Posted on 11/02/2013 7:14:08 AM PDT by lowbridge
He went from tokens to toking.
“Subway vigilante” Bernie Goetz has turned to peddling pot, cops say, decades after he pumped five shots into four black teenagers, skyrocketing him to national fame and infamy.
The gunman, who divided the city after shooting four black teens in 1984, was arrested in Manhattan after selling a small amount of marijuana to an undercover narcotics cop Friday evening, police said.
Goetz, who will be celebrating his 66th birthday next Thursday, reportedly chatted up the undercover female officer at Union Square Park at about 5:30 p.m. and “asked her if she wanted to get high,” according to one police source.
When she agreed, Goetz ran off to his home and returned with $30 worth of weed, which he sold to the undercover officer at Fifth Ave. and W. 14th St., officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
The original crazy azz crackah.
I suspect that he was simply trying to “get in good” with the female plainclothes cop. He also may have been targeted in an entrapment set up—what drug dealer has to run home to get $30 worth of pot for a customer?
Why are the cops spending resources on such trivial "deals" in the first place?
If he shot 4 people, what’s he doing out of jail?
Don’t undercover cops have bigger fish to fry?
Good thing it wasn’t a tobacco cigarette or he’d have been in real trouble.
He didn’t shoot four “people”. He shot four Ghetto Thugs.
It makes their arrest rate look good.
Ever heard of self defense? It was a widely celebrated case on FR at the time.
I'd also point out that infamous "subway vigilante" incident occurred in 1984, and none of the assailants who he shot died ... so it's unlikely he'd still be in prison today even if he had been convicted on the four counts of attempted murder.
This guy is one of the great characters in NYC folklore. I'm surprised he hasn't been arrested previously on drug charges like this. He makes no secret of the fact that he's a big fan of legalizing marijuana, and even ran for mayor a couple of times on a Marijuana Party ticket. LOL.
Chronological error: It has been a widely celebrated case on FR, ever since. Four thugs picked the nerdish looking Goetz as an easy mark and tried to hold him up with a sharpened screw driver and superior numbers. Goetz showed them the folly of bringing a screw driver to a gun fight.
I'm not sure about that. Was FR even around in 1984? LOL. ;-)
The two angles of that story that stick in my mind:
1. There were a couple of dozen other riders on the subway car at the time, but when the police questioned them everyone except one of two of them said they didn't see anything.
2. Someone pulled the emergency brake on the train, and a bunch of the passengers scrambled out of their seats and fell all over the floor of the subway car when he started firing his gun. The police knew the guy was something of a character because he went around helping people up off the floor and apologizing to them before he disappeared down the subway tunnel.
Great memories from the bad old days in NYC.
In 1984?
I guess I missed that it was a self defense shooting. I don’t remember reading about it here or anywhere else.
If it were a self defense shooting, why was he ever in jail?
Thanks for answering my question, though.
Good thing she didn’t ask him for 5 dollars!
He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed firearm in NYC. NYC is “occupied territory,” so there’s no Second Amendment there.
ROFL.
Actually, at least two of the assailants have died since, more the victim of actuarial inevitability than Goetz, given their circumstances and habits. One, Darrell Cabey actually did “turn his life around”, however.
In summary:
Darrell Cabey fell into an irreversible coma as a result of the injuries he sustained. He won a $43 million dollar judgment against Goetz, so he is certainly “living the dream”.
Barry Allen committed suicide in 1991
James Ramseur died of a drug over dose in 2011
Troy Canty seems to have fallen off the radar
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.