Bernhard Goetz incident
The Bernhard Goetz incident refers to a shooting that occurred on December 22, 1984, in a New York City subway, where Goetz, a white man, shot four Black youths who had approached him for money. The youths were later identified as known offenders with sharpened screwdrivers. After initially fleeing the scene, Goetz surrendered to police on December 31 and was subsequently charged with a variety of offenses. The case drew significant attention, as it raised complex questions surrounding self-defense, urban crime, and racial tensions. While some viewed Goetz's actions as justified due to his past victimization and the perceived threat from the youths, others criticized him as excessively violent and racially biased, particularly given that one youth was shot in the back while fleeing. Ultimately, Goetz was convicted on a minor weapons charge and sentenced to a short jail term. The incident highlighted deep societal divisions regarding race and gun control in America, themes that have continued to resonate in subsequent high-profile cases involving race relations.
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Bernhard Goetz incident
On December 22, 1984, an unidentified white man, later dubbed the Subway Vigilante, drew a pistol and shot four black youths who surrounded him and asked him for money on a New York subway. The shooter then fled. On December 31, 1984, Bernhard Goetz, age thirty-seven, surrendered to police. Goetz was arraigned January 3, 1985, and indicted January 25.
Goetz gained support among conservative white Americans when it emerged that the young men were known offenders armed with sharpened screwdrivers, that Goetz had been a victim of a mugging in which charges were dropped, and that his request for a gun permit had been denied despite a job-related need to carry cash on the subway.
After a charge of attempted murder was dropped, Goetz went to trial April 27, 1987, on a variety of lesser charges. On June 16, 1987, he was convicted of a single charge, a misdemeanor weapons charge, and on October 19, 1987, he was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation. One of the injured youths remained seriously disabled. Many blacks and some whites felt Goetz’s acts were excessive, despite his fear of victimization.
The case raised serious issues about urban racial conflict, gun control, citizen safety, and self-defense. Some label his actions self-defense; others call Goetz a trigger-happy racist, noting that the fourth boy was shot twice in the back as he turned away from Goetz. The undisputed facts are that Goetz bought the gun legally in Florida, took it illegally to New York where gun laws are stricter, and then carried it illegally on the subway. The case further illustrates the deep gulf that divides the races in urban America. Since 1984 several other court cases, including the Rodney King and O. J. Simpson cases as well as the racially charged Ferguson, Missouri, incidents and the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, have made it clear that racial conflicts remain.
Bibliography
Betancur, John Jairo, and Cedric Herring. Reinventing Race, Reinventing Racism. Chicago: Haymarket, 2014. Print.
Burgess, Ann Wolbert, Cheryl Regehr, and Albert R. Roberts. Victimology: Theories and Applications. 2nd ed. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett, 2013. Print.
Fasenfest, David. "Dangerous Times." Critical Sociology 40.6 (2014): 811–13.
Fletcher, George P. A Crime of Self-Defense: Bernhard Goetz and the Law on Trial. Birmingham: Notable Trials, 1991. Print.
Haas, Nicole E., Jan W. de Keijser, and Gerben JN Bruinsma. "Public Support for Vigilantism, Confidence in Police and Police Responsiveness." Policing and Society 24.2 (2014): 224–41. Print.