December 22, 1984: The Subway Vigilante

December 22, 1984: Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 men on a New York Subway train, and becomes known as "The Subway Vigilante."

In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, crime had escalated in American cities due to rising poverty and drug use, and New York City seemed to be its symbolic capital. And with personnel cutbacks in police departments due to budget shortfalls, it seemed like no one was doing anything about it.

In New York, Subway stations and trains were seen as particularly bad. The graffiti that stained the stations and the trains didn't help. I grew up in Central Jersey, a 45-minute bus ride from Midtown Manhattan.

When my mother let me go into The City, it was always with her, and we always took taxicabs. Never mind that taxis were dangerous, because the drivers tended to be maniacs, and we once got into 3 accidents in a single ride: She said the Subway was unsafe. (Disclaimer: Her father had driven a taxi in The City, so she may have been biased.) Only once before I turned 15 did she let me go to a Yankee game via the Subway, and she went with me, hating every minute of both the ride up and the ride back.

Goetz was born in Queens, and grew up Upstate before being sent to boarding school in Switzerland. He came back for college, and became an electrical engineer. In 1981, he was attacked by 3 young black men in the Canal Street subway station, injuring and robbing him. The attackers were caught, but never served time. This angered him, and he applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He chose a 5-shot .38-caliber revolver.

He was setting himself up to be life imitating art. In the 1974 film Death Wish, Charles Bronson played Paul Kersey, a man whose wife was killed and his daughter raped during a home invasion and robbery, and took to shooting criminals. He ended up shooting and killing 2 would-be muggers on a AA Train. Of course, in order to avoid the charge of racism, white actors were cast as the muggers.

(The AA was relabeled the K in 1985, and discontinued in 1988. Someone once asked me what would have happened if Kersey had met the titular gang from the 1979 film The Warriors on the Subway. The answer is obvious: Nothing would have happened. The Warriors, too, only wanted to get home safely, and would not have disturbed Kersey. So he would have left them alone, too.)

On December 22, 1984, 4 African-Americans from The Bronx boarded a downtown Number 2 Train. James Ramseur was 18 years old. The other 3 were all 19: Barry Allen (definitely not to be confused with the comic book character of the same name, the superhero known as The Flash), Troy Canty and Darrell Cabey. They told the police they were on their way to rob a video arcade in Manhattan.

When the train got to 14th Street and 7th Avenue, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. Goetz, then 37 years old, boarded, and sat across from the 4 teenagers. They surrounded him, to prevent anyone from interfering, and Canty said, "Give me five dollars." He later told the police it was an attempt at panhandling, not a mugging. None of them had pulled any kind of weapon.

Goetz did, and fired it. He ended up wounding all four. Cabey was paralyzed, while the others' wounds were not nearly as serious.

Goetz got off the train, went home, gathered some belongings, and fled the city. He rented a car, and drove 185 miles to Bennington, Vermont, destroying the evidence: He burned his recognizable blue jacket, and dismantled the gun, scattering the pieces in the woods.

For a few days, the shooter's identity was unknown. But people praised him for standing up to criminals and taking action against them. Christmas came and went, and his identity was still unknown.

But on December 26, someone called the New York Police Department's anonymous tip line, and mentioned Goetz' name and his previous mugging. On December 29, the police got a warrant and searched his apartment. On December 31, New Year's Eve, having heard of these developments, Goetz knew the game was up. He drove to Concord, New Hampshire, and turned himself in to the police there. By the time the ball dropped in Times Square at 12:00 Midnight, the world knew his name.

He told the Concord police that New York City was "lawless," and that the criminal justice system was "a joke," "a sham," and "a disgrace." On January 3, 1985, he was extradited to Manhattan.

It was between Ronald Reagan's re-election as President and his Inauguration for a 2nd term. It was the time of action films starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and the aforementioned Charles Bronson. Except this was real, and Bernhard Goetz became a folk hero for the time, at least among right-wingers, angry at crime and bigoted toward black people in general. For liberals, he was no hero, but they had to admit that there had to be a better way to fight crime than what was being done.

Goetz would end up convicted of "criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree," but acquitted of the attempted murder and first-degree assault charges, due to his claims of self-defense. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail, 1 year of psychiatric treatment, 5 years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine (about $14,000 in 2022 money). He ended up serving 8 months.

