outraged when high-profile White people escape punishment for the crimes they clearly committed?

* In many ways, this is worse than the Simpson case -- for while Simpson was almost assuredly guilty, at least he actually denied committing the crime. The Bundys more or less admitted to doing everything the government charged them with, with a defense justified by "but it's the government, so come on" -- a much more classic case of nullification.

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