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Without any help from Goetz, who has kept a notably low profile, passions roused by the shootings were running high. When New York police set up a special hot line to seek evidence in the case, they were deluged with phone calls backing Goetz; many of the well-wishers suggested that he run for mayor or receive a medal. Like many radio talk-show hosts, Clark Weber of Chicago station WIND has been swamped with pro-Goetz calls. "They won't let it go," he said. "There's an intense frustration out there, and it bothers me." Bob Grant, a contentious radio personality at New York's WABC, startled his listeners last week by saying that Goetz had not done the job right. "The essence of what I said," explained Grant later, "was if he had learned how to use that gun, they all would have been dead in the first place."
Pugnacious New York Daily News Columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote several bitter columns accusing the white Goetz and his supporters of racism. As Cabey's condition worsened, Breslin wrote, "Those who thought it was fine for Goetz to shoot a black in the back, even if it paralyzed him for life, now conceivably could be asked to raise their cheers for death." But much black opinion has come down on Goetz's side. Roy Innis, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, called Goetz "the avenger for all of us" and offered to raise defense money. "Some black man ought to have done what he did long before," said Innis. "I wish it had been me." Innis called for a "volunteer peace officer" force of armed civilians to roam the streets. "After enough criminals get blasted," he said, "they will conclude that crime does not pay."
President Reagan was asked about the Goetz case at midweek, certainly the first time a subway shooting had surfaced at a presidential news conference. His comment: he sympathized with public frustration about crime, but citizens could not take the law into their own hands.
Most editorials have agreed with the President's unimpeachably balanced view, but here and there some anger has flared. The Wall Street Journal said it did not condone violence, but asked, "If the 'state of nature' has returned to some big cities, can people fairly be blamed for modern vigilantism? Is it more 'civilized' to suffer threats to individual liberty from criminals, or is it an overdose of sophistication to say individuals can never resort to self-protection?" The Milwaukee Journal, also insisting that violence should not be condoned, noted that in the wake of the Goetz case a hit-and-run driver in New York City had been caught and beaten by an enraged mob. Said the Journal: "Authorities must recognize that their own failure to protect citizens itself breeds crime." The Boston Globe viewed "pistol- packin' Bernhard Goetz" with alarm: "With no psychiatric evaluation yet made, he may resemble Richard Speck more than Wyatt Earp."