Introduction: ‘Don’t Get Mad, Get Even’

Abstract

On the afternoon of 22 December 1984, on a busy Manahattan subway train, four youths challenged Bernhard Goetz, a self-employed electronics expert; one of them reportedly asked him for five dollars. When Goetz asked the questioner, Troy Canty, to repeat himself, he was told to hand over his money. Goetz responded by standing up, drawing a concealed revolver, and shooting and wounding Canty and his three associates. When the train came to a stop after the conductor in the next carriage pulled the emergency cord, Goetz made his escape by slipping off the train and across the tracks, afterwards hiring a car and driving to Vermont. He finally surrendered himself to New Hampshire police on New Year’s Eve. The trial that followed featured furious debate about urban crime, vigilantism and issues of race: Goetz was white, and all four of his victims were African-Americans. While the controversies raged, it became clear that there was a strong groundswell of public opinion in favour of Goetz’s actions: all four youths had criminal records prior to the incident (and all except for Darryl Cabey, left paralysed after the shooting, have committed further serious crimes since Goetz’s trial). Despite his confession and plea of self-defence, Goetz, dubbed ‘the subway vigilante’, was acquitted of all nine felony charges at his trial – including one charge of attempted murder and assault against each of the four victims, and an additional charge of reckless endangerment – but found guilty of illegal possession of a weapon.