When I was a young’un, “New York City” was synonymous with “crime-riddled hellhole.” But that started to change in 1984, when a lone goofball by name of Bernie Goetz plugged four attempted muggers on a train and became a national hero. He didn’t kill any of them (though he did paralyze one), and three went on to recover from their wounds and continue with wasted lives of crime. One of them, James Ramseur, went on to join in the rape of a pregnant 18-year-old woman, got arrested, and spent a relatively trivial 25 years in prison. He got out 17 months ago, and finally offed himself with a pill overdose yesterday.
One of Bernhard Goetz’s victims kills self on anniversary of subway shoot
Now if he’d only done this before December 22, 1984, he could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble.
But on the other hand: had Ramseur not decided to try to shake down Geotz, then Goetz would likely not have shot them, and very likely would never have shot anyone. And that… might have been a *worse* situation. The crime situation in New York City began to get better a few years after the Goetz shooting, as people decided that not only was the situation unbearable, but they’d just been shown that there was another way. The incident resulted in the corrupt bureaucrats of NYC putting Goetz on trial for a great many things, such as attempted murder; but he was found guilty only of illegally possessing a firearm. And even that helped to spur the movement that has led to a nationwide liberalization of concealed-carry laws.
So even though three of the muggers went on to spread misery in their wakes, their run-in with one rather disturbing (have you seen his interview with William Shatner? yeesh) loner almost three decades ago played a role in making America a less crime-riddled place.