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The Fuhrman tapes are 13 hours of taped interviews given by Los Angeles police officer Mark Fuhrman to writer Laura McKinny between 1985 and 1994. The tapes include many racist slurs and remarks made by Fuhrman, and portions of the tapes were admitted into evidence during the O. J. Simpson murder trial.

Creation of tapes

Laura McKinny was interested in writing a screenplay and a novel about the experience of women police officers. After learning that Fuhrman was a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer and had strong views about the employment of women as LAPD officers, McKinny engaged Fuhrman as a consultant to provide background information about the reality of the experiences of LAPD officers and to serve as a technical advisor in the development of a screenplay.

Role in O.J. Simpson murder trial

Fuhrman was the officer who found both gloves, much of the blood drops in the dark and who entered Simpson's estate grounds without a search warrant due to exigent circumstances. Only very limited excerpts of the tapes were admitted as evidence in the 1995 murder trial against O.J. Simpson, yet the admitted portions were strong enough to cast doubts on Fuhrman's motives and credibility.

Excerpts from Fuhrman tapes

Among the portions that were admitted were the following:^[1]

• ( ...speaking of changes in composition of L.A.P.D.).

"That we've got females ...and dumb niggers, and all your Mexicans that can't even write the name of the car they drive."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p.11.)

• ( ...speaking of the physical risks to officers).

"If I'm wrestling around with some ___ nigger, and he gets me in my back, and he gets his hands on my gun. It's over."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p. 12)

• ( ...describing arrest of a suspect).

"She was afraid. He was a big nigger, and she was afraid."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p. 20)

• (...explaining arrest of a suspect in Westwood).

"He was a nigger. He didn't belong. Two questions. And you are going: Where do you live? 22nd and Western. Where were you going? Well, I'm going to Fatburger. Where's Fatburger. He didn't know where Fatburger was? Get in the car."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p.33)

• (...commenting on L.A. P. D. politics).

"Commander Hickman, was a dickhead. He should be shot. He did that for one thing. He wants to be chief, so he wants the city council, and the police commissioner, and all these niggers in L.A. City government and all of 'em should be lined up against a wall and fuckin' shot."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p.41)

• (...discussing American aid to drought victims in Ethiopia).

"You know these people here, we got all this money going to Ethiopia for what. To feed a bunch of dumb niggers that their own government won't even feed."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p. 44)

• (...discussing where he grew up in the state of Washington).

"People there don't want niggers in their town. People there don't want Mexicans in their town. They don't want anybody but good people in their town, and anyway you can do to get them out of there that's fine with them. We have no niggers where I grew up."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1, p.45)

• ( ...speaking of women as training officers).

"When I came on the job all my training officers were big guys and knowledgeable, some nigger'd get in their face, they just spin 'em around, choke 'em out until they dropped."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1., p. 47)

• (...discussing use of chokehold by L.A.P.D.).

"No, we have to eliminate a choke hold because a bunch of niggers down in the south end of L.A. said this is bad."
(McKinny Transcript No. 1., p. 49)

References

External links

• Site at MIT with information on Fuhrman tapes
• PBS Documentary on OJ Trial