Posted on 08/05/2004 10:51:28 AM PDT by UnklGene
Thomas Sowell: The left's vision -
August 5, 2004
Santa Monica, California, has decreed a fine of $2,500 a day for not cutting your hedges!
Has someone discovered some terrible health hazard or other danger from hedges that are too high? Not at all. The politicians who run Santa Monica have simply decided that people should not be able to build a high wall of hedges around themselves.
Santa Monica has long been called "the People's Republic of Santa Monica" for all the far left laws and rhetoric it generates. Like other governments called "people's republic," the last thing they care about is people. The ideology, or even whims, of those in power routinely take away other people's right to live their own lives as they see fit.
Santa Monica is not unique. Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.
Too often these selfish ego trips of the left are called idealism, and issues are discussed in terms of the wonderful goals they proclaim -- "social justice," "open space" or "saving" this or that -- rather than in terms of what is actually being done and the costs entailed on others, even when that cost is $2,500 a day.
None of this is peculiar to the United States. In fact, the same mindset is more prevalent in a number of Western European countries and has been carried even further in practice.
In Britain, for example, the right to defend yourself is being taken away in many ways. Gun control laws there have not only tightened restrictions on gun ownership -- with the murder rate rising as they do -- these laws ban anything that looks like a gun, especially if it is used in self-defense.
Britons who have held burglars in their homes until the police arrived, by using toy pistols, have been arrested along with the burglars. To the collectivist mindset, independent self-help of any sort is a threat to their vision of the government as the sole source of protection and direction.
If someone attacks you in Britain and you knock him down, you are not allowed to hit him again or you will be charged with assault. Apparently they think that someone who has been knocked down is now harmless. People who have led sufficiently sheltered lives may believe such things -- and impose such notions on others through the power of government.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has even advised that you are not to yell "help" when you are attacked in a public place. You are to yell "Call the police."
Both self-defense and coming to the aid of others are lumped together as "vigilante" actions. That mindset has made inroads into the American media as well.
Years ago, Bernard Goetz was called "the subway vigilante" in the media because he shot some young hoodlums who attacked him directly. He had sat quietly minding his own business while the thugs harassed other people in the same subway car. But even to defend himself was "vigilante" action, as far as those in the liberal media were concerned.
The left takes its vision seriously -- more seriously than it takes the rights of other people. They want to be our shepherds. But that requires us to be sheep.
Even in the raising of our own children, the left wants to take charge -- without taking responsibility. Schools have long ago taken over the role of introducing children to sex when, how, and with whatever beliefs are in vogue. But, if your child ends up pregnant or stricken with AIDS, that is your problem, not theirs.
In some European countries, it is illegal to spank your own children. They apparently believe, like Hillary Clinton, that "it takes a village" to raise a child. But, if the child ends up rotten, it is not the village that lies awake at night but the parents.
Making other people's decisions for them without being held accountable for the consequences is the left's vision in many different contexts -- including outsourcing our foreign policy to the United Nations or to the International Court of Justice, whom nobody elected and whom nobody can hold accountable.
Hedges in Santa Monica are just one of the signs of our times. They want to cut our freedom down, not just hedges.
He's wrong about Goetz. Goetz was riding loaded for bear and looking for an excuse. The thugs gave him an excuse but not a reason. His final shot (You don't look too bad, here's another one) into Daryl Cabey's gut was nothing short of felonious assault.
Goetz was "loaded for bear" as you say, but only AFTER he had been accosted several times by thugs in the subway station. He knew the police weren't able or willing to protect him, so he protected himself, as is his natural right.
I do agree with you on the shot to the gut, however. THAT was where he crossed the line, not any sooner.
He has this a little backwards. Liberals want to teach kids that anything goes, self-gratification rules, and no one should critize them for it. But when the negative consequences come, liberals want the rest of us to pay for it.
Ideally, schools would leave sex-ed to families. Since that's not likely to happen, we at least need abstinence only education. Either way, the consequences belong with the individual, not the state.
Sowell PING!
A certain element lionizes Goetz for being a skinny white geek who took on three black thugs but, as I said, that is the myth, not the truth. He had been mugged before and the thugs walked. He was out to get his and took the opportunity to do so.
For what it's worth I've been in two situations where my finger was on the trigger (on the job in NYC). In neither did I fire, it wasn't necessary.
Your comment about your situation and the adrenaline is true for that incident but keep in mind that ol' Bernie took the time to walk back, assess Cabey and pull the trigger again, not the action of one in fight or flee mode. In law that amounts to pre-meditation. He got off easy.
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That is not factual. Bernie had not been accosted by anyone that day. He had been mugged months earlier. The thugs whom he shot were not muggers, they were loud mouthed punks. As I wrote in another post the screwdrivers of legend never came out of their pockets, they were on their way to rifle the coin boxes at a game arcade at 34th Street. Goetz took what should have been a verbal non-incident and turned it into a shooting, his way of evening up the old score. The rest is racial spin.
