O.J. Simpson took offense with Fox News late Friday over the person the network booked to speak about recent protests sparked by the death of an armed black man killed in police custody.
Mark Fuhrman, a white former Los Angeles Police Department detective whose documented use of the N-word took center stage during Mr. Simpson’s historic double-murder trial, discussed the unrest during the latest episode of the opinion program hosted by conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, prompting a fiery reply from Mr. Simpson on social media later Friday.
Mr. Simpson took to Twitter after learning about Mr. Fuhrman’s appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” tagging Fox News in a tweet where the former football star made his objections known.
“Mark Fuhrman?” Mr. Simpson tweeted. “@FoxNews are you serious???”
Mr. Simpson’s post on the platform also included a short video in which he recalled how it emerged during his 1995 criminal trial that Mr. Fuhrman had been recorded saying the N-word dozens of times in the years leading into his involvement in the murder case.
Referencing specific examples of explicit things Mr. Fuhrman said, Mr. Simpson said the 68-year-old retired LAPD detective has previously said some “horrible, horrible stuff.”
“And Fox think that this is the guy who should be on TV talking about this subject?” Mr. Simpson asked.
Mr. Fuhrman was among the first authorities on the scene where the bodies of Mr. Simpson’s ex-wife and a friend were found murdered in June 1994. He later testified for the prosecution when Mr. Simpson stood trial for their deaths the following year, and defense lawyers pounced upon his past usage of racial slurs while gunning for their client’s acquittal.
Under cross-examination in court, Mr. Fuhrman denied having used the N-word during the previous decade. Lawyers representing Mr. Simpson later obtained evidence indicating otherwise in the form of interviews in which the detective said the epithet dozens of times on tape. Jurors were eventually read two excerpts from those recordings before ultimately acquitting the former athlete.
Mr. Furhman later pleaded no contest to a related count of perjury and was sentenced to three years of probation. Fox News currently list him on its website as a forensic and crime scene network for the channel.
Ms. Ingraham spoke with Mr. Fuhrman during her latest episode during a discussion about the recent death of George Floyd and the protests it has sparked in several major U.S. cities.
Floyd, 46, died after a member of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeled on his neck for several minutes Monday during an incident that was caught on camera and accordingly ignited outrage across the country, evidence by protests in the Twin Cities and elsewhere that have at times become violent and resulted in brazen acts of arson and looting.
“This is on video a slow and really painful thing to watch of somebody grinding somebody’s face into the pavement until they’re dead,” Mr. Fuhrman said during the segment. “That being said, it is horrific but you can’t dilute the justice by more rioting.”
The police officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired by the MPD following Florid’s death and was criminally charged Friday with third-degree murder. and second-degree manslaughter.
Mr. Simpson, 72, joined Twitter last June. His profile on the platform is followed by more than 900,000 other accounts, and the video video he tweeted about Fox News was viewed more than 800,000 times in under 18 hours.
Acquitted of the murder charges in 1995, Mr. Simpson later served nearly nine years in prison for convictions related to a 2007 robbery.
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