Word: goetz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...celebration of Goetz is understandable--he took on the punks and the system--but it retains a curiously surreal quality: the characters, hero and villains alike, are all abstract, marquee characters. Indeed, the whole Goetz phenomenon is life gone to the movies. The tabloids call the hero the Death Wish vigilante. The bad guys are out of A Clockwork Orange. The subway set is borrowed from Escape from New York. And now the audience picks up the chant from Network, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more...
...reaction to a grisly burst of violence owes much to the fact that the story instantly took on the form of a morality play. (In fact two columnists, on the same day, headlined their comments on the shooting with that phrase.) SYMBOL OF SUBTERRANEAN VENGEANCE, the Washington Post called Goetz. But no one remains a symbol, no story remains abstract forever. Mayors and editorialists can take heart: as soon as reality sets in, the glamour will fade, and the people will come to their senses...
Reality has a way of turning heroism to tragedy, even pathos. The real gunman is Bernhard Goetz, electronic whiz and loner. His was "a life of quiet desperation," concluded the New York Post. (It should know. It put 13 reporters on the story.) He has been described as moody and unstable. He certainly was frightened. He told his sister after the shooting that he did it out of fear. "A scared individual, vulnerable and fragile," a neighbor called him. When the movie is made, Goetz will be played not by Charles Bronson but by Donald Pleasence. Or better, by Anthony...
Consider it in two parts, pulling the gun and shooting. The first can plausibly be said to be an act of self-defense. The second is freelance law enforcement. And wrong for all the obvious reasons. Proportionality, to start with: the death penalty, which is what Goetz tried and failed to administer, is reserved for greater crimes than a $5 shakedown. Lack of necessity, for another. Pulling the gun ended the threat. The boys ran. Pulling the trigger was superfluous. Two had to be shot in the back...
Perhaps worst, the punishment was collective. Goetz had been mugged four years ago and had brooded ever since over the lenient treatment his attackers received. These four were paying for more than their own sins. A whole class of muggers got theirs on the downtown express. But the law, which still prevails aboveground, does not permit trial by class. Everyone pays for his sins only. Even criminals cannot remain abstract...