49: The New York City Subway Shootings, Part 02

Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

Justin Drown

True Crime, Personal Journals, History, Documentary, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New York City in the 1980s was not the place we know it to be today, especially when it comes to violent crime. Almost no neighborhood was without risks, and no one was off limits. With millions of people living and working in such a confined space, commuting to and around Manhattan via the dirty, dangerous and heavily graffitied subway system was the only choice available to 3.3 million residents who relied on the subway every day. These days on the subway, transit officers have a reassuring presence. They ensure things are running smoothly and that any disturbances are dealt with swiftly. But in the 1980s, the city couldn’t afford to employ such security. Many citizens resented feeling scared, but there was little else they could do. The NYPD already had their work cut out for them in terms of responding to an overwhelming amount of daily emergency calls about violent assaults and murders. But it wouldn’t be long before widespread discontent about the amount of violent street crime in the Big Apple was about to be exposed in the most brutal and racially charged of circumstances. In 1984, four young African American men - and their white assailant, Bernhard Goetz - were unwittingly about to be the public faces of the wild west that many New Yorkers felt their city had become.

CW: racial profiling, drug use, sexual assault

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listener, I'm glad you're here.
0:06.0	Take a seat next to the fire.
0:36.0	Thank you very much.
1:06.0	As news of the arrest and footage of the unassuming man was splashed across every television
1:13.5	network, people were shunned.
1:16.5	Bernie looked like an every man.
1:18.8	Someone you'd walk past on the street, not even think twice about.
1:23.6	Aside from his distinctive glasses, which people were familiar with from the police sketch,
1:28.9	he appeared nothing like what the public had imagined.
1:32.2	The ex-tradition was waived, and on January 3, 1985, Bernie was brought back to New York
1:38.1	City.
1:39.1	He was arraigned on four charges of attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon
1:44.8	and held at Rikers Island.
1:47.6	The Guardian Angels and right-wing civil rights organization, the Congress of Racial
1:52.5	Equality, launched a highly publicized campaign to raise money to cover Bernie's bail of $50,000
2:00.1	in his legal costs.
2:02.3	But in the end, Bernie paid his bail himself and was released on January 8, pending trial.
2:09.6	Bernie was free to walk the streets, but this may have been more of a curse rather than
2:13.5	a blessing.
2:15.1	Everywhere he went, he was tailed by reporters and news cameras.
2:19.4	desperate for a comment from the man, whose controversial actions had divided the city.
2:25.5	The case was so high profile that some enterprising New Yorkers had taken to sell and merchandise,
	...

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