Word: goetz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Goetz case, however, is the stuff of myth: a frail, law-abiding citizen, bullied as a youngster, badly beaten by a mugger, gets a gun and lashes out at his tormentors. Like most myths, there is something in the story line to satisfy almost all who read about it. Still, Goetz is not a clear-cut hero. Psychologically, he may have been punishing the four youths for his earlier mugging. He had made some racist comments in the past, and clearly used more force than the situation called...
...Goetz, flawed or not, was caught in a menacing situation. When a group of street toughs crowd in close, asking for the time or a few dollars, most New Yorkers recognize the onset of a mugging. The youths were hardly innocents. The four have had a history of brushes with the law that have included nine convictions, twelve outstanding cases and ten bench warrants for non- appearances in court. The hospitalized Cabey is awaiting trial on charges of robbing three men with a shotgun...
Certainly Goetz's quirky, guileless behavior fits the requirements of the myth better than Actor Charles Bronson's righteous and mean-spirited avenger in the film Death Wish. (Said Bronson last week: "I was raised to believe that if you have snakes in your backyard, you have to stomp on them.") Goetz talked to New York City police for three hours without a lawyer, providing most of the evidence that may be used against him. So far he has avoided any sense of triumph or self-justification, and his few public statements contain little that anyone can disagree with...
Rarely, apart from assassinations of the famous, has the act of a single anonymous person caused such a stir. Mild-mannered Bernhard Goetz gets on a New York City subway. Four young toughs surround him, asking first for a match, next a cigarette, then $5. He pulls a gun, shoots them all, two in the back. He runs away, then nine days later turns himself in. The town goes wild for him. Dubbed the subway vigilante, he is the talk, the toast, of every radio call-in show from Miami to San Diego. The outpouring of popular support becomes...
...short answer is rage, directed first at Goetz's harassers. It is hard for anyone to muster much sympathy for them or their Miranda rights. The loathing for these villains/victims is universal. Columnist Jimmy Breslin says it is because of race. The four youths are black, Goetz is white. There may be some truth to that, but it does not begin to explain things. Millions of blacks and Hispanics ride the New York subways. Interviews with most show them to be as sympathetic to Goetz and as hostile to his attackers as whites...