Next week is the 20th anniversary of the Bernhard Goetz subway shooting in New York City. The Associated Press recalls that after the case “ignited a national furor over racism, gun control, crime and vigilante justice, New York is a far different place, and the sensational case now exists mostly as an artifact from another era.” On Dec. 22, 1984, Goetz, a meek-looking white man, rose from his seat and shot four black youths, one of whom had demanded $5. “Could it happen now?” asked attorney Ron Kuby, who won $43 million in a suit against Goetz on behalf of paralyzed victim Darrell Cabey. “Inconceivable. Inconceivable that the attack would take place. Inconceivable that the attacker would be hailed as a hero.”
At the time, there were 15,000 felonies a year on average in the subway. Twenty years later, there were 2,760 felonies reported through Nov. 14 – barely eight per day. Murders in the subways, which topped out at 26 in 1990, are at zero for the year. Subway ridership is at about 4.5 million riders daily; in 1984, ridership was at about 2.7 million per day. “The subways are everybody’s second neighborhood,” said Thomas Reppetto, a police historian who heads the Citizens Crime Commission. “If you live in Brooklyn, and see a story about a robbery in the Bronx, you think, ‘Gee, that’s terrible.’ But if there’s a story about a robbery in the subway, you think, ‘Whoa. I ride down there.'”
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-16-goetz_x.htm