A civil trial found that Goetz had "acted recklessly and had deliberately inflicted emotional distress on" the paralyzed Cabey. Cabey was awarded $43 million (about $121 million today) -- $18 million for "pain and suffering," and $25 million in "punitive damages." Goetz soon declared bankruptcy. In a 2004 interview with Fox News host Nancy Grace, he admitted -- bragged? -- that he hadn't paid a penny.

Crime peaked in New York in 1990, then finally began to go down a little bit. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a bill sponsored in the Senate by Joe Biden of Delaware, later to be President himself; and in the House by Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois, both later to be elected to the Senate. Its provisions, including the hiring of new police officers, changes in tactics, and tougher penalties for crimes led to a huge dropoff in crime, especially in New York.

During the 1996 World Series, just 2 years later, the NYPD revealed that, despite being in the South Bronx, which had been one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in America, 96 percent of the crime within a block of Yankee Stadium was ticket scalping, a nonviolent offense. In 2006, New York ranked 194th out of 210 American cities with at least 100,000 people in terms of violent crime. By 2014, crime rates were comparable to those of the early 1960s, before the big wave began.

In 1986, James Ramseur was convicted of rape and robbery, served 14 years in prison, and died in 2011 of a drug overdose. He was 45 years old. Darryl Cabey remains paralyzed and brain-damaged, supposedly with the cognitive ability of an 8-year-old. Barry Allen also went to prison for an unrelated robbery, serving 4 years. Troy Canty went to drug rehab and got clean. I can find no reference as to what Allen and Canty are doing now. The 3 survivors are all 57 years old.

Goetz is 75. In 2013, he was arrested for selling marijuana, but the charges were dismissed the next year. He has became a vegetarian activist. In 2019, he publicly announced that he would no longer do interviews.

Also in 2019, the film Joker premiered. Director Todd Phillips delivered a variation on the story of the comic book villain, traditionally the nemesis of Batman. Setting it in 1981 in fictional Gotham City, he included a scene reminiscent of the Goetz case, and also of the Subway shooting scene in Death Wish.

Not counting individuals implied as being part of a group, like the Beatles and the performers at Woodstock, "Bernie" Goetz is 1 of 4 people mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" who are still alive at the end of 2022. The others are Brigitte Bardot, Chubby Checker and Bob Dylan. Goetz is easily the youngest of them, and is likely to be the last survivor.

I'm hoping he turns out not to be. He was no hero.

*

December 22, 1984 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. An NFL Playoff game was played that day: The Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 13-7 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

Three college football bowl games were played that day:

* Florida Citrus Bowl, at the Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando: Georgia and Florida State played to a 17-17 tie.

* Sun Bowl, at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas: Maryland 28, Tennessee 27.

* Cherry Bowl, at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan: Army 10, Michigan State 6.

There were 9 NBA games played that day. The New York Knicks were not involved in any of them, but the New York Tri-State Area's other team was:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-93 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Moses Malone led all scorers with 26 points, Andrew Toney scored 25, former Net Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 20, and Otis Birdsong scored 24 in defeat.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Washington Bullets, 119-101 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins, "The Human Highlight Film," scored 31 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-103 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Phil Hubbard scored 30 for the Cavs.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 110-85 at the Chicago Stadium. Danny Ainge led the defending NBA Champions with 16 points, and Larry Bird only scored 10. Leading all scorers in the game, with 32 points, was a Bulls rookie named Michael Jordan.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 101-90 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Detroit Pistons, 129-123 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.) This would be the Kings' last season in Kansas City, as they soon moved to Sacramento. Mike Woodson, the future Knicks coach, scored 31 for them in this game.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 125-107 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Lakewood Church Central Campus, the "megachurch" of televangelist Joel Osteen.) 

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz, 113-96 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 110-108 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

There were 9 NHL games that day, and all 3 of the New York Tri-State Area's teams were in action, 2 of them against each other:

* The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, 5-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Pierre Larouche scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts. The Devils' scorers were Captain Mel Bridgman, Dave Pichette and Doug Sulliman.

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-5 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 10-5 at the Montreal Forum.

* In an "Original Six" matchup broadcast live on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And in the HNIC nightcap, in the Battle of Alberta, the defending, and soon to be again, Stanley Cup Champions, the Edmonton Oilers, clobbered the Calgary Flames, 7-1.

Also, Arsenal drew with Watford, 1-1 at Highbury in North London.