Exposing the roots of vigilantism that persist today

"Both books are deeply researched, providing detailed accounts of the circumstances leading up to the violence, the shootings themselves, and their aftermath. They paint similar pictures of Goetz, a loner who, in Williams' words, was long "frustrated by what he regarded as the city's failures to fight crime and mess." Both authors report that at a 1980 meeting of his building's tenants' association, Goetz shocked his neighbors by using racial epithets to blame Blacks and Hispanics for New York's problems."

"Thompson offers a sympathetic portrayal of the 18- and 19-year-old victims, describing their difficult lives in the face of gutted social services and the scourge of crack cocaine in their public housing development in the South Bronx."

On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teenagers in a New York City subway, claiming self-defense against an anticipated robbery. Goetz received substantial public support and became known as the "subway vigilante," while the victims were portrayed as criminals rather than victims. Two recent books examine this pivotal incident: Heather Ann Thompson's "Fear and Fury" analyzes the shootings within the context of 1980s racial and economic divisions and their lasting impact on contemporary politics, while Elliot Williams' "Five Bullets" focuses on the legal dimensions of the case. Both works reveal Goetz as a frustrated loner who had previously used racial epithets and illegally carried a weapon after being denied a gun permit. Thompson provides sympathetic accounts of the teenage victims, highlighting their struggles amid deteriorating social services and crack cocaine epidemics in the South Bronx.

Read at The Christian Science Monitor