Why The LAPD's 'Racist' Detective Isn't Watching 'The People v. O.J. Simpson'

"Political correctness and stupidity trump justice."
Detective Mark Fuhrman on the witness stand.
Detective Mark Fuhrman on the witness stand.
AFP/Getty Images via Getty Images

Former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman became a divisive figure in the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson. In FX's dramatization of the case, "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson," he's portrayed in a handful of episodes by Steven Pasquale. But the real-life Fuhrman refuses to watch the show.

"The last 20 years, I have watched the facts dismissed by the media, journalists and the public simply because it does not fit within the politically correct narrative," Fuhrman, now a crime analyst, told The New York Post.

As a homicide detective working the murder case of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, Fuhrman searched the crime scene and turned up a black leather glove that came to symbolize the prosecution's handling of the case. He gave key testimony in the trial. But when Simpson's defense team introduced evidence that Fuhrman had used a racial epithet in the past decade -- despite his claim to the contrary, under oath -- they used it to suggest Fuhrman's biases may have prompted him to plant the glove as evidence against Simpson. The detective later pleaded no contest to a perjury charge and promptly retired.

In his interview with the Post, the former detective claimed producers hadn't reached out to "any prosecution sources," thus failing to give a fair portrayal of the case. Creators had stated, however, that the series was based off The New Yorker journalist Jeffrey Toobin's 1996 book "The Run of His Life," and lead prosecutor Marcia Clark has been at the forefront of press efforts to promote the show.

"This miniseries will most probably define not the historical record of the murder of two people, but the almost pathological desire to elevate a narcissistic, violent man to victim status just because he was a black athlete," Fuhrman told the Post, noting that he does not care what "American Crime Story" viewers think of him.

"This is not about me. There will be another O.J., and what we have learned is that political correctness and stupidity trump justice," he said.

"American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson" airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

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