www.houstonchronicle.com
[url]http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/politics/963705[/url]

New York's "Subway Gunman" runs for mayor
By ELLEN WULFHORST
Reuters


NEW YORK -- He's got name
recognition any politician
would envy, his views need
little publicity, and plenty
of New Yorkers do a double
take when they see him in the
street.

All that could be immensely
helpful in a campaign to be
mayor of New York, except
that this candidate is
Bernhard Goetz.

The so-called Subway Gunman --
who shot four teen-agers on a
grimy train in an incident so
controversial it still sparks
heated debate 17 years later
-- is running for mayor.

Goetz, seen by some as a
frightened New Yorker fending
off assailants and by others
as a vengeful vigilante,
has a petition drive to
get on the ballot, a detailed
position platform and a
bernieformayor.com website.

But he said in an interview
that being mayor really
isn't his goal, perhaps a
reasonable sentiment given his chances.

"I don't want to be mayor.
You have to put up with a lot of
stupidity," he said.

The plan, he said, would be to
appoint Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,
who is barred by law from a third term,
to keep running New York City.
He said Giuliani, under whose
watch the
city's murder rate has dropped to
levels not seen since the early 1960s,
is the city's best mayor in decades.

Goetz rose to fame, or
"sunk to notoriety" as
he puts it, when, three
days before Christmas 1984,
he shot four youths he said
were trying to rob him on a
downtown Manhattan subway.

The youths, all of whom had
arrest records and three of
whom were carrying screwdrivers,
said they were panhandling.

In the huge public debate that
ensued, supporters said he was the
crime victim who finally fought back.
Critics said he was a racist
who took justice into his own hands.

Goetz is white, the youths black.

Goetz was acquitted of
attempted murder but
served eight months in jail
for illegal gun possession.

On the city's streets, people
still turn and stare as they
recognize the tall, thin Goetz
from countless newspaper photographs,
his eyes like those of a skittish
deer in car headlights.

He lives alone in the same
building as he did then,
speaks softly with an edgy,
nervous energy and still works
as a self-employed electronics
technician.

"I have all kinds of people in the
street stopping me, telling me I
should have killed all four of those
guys," he said. "And I've
had people on the street screaming
I'm a fascist.

"In a city as large as New York,
you're guaranteed to have lots
and lots of people who have
stupid opinions," he said.
"I think a lot of people in
New York have their heads up
their rear," he said in the
interview in a New York diner.

Goetz said he's gotten some
responses to his web-based
solicitation for campaign
volunteers and crank letters
from only one person.

He's also attracted the
attention of morning radio talk
show host Howard Stern, who
recently aired what he proposed
as good campaign jingles for
the subway shooter.

"He's the best candidate we've got,"
went one of the jingles.
"Let's give Bernie another shot."

It may not be a popular sentiment.

"His day has come and gone,"
declared former Mayor Ed Koch,
who was mayor in 1984 and condemned the incident as "vigilantism."

Ron Kuby, attorney for Darrell Cabey,
the youth left permanently
wounded by the shooting,
joked that Goetz would be
"the perfect successor" to Giuliani.

"If there's one man who can
carry on the legacy of racism
and intolerance and just plain
explosiveness, it's Bernie Goetz,"
said Kuby, who misses few
opportunities to criticize
the mayor on the radio talk
show he co-hosts with
Guardian Angels founder
Curtis Sliwa.

Cabey won a $43 million
civil settlement against
Goetz in 1997. Kuby said the
Cabey family has been unable
to collect any of the money;
Goetz claims they haven't tried.

Goetz faces a battle against
the six major candidates --
Public Advocate Mark Green,
Comptroller Alan Hevesi,
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone,
Bronx Borough President
Fernando Ferrer, all Democrats,
and Republicans financial mogul Michael Bloomberg and former Congressman Herman Badillo.

And he faces a battle against his past.
But he voices no remorse and calls his critics "stupid people."

"The victim does not have
the choice of picking the color
of his assailant," he said.
"I shot them. They were not shot
because they were black.
They were shot because they
were in the process of doing a robbery."

But though the topic makes his
voice take on a slightly steely
tone, Goetz can make light of
the incident that has guaranteed
him a lifetime of notoriety.

Sitting in a diner near a
noisy milkshake blender that kept
interrupting his interview responses,
Goetz raised a finger and pointed an
imaginary gun at the diner counterman.

"If I had a gun, I'd shoot him,"
he said softly, with a slight
twinkle in his eye.

He has my vote.

[url]http://www.bernieformayor.com[/url]
What a putz.

yeah. yeah. with bernie as mayor there will be chicken soup in every pot & a semi-auto in every waistband[}:D]

Isn't Geraldo running for mayor?

Until Clinton came along, I used the guy for a write-in vote for President. Never did see it counted in the paper though.

Fred

Uhh,
better make that veggie
soup or else.

Civil suit = workman's comp for
the career criminal.

If his altercation with those thugs were to happen today, I feel he would be convicted.
It's unfortunate how the attitudes of the city and nation for that matter have completely changed.
When and how did self preservation become taboo.
Why are so many people willing to entrust their lives into the hands of total strangers or more appropriately, bystanders.
I feel sorry for all those Sheep-people.
To live, one must take the pro-active role to maintain their presence on this earth.

Bernie gets my vote.


Preaching to the choir.

[size=6]BERNIE FOR MAYOR !!!![/size=6]
[sniper]