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In Georgia, Lumpkin County Sheriff Kenneth Seabolt has been raising money for Goetz. Seabolt did not condone the illegal gun, but said, "I'm glad to see someone who's got enough guts to stand up for his rights." The sheriff's actions outraged the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Joseph Lowery. "When someone sworn to uphold the law raises money to help a lawless individual, somebody ought to check into that," he said. "We want to make a hero out of Goetz, which was made a little easier because the four victims were black. Do we long for the days of Wyatt Earp and Dodge City? That's where we're headed."
Why all the sentiment for Goetz? "It may simply indicate that there are no more liberals on the crime and law-and-order issue in New York, because they've all been mugged," said Harvard Professor of Government James Q. Wilson, author of Thinking About Crime. "Therefore the normal partisan divisions no longer obtain in a situation of this sort."
Wilson said that cases similar to the subway shooting occur constantly around the country. Indeed, in Beverly Hills on New Year's Eve, an 81-year-old retired jewelry merchant shot and killed a 26-year-old mugger with an illegal handgun. The mugger's father said that he would have fired too, and the deputy district attorney announced, "We're not going to put an 81-year-old man in jail." The incident passed with little public attention.
The Goetz case, however, is the stuff of myth: a frail, law-abiding citizen, bullied as a youngster, badly beaten by a mugger, gets a gun and lashes out at his tormentors. Like most myths, there is something in the story line to satisfy almost all who read about it. Still, Goetz is not a clear-cut hero. Psychologically, he may have been punishing the four youths for his earlier mugging. He had made some racist comments in the past, and clearly used more force than the situation called for.
Yet Goetz, flawed or not, was caught in a menacing situation. When a group of street toughs crowd in close, asking for the time or a few dollars, most New Yorkers recognize the onset of a mugging. The youths were hardly innocents. The four have had a history of brushes with the law that have included nine convictions, twelve outstanding cases and ten bench warrants for non- appearances in court. The hospitalized Cabey is awaiting trial on charges of robbing three men with a shotgun.
Certainly Goetz's quirky, guileless behavior fits the requirements of the myth better than Actor Charles Bronson's righteous and mean-spirited avenger in the film Death Wish. (Said Bronson last week: "I was raised to believe that if you have snakes in your backyard, you have to stomp on them.") Goetz talked to New York City police for three hours without a lawyer, providing most of the evidence that may be used against him. So far he has avoided any sense of triumph or self-justification, and his few public statements contain little that anyone can disagree with. "You know," he said, "I hope something good comes of all this."