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California Today

25 Years After O.J. Simpson’s Chase, L.A. Is Still Obsessed With Police Pursuits

The police chased a white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings, carrying O.J. Simpson, on a freeway in Los Angeles on June 17, 1994.Credit...Joseph R. Villarin/Associated Press

Good morning.

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A quarter-century ago today, much of Los Angeles, and the nation, was transfixed with a white Bronco speeding along the city’s freeways.

Four days after Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered in Brentwood, O.J. Simpson was a fugitive. The police pursuit of him that played out on national television became an indelible “where were you when …” cultural moment.

Car chases have long been a fixture of the zeitgeist of Los Angeles, a phenomenon that perhaps reached its apex with the O.J. Simpson pursuit and endures today, with near-daily coverage on local television news — often broadcast with footage from helicopters zooming across the skies of the city. Viewers pause, unable to look away from their televisions or their social media feeds.

L.A.’s fascination with high-speed pursuits has been the subject of cultural commentary, with writers across the years delving into what it says about the city and its inhabitants. An entertainment lawyer who spoke to The Los Angeles Times several years ago called June 17, 1994, the day of the O.J. chase, in which broadcast networks interrupted an N.B.A. playoff game to show live footage, “the day Los Angeles stopped.”

The O.J. chase is sometimes described as the beginning of the city’s obsession with car chases. The Twitter feed @ChaseAlert, which alerts high-speed chases in Los Angeles, recently wrote, “Happy 25th anniversary of the dawn of the car chase!”

But Los Angeles Magazine traced the first live police pursuit on local news to 1992, when a station interrupted a rerun of the legal drama “Matlock” to show officers chasing a red Volkswagen driven by a killer.

“The police pursuit found its audience,” according to the article. “Over the next decade the car chase — high speed, low speed, or, when a tire has flattened and the fugitive is running on sparks and stupidity, virtually no speed — would become another peculiar symbol of the city, an ‘Only in L.A.’”

Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina and author of a book on police pursuits, likened the public fascination to watching Nascar. “Thousands of people in a stadium waiting for a crash,” he said. “That’s the fascination.”

But Professor Alpert held the O.J. Simpson chase slightly apart from the public’s obsession with highway pursuits.

“The O.J. chase was a slow-speed chase,” he said. “It wasn’t your typical high-speed, risky pursuit. It was a celebrity issue.”

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Andy Ruiz Jr., right, defeated the heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in New York on June 1.Credit...Al Bello/Getty Images

The boxing world was stunned when Andy Ruiz Jr. upset Anthony Joshua, the undefeated British heavyweight champion, in his American debut at Madison Square Garden this month.

But for residents of Imperial, the border town where Ruiz grew up, it came as no surprise.

Our correspondent visited the community, which has been uplifted by Ruiz’s win. The fighter was born in the United States but proudly claims his Mexican heritage; he is now a favorite son for an immigrant community looking for something to celebrate.

“Within the Mexican community, they are going crazy,” said George Muñoz, who runs a gym in El Centro where Ruiz sometimes works out. “They have been looking for someone to give themselves a feeling of pride.”

Read the full story here.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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