I was only wanting people to know that when you read about people in dangerous situations, it is so amazingly different when you are actually in a dangerous life or death struggle. Even though it has been decades, I can still vividly recall every detail of my incident. After he stabbed my friend, the other thugs stopped fighting me. They guy with the knife had me cornered. He said he was going to "get me" and started after me. I bolted for my life. I ran down the street looking over my shoulder at the guy chasing after me, the knife reflecting in the street lights. He was only about three feet behind me most of the way. I was a long distance runner, so I was able to out last him, even though I had boots on.
It is amazing how powerful are our primitive instincts for survival.
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Yep, I've got those too.
Goetz had been mugged before and was almost thrown through plate glass window. He could have been killed. The thugs were never caught. They did not "walk." He was terrified that the next time he was mugged, he would end up dead. He was not out to "get his."
He was surrounded by the would be muggers on that train and they demanded his money. You believe the lie that the muggers told about carrying screw drivers to break into video games. They could have been carrying them to use as weapons as a way of avoiding arrest for carring knives or guns instead.
You fail to mention the fact that Cabey had mugged a young black woman shortly before he got shot by Goetz. He used a shotgun to commit his crime. I wonder why Goetz found him scary? One of the other victims of Goetz raped a black woman at gunpoint and sodomized her with the barrel of his gun.
By the way, according to the eye-witnesses, Goetz tried to shoot Cabey again but could not because he ran out of bullets.
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Goetz had been mugged before and was almost thrown through plate glass window. He could have been killed. The thugs were never caught....
Almost means it didn't happen. His muggers were caught. The resolution was they and Goetz had to sit and talk through the anger and insult...in other words, no justice. After that he got a hand gun.
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You believe the lie that the muggers told about carrying screw drivers to break into video games.....
No, during that exact time this was a common crime, especially in the arcade at Penn Station on the LIRR level which was where the train was heading. Goetz lived one stop past it. Two teens would hunch over the game "playing" while a third crouched hidden and pried open the coin box with a screwdriver. It was the reason these joints changed over to selling play tokens. Let's not even talk about the fact that anybody of any age could walk into any one of hundreds of small stores around the city and for five bucks buy a wood-handled jack knife with a fiveinch blade called the "007". They were cheaper than screwdrivers, easier to get but not strong enough to open a coin box.
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They could have been carrying them to use as weapons as a way of avoiding arrest for carring knives or guns instead...
"Could Have Been" = Speculation and given the way the street worked in NYC in the 80s, just plain stupid. Folding knives with blades under four inches were easily attainable and not illegal in NYC at the time (I don't know about now). A screwdriver used in a robbery that is against a person as opposed to a burglary is no longer a screwdriver, it is a weapon, same as a knife. Using either one in a mugging or to intimidate/threaten/menace carries the same penalties.
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You fail to mention the fact that Cabey had mugged a young black woman shortly before he got shot by Goetz. He used a shotgun to commit his crime.....
Totally without relevance to Goetz' frame of mind unless he witnessed or knew of the original crime. Are you suggesting that Cabey still had the shotgun?
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I wonder why Goetz found him scary?
Maybe for the same reason you might, but not because of any crime Cabey may have committed at some earlier time.
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One of the other victims of Goetz raped a black woman at gunpoint and sodomized her with the barrel of his gun....
You want honesty? Why not mention the fact that this happened years after Goetz shot him? Are you suggesting that Bernie was also clairvoyant?
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By the way, according to the eye-witnesses, Goetz tried to shoot Cabey again but could not because he ran out of bullets....
Would that be the same group of witnesses who said that Goetz appeared cool and in control the entire time? That they themselves were not threatened or mugged? That the thugs were loud, boistrous and made the mistake of saying "Hey you got five dollars" to Goetz (not surrounding him and threatening him with screwdrivers)? The same ones who testified that at least one of the guys he shot was sitting down throughout the whole event? The ones who never saw any screwdrivers (because they were found by responders still in the thugs pockets)? Those witnesses?
Goetz was not a hero or a Subway Vigilante or a would be victim who fought back. He was a weak man who had been hurt by other people in a much earlier incident for which there was no justice, only additional insult. The first time he found an excuse (not a reason) he pulled the trigger. That is why he went to jail. As I said, everything else is racial spin. Whatever the thugs may have done prior or subsequent to other people has nothing at all to do with what he did, sorry.
The witnesses said they believed the thugs were going to mug Goetz.
They did demand money.
