Ten years ago today

Yes indeedy. Today is the 10-year anniversary of the lamest car chase in legal history [2.6M MOV file].

June 17, 1994. I was in school at the time, living in residence. As I was in the latter half of my second year, I was probably slogging my way through something at my desk. Henry IV part I, maybe.

Bored and thirsty, I got up and made my way into the common room on my floor to grab a beer on the fridge. Four or five of my floormates were watching the TV in some sort of state of rapture. As I turned from the fridge to go back to my room, I realized that it wasn't the usual Jays game on the tube, but CNN. On screen: a white Bronco being chased down an empty freeway by about a dozen black-and-whites.

"What's this?" I asked.

"OJ's in the Bronco," they answered, or words to that effect.

"Why isn't he trying to get away?" I asked. This was the first car chase I'd seen where the fugitive appeared to be obeying the traffic laws. Turns out he had a gun to his head.

Thus began the second greatest media circus of the century, the first being the Scopes Monkey Trial.