Power of Context

Discussion Questions
1. The story of Bernie Goetz is one of a "regular" "ordinary looking" man in his mid-thirties entering a subway in New York City. When he got onto the subway he decided to seat himself in the back car with four young black teens horsing around and carrying on. When one of the kids asked him for five dollars he told them to leave him alone, as the kid asked again another one smiled and he shot all four of them right there on the spot. One of the kids was stretching out in pain and he shot him again just for moving. Some people see this man as a cold-blooded murderer while others see him as a hero. I see him as a murderer. The thought that someone could get off with three counts of murder alongside paralyzing a teenager for the rest of his life is a murderer. People see him as a hero because it turns out that the four youths had had a criminal background, and they view him as brining justice to these three youths. This is not the way I see it at all. Although these kids looked and were acting “suspicious” they never did anything deliberately to cause for Goetz to act in self defense, let alone shooting and killing them. On top of that no human being has the right to decide when any other human being should and will die. His job is not to bring justice to those who commit crimes on the street, that is the job of a police officer, not a ordinary man off the street. The fact that Goetz already had something against black people, which we know from his quote on page 148 of the Tipping Point “The only way we are going to clean up the streets is to get rid of the spics and the niggers”, causes me to question his incentives. The only reason why I think he had something against black people is because of the language that was used. Completely unnecessary language is used. He could have said criminals, mischievous characters, juveniles, delinquents, felons, and so on and so forth. But this makes me question his incentives, if you already feel some type of way about a particular group of people why would you associate yourself with them as oppose to separating yourself from them? And it doesn’t even have to be a race issue either, if the teens in the back of the subway car already looked rowdy, or suspicious, or dangerous, or threatening to you...why did you deliberately go back there and sit with them? Doesn’t add up right does it? I personally believe he wanted to go back there so they could "set him off" in other words say something to him to get him upset and he’d have a chance or a reason to do what he did, ceasing the opportunity to take action and matters into his own hands. Goetz took matters to far.