Simpson Incident Highlights Two Standards of Justice

“The law isn’t justice. It’s an imperfect mechanism. If you press the right buttons and are lucky, justice may show up in the answer.” — Raymond Chandler

OJ Simpson has a lifetime ban from a Las Vegas hotel according to The Washington Post. So far, no one is saying if Simpson was acting belligerently or not.

According to KABC, which The Post reported on, Simpson was given a notice of trespass at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. His lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, confirmed Simpson’s ban.

According to TMZ, Simpson was drunk and unruly at the Clique bar inside the hotel and glasses were broken when the former NFL star became obnoxious.

The hotel didn’t comment.

Earlier this year Simpson was given parole after serving nine years, of a 33-year sentence, for directing a group of men to a Las Vegas hotel room where sports collectibles were stolen at gunpoint.

Wealthy Male Vs. Indigent Female

Simpson’s misbehavior on probation has re-raised the question of justice in America: Is justice for the wealthy different than justice for the poor?

Observers point to the case of Marissa Alexander, a woman in Florida, who was given twenty-years for firing a warning shot, which injured no one, at her abusive husband, the recipient of a protective order mandating he stay away from Alexander.

Except for people living on a desert island in the South Pacific, everyone is familiar with OJ Simpson’s history.

Marissa Alexander had never been in trouble with the law.

What’s the difference between the two cases? The shooter in Florida was female and poor. Simpson is male and wealthy. Some experts point to the Florida shooting as an explicit indication of a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, recently told Vox: “OJ Simpson wasn’t just any black man. He was a famous, wealthy black man.”