Second Opinion / OTHER MEDIA : THE SENTINEL: Different View of Simpson Trial

It is quite obvious that with respect to the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, white people are looking at the first days of testimony differently than African Americans.

Courtroom pundits and local and national journalists, in particular, are giving high marks to the prosecution over testimony elicited from witnesses who have no information on whether or not Simpson actually killed his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman.

“Riveting testimony,” they said of Denise Brown’s sobbing account of a drunken incident where Simpson allegedly tore up the place. “Damaging testimony, “ they claimed after Ron Shipp, an admitted recovering alcoholic, said he heard Simpson say he once had a dream of killing his ex-wife.

But African Americans look at the testimony of both “star witnesses” entirely differently. For example, African Americans want to know when is the prosecution going to place the defendant at the crime scene, not at his own house having a violent fight with his wife. They want to know what is the real motivation of Shipp, a “wanna-be actor.” . . .

Blacks want to know why Denise Brown thinks Simpson is such an ogre, (but) turns around and borrows $5,000 from him. Did she ever pay it back?

African Americans also want to know why white pundits think Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden is doing such a great job while they believe that defense attorney Carl Douglas is not.

In comparison, Douglas, while often strident in his questioning, is deferential to the court and its process. Darden, on the other hand, scoffs at his defense colleagues, prances around the courtroom and makes menacing glares at F. Lee Bailey.

Black people, particularly older black people, don’t like it when younger blacks peacock around, snubbing authority. There are two older black jurors who are certain to be a little upset at Darden’s antics.

But white pundits don’t see this. Why? Because through no fault of their own, they have no understanding of the black experience. In our opinion, they had better get a quick course--because there are more than whites on the jury. And it will be up to this multicultural group to determine whether or not the prosecution is really earning points.

The Sentinel is an African American weekly published Thursdays in Los Angeles.

THE EASTSIDE SUN: Bus Pass Hike to Hurt MTA More Than the Poor

The judge’s decision to allow the Metropolitan Transportation Agency to raise the price of its monthly bus passes from $42 to $49 is sure to hurt the poor. In the long run, it will hurt the MTA even more.

We can understand the MTA’s desperation regarding the loss of more than $110,000 per day that the system has been experiencing, but we believe the decision to raise fares as a solution is shortsighted.

The Los Angeles basin has been fighting to cut air pollution at tremendous cost to its economy and quality of life. The battle to get people out of their cars and onto public transportation has almost seemed like a losing battle, and raising the cost of public transportation is going to make the fight even tougher.

Unfortunately, what the MTA has done is create an added incentive to keep old polluting cars on the road, because the cost of public transportation cannot compete with the convenience or cost of having a car, whatever its condition, available 24 hours a day.

It is true that many of the poor could not even afford the $42 cost of a monthly bus pass and that the passes have had to be subsidized for them. Will even more riders need to be subsidized now?

The MTA should have sought alternatives to raising bus-pass fares for inner-city riders. One solution could have been to cut its subsidy of diamond freeway lanes, which we believe is at cross purposes to its mission to cut pollution from autos by increasing the use of public transportation.

The Eastside Sun is a Latino-owned newspaper published Thursdays in Los Angeles.