Word: goetze
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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...
...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...