Bernie Goetz and Vigilante Justice in America

The 1984 Subway Shooting and Its Aftermath

Bernie Goetz is a vigilante who shot four Black male youths in New York City in 1984. The victims asked Goetz for five dollars, reportedly to play video games, and Goetz agreed. He stated he would give them each five dollars — then proceeded to shoot all four, leaving one paralyzed for life. Goetz was eventually caught and went to trial, receiving a sentence of one year in prison and serving eight months. He also lost a civil case brought by one of the victims but failed to pay a single penny after filing for bankruptcy, even when the judge ruled he was required to pay.

The legal outcome left the victims without compensation and, in the eyes of many, without justice. One of the victims, James Ramseur, later took his own life. "James Ramseur, 45, was found dead of an apparent overdose at 11:30 a.m. yesterday at the Paradise Hotel at 2990 Boston Road, law-enforcement sources said last night" (Saul). He and the other victims emerged from the incident without financial recourse and were characterized by some as criminals who deserved to be shot. Even today, segments of the public hail Goetz as a hero.

Public Reaction and Media Fascination

Society's reaction to the Goetz shooting fell into three broad camps. The first supported his actions, believing he was genuinely in danger of being beaten and robbed. The second believed the victims, thinking the youths simply wanted to panhandle in order to play video games. The third believed Goetz's account but regarded his response as extreme. Those who supported his actions felt, in some sense, energized by the idea that a vigilante had delivered justice in a city rife with crime. As Lillian Rubin observed, "The idea that a vigilante is on the loose, that a real live 'death wish' killer is abroad, tantalizes both public and media. People read the stories avidly, turn on the television news eagerly" (Rubin 5–6).

Regardless of which side one believed, the story captivated audiences. Rubin noted that "the public is mesmerized by this startling turn of events. Imagine! A man who resisted the muggers and got away with it. Nothing else matters; nothing else is noticed — not dum-dum bullets, not that two people were shot in the back, not even that one is paralyzed for life" (Rubin 7). The public, it seemed, was drawn to the drama of the premise and largely indifferent to the consequences. They treated it as a compelling story rather than a human tragedy.

Goetz's Background and Psychological Context

One notable aspect of the case is Goetz's personal history. He did not grow up in New York City but in upstate New York. After a marriage that ended in divorce, he relocated to an apartment in Greenwich Village and ran a small electronics business out of his home — hardly a picture of financial stability or social confidence. His earlier years had included time spent in Switzerland for school, and the contrast between that environment and life as a lone resident in a challenging urban neighborhood was stark.

His relative inexperience with city life may have contributed to a heightened sense of paranoia. Living alone, struggling economically, and having spent formative years in less urban settings, Goetz may have developed an exaggerated fear of the dangers around him — and, with it, an intensified impulse toward self-protection. This psychological context does not excuse his actions, but it provides a frame for understanding how he arrived at such a violent response.

The Trayvon Martin Case and Its Parallels to Goetz

A vigilante case that in many ways built the foundation for the Black Lives Matter movement was the shooting of Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman, acting as a neighborhood watch volunteer, observed a young Black male in the neighborhood he was patrolling and shot him. The boy died, and Zimmerman faced significant public backlash. However, he was acquitted on all counts on July 13, 2013, after sixteen hours of jury deliberations, receiving a not-guilty verdict.

Unlike Goetz, Zimmerman succeeded in persuading the jury to clear him of all charges (Fasching-Varner et al.). Like Goetz, however, he was not found to have committed murder in the eyes of the law. Had Zimmerman been carrying an illegal firearm, his outcome might have more closely resembled Goetz's — convicted not of the shooting itself, but of a weapons charge.

Because Zimmerman was acquitted, the verdict reflected a legal and cultural environment in Florida that, at least in the jury's view, supported his act of self-described justice. Looking back through American history, many cases exist in which white individuals who killed Black individuals were deemed legally justified. Although Zimmerman is of Peruvian heritage, many in the public perceived him as a white man performing a neighborhood protection role. The critical difference between the two cases, however, was the scale of public outrage. This time, Black Americans were far more vocal in expressing their anger — partly because Trayvon Martin was widely understood to be an innocent teenager with no criminal record, in contrast to the youths shot by Goetz, who did have prior records (Cobb).

Works Cited

Cobb, Jelani. "After the Verdict: The Zimmerman Non-Riots." The New Yorker, 15 July 2013, www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/after-the-verdict-the-zimmerman-non-riots. Accessed 21 May 2017.

Fasching-Varner, Kenneth J., et al. Trayvon Martin, Race, and American Justice: Writing Wrong. 2014.

Rubin, Lillian B. Quiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in a Time of Madness. Univ. of California P, 1989.

Saul, Josh. "One of Bernhard Goetz's Victims Kills Self on Anniversary of Subway Shoot." New York Post, 23 Dec. 2011, nypost.com/2011/12/23/one-of-bernhard-goetzs-victims-kills-self-on-anniversary-of-subway-shoot-2/. Accessed 21 May 2017.