On December 22, 1984 at one o'clock in the afternoon Bernhard Hugo Goetz entered the downtown IRT train at the 14th Street station in Manhattan with a loaded five shot 38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver concealed in his belt holster. There were some twenty to twenty-five people in the car, including a group of four young black men: Troy Canty, Barry Allen, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey. Goetz sat down across from the youths. Moments later Canty and Allen, followed by Ramseur and Cabey rose and surrounded Goetz. Canty then demanded five dollars. Goetz, feigning a lack of understanding asked Canty to repeat his request. Canty responded, "Give me your money." Goetz stood up, and while supporting himself by one of the poles, reached inside his jacket, drew his revolver, and fired in rapid succession from left to right at Canty, Allen, Ramseur, and twice at Cabey. All, save one of the shots at Cabey, hit their mark. The conductor, who was in another car, hearing the shots, pulled the emergency brake cord. As the train screeched to a halt mid-station, Goetz reassured two female passengers cowering on the floor, and after brushing past the inquisitive conductor, climbed down onto the tracks through the opening between two cars and disappeared. So began the saga of New York's "Subway Vigilante."
The salient fact about the four individuals he shot was not that they were black, or young, or male, but rather that they were attempting to rob him. These young men had all committed serious crimes prior to their attempt to rob Goetz, were enroute to other crimes when they tried to rob Goetz, and have all, save Cabey who remains paralyzed, committed serious crimes since recovering from the wounds inflicted by Goetz. James Ramseur, for example, was later convicted of a particularly brutal rape, sodomy, robbery, and beating of Gladys Richardson, a pregnant nineteen year-old.
From: Review of: A CRIME OF SELF-DEFENSE: BERNHARD GOETZ AND THE LAW ON TRIAL
http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Cohen1.html
Newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin testified about an interview he had with Cabey almost a year after the shooting. Breslin said Cabey told him that three other young men on the train intended to rob Goetz because ''he looked like easy bait.''
From:http://www.courttv.com/archive/casefiles/verdicts/goetz.html
Goetz did not need to be a mind-reader or clairvoyant to see the evil and violence in the eyes of his would be attackers. The jury saw these thugs in the courtroom and they saw that same evil. One of your precious "victims" had to be restrained on the witness stand because he was "acting out."
You seem to be a mind reader, too. You think you know why he reacted as he did. You sit in judgement of him. I would love to see your reaction to almost being killed by thugs and then be confronted by more of their ilk on a subway train. He had every right to be afraid. The jury in the criminal trial decided that he was right to defend himself. Thank God the likes of you was not on that jury.
And, I have been in that situation, more than once, without pulling the trigger. It's amazing how a gun in the hand will trump a screwdriver in the pocket.
I hope that when you grow up you are just like your boy Bernhard, we need more heroes.
fundamental difference between "ruling" and "leading".....the Hillahrea's of the world like to think of themselves as "rulers"...those we admire are our leaders.
Cops love to second guess the actions of civilians when they react in fear and shoot or stab a street thug. The cops who shot Diallo saw no gun and were not threatened by them. They reacted in fear when he made a move to show him his ID in his wallet. The jury found the cops not guilty. I suppose you think your fellow cops should have been convicted. After all, according to you, showing him their guns should have been enough. Cops in NYC seem to think that the only people who have a right to self-defense is them. Goetz had every right to defend himself against the animals that threatened him. Too bad he ran out of bullets. The woman raped by your boy Ramsewer would never had been made to suffer the nightmare she probably still lives with. The jury in the Goetz case was absolutely correct. They did not buy the prosecution case. They heard your views and rejected them just as the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers did. They did not do what the jury in the Simpson case did. Find better comparisons.
Wrong again. You have a right to defend with lethal force from attack, not from "threat"
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The woman raped by your boy Ramsewer...
Show me one word I wrote in defense of any of these thugs....you can't. Try to stick to what I actually write, not what you presume.
And thanks for painting cops with one broad brush, kinda like your apparent attitude towards Blacks.
Don't try the cheap tactic of playing the race card. I have said nothing about the race of the thugs. I said nothing about blacks in general. When you can't deal with the facts, always try to change the subject. It's a tactic that Leftists use whenever you have them backed into a corner. Again, the jury disagreed with you. They believed he had the right to defend himself from the predators. If you can, address yourself to the issues. Speaking of presumptions, it was you who say that Goetz is, "your boy" and "your hero." Did I ever call him my hero? I don't paint all cops with a broad brush. There is a certain mentality in the NYPD that sees themselves as the only ones who should be allowed to protect themselves with weapons. That mentality is always supporting strict gun-control laws that disarm the law-abiding citizen. As a result, the average New Yorker is at the mercy of violent street thugs. There are many parts of the country that don't follow that attitude.
I know many people in NYC who carry illegal weapons on a daily basis for self-defense purposes and who are not going to be sheep to the slaughter, no matter what Liberals say. If Goetz had refused to give the thugs his money, he might have gotten one of their screwdrivers shoved into his chest. He decided not to take that chance. No matter what you say, he did the right thing for himself. He is alive today. Take chances with your own life, not someone elses.
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