A fan wears a t-shirt proclaiming Michael Jackson's innocence. Picture / Reuters
Posted on 06/09/2005 9:17:35 PM PDT by Libloather
Jackson 'Avenue of Hearts' angers locals
10.06.05
By Andrew Gumbel
A fan wears a t-shirt proclaiming Michael Jackson's innocence. Picture / Reuters
Michael Jackson's neighbours have had it.
They've put up with months of hoopla surrounding the court proceedings in Santa Maria, in the heart of central California wine country, and they've put up with the fans plying the narrow road to Neverland.
But now the jury has retired, passions on both sides are growing as surely as the tension over the looming verdict. The results have not always been pretty.
Every day this week, the fans have erected an "Avenue of Hearts" comprising tributes and expressions of love along the kilometre or so leading up to Neverland.
And every day a local truck or four-wheel-drive has veered off the road and flattened them.
Some motorists have taken to throwing things, including a raw egg that hit one fan in the chest.
It's not just the fans who are driving the locals to distraction.
The usually idyllic landscape is also crawling with television trucks which shuttle the 50km between Santa Maria and Neverland.
Things get particularly raucous around evening news time, when reporters send out their live feeds and the fans disrupt them by blasting Jackson hits from boomboxes, or setting off their car alarms in unison.
For three months, the trial judge performed an admirable task of making the circus of a trial as un-circus-like as possible.
Now, though, with the eight women and four men of the jury sequestered for six hours a day and no certainty about when they might reach a decision, the circus has moved into a new gear.
Black leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have rushed to Jackson's side as if he were a great crusading cause for the civil rights movement.
The former presidential candidate compared the November 2003 police raid on Neverland to search for corroborating evidence of child abuse to the violent and ultimately devastating standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidian religious cult in Waco in 1993.
Najee Ali, a black Muslim leader from Los Angeles, was stopped by police for holding up traffic after he slowed to 8km/h on the highway and paraded a pro-Jackson banner.
TV stations have expressed growing impatience with the jury. Many of them have fond memories of the 42 minutes it took the jury in O.J. Simpson's murder trial to find him not guilty.
But analysts say it is hardly surprising the Santa Maria panel is taking its time to digest all the testimony and the 98 detailed pages of instructions.
- INDEPENDENT
!
I can't believe this freak of nature still has fans.
John Jorsett wrote:
I can't believe this freak of nature still has fans.
--> You must have missed the meeting:
While you were out:
"There's a sucker born every minute"
19 pictures worth 19,000 words. Tell ya what, ya Euro-psychos. Take him and good riddance (maybe Jesse Jackson, too while yer at it)...
The lipstick.......eeewwwwwwwwww......the remade jaw......eeewwwwwwww......the nose.....eeewwwwwwwww.....man, what a piece of work.
Shouldn't that be "King of Poop"?
Sure looks like her, you're right!
A dead ringer. LOL
Does anyone remember anything about 2 missing boys Jackiepoo took in as exchange students and lost track of them? I've not seen a follow up on that story.
Would it be indelicate if we root for helping the human race via Darwinism if there are mass suicides if Wacko Jacko is found guilty?
(I have serious money on him committing suicide if found guilty)
No nose, LOL.
How pathetic! They really need to get their own entertainment industry and stop hanging on to our washed up stars.
Michael is "ET" with a black wig and frontal butt-crack. The king of poop.
More freak show!
What's with the Pokemon in the background? Too kooky.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.