Our Violent Society

Friends have frequently inquired whether I am terrible concerned over the safety of my daughter Lisa, living in Israel. Like any parent far from his child (especially if she is a beautiful, single girl living alone), I do have some fears — but less than if she were living in some metropolitan area of the United States. I truly believe she is safer in Jerusalem than in Los Angeles.

In Israel the enemy is without, while in this country the enemy standing by his home is dead. Abortion clinics are bombed. Somebody fires a shot into the four wounded youths (who were third-floor apartment of U.S. punks with a history of anti-Supreme Court Justice Harry social behavior), I nevertheless Blackmun.

We're not even talking about the numerous drug-related, gang-inspired occurrences which are commonplace today. These are commonplace today.

But it was the case of Bernhard Goetz that really got to me. It revealed an aspect of our society that I was not fully aware of and with which I am most uncomfortable. You may recall that Goetz was the man who shot four youths in a New York subway last December after one had accosted him, asking for $5. Goetz then fled to New Hampshire where he subsequently turned himself over to the police.

Goetz's statement to the police indicated that the four teenagers showed no visible signs of being armed and that he "was not in fear of his life but did what he felt he had to do." It also precluded any question that he acted in self-defense. In fact, after noting that one of the gunned down youths was not bleeding where he lay, Goetz proceeded to redress his alleged oversight with another shot into the spine that left the young man paralyzed.

The Grand Jury quickly cleared Goetz of any culpability for the shooting spree and held him to answer only for carrying a pistol without a proper permit.

While I hold no brief for the four wounded youths (who were punks with a history of anti-social behavior), I nevertheless was shocked at the scope and enthusiasm of the plaudits and public acclaim bestowed upon Goetz. He became an overnight hero as New Yorkers and the rest of the nation took him warmly to their collective bosom.

It was as if Goetz represented all the countless victims in our society and had struck a blow against the robbers, rapists, murderers, muggers and burglars who prey on the hapless. The Goetz incident and the immediate public reaction were a revelation of the darker side of our society. I was appalled at the depth and extent of violence which lies just beneath the surface of our civilized demeanor.

If the Goetz case is any indication, we are not far from returning to the vigilante society where the lynch mob would quickly string up suspects without the formality of a hearing.

A gentle lady friend of mine to whom any form of violence is apathema, recently informed me that she had a gun at the time, she might well have used it on the thieves who broke into her car and stole her expensive radio for the second time in two months.

Like most of you, I, too, have been victimized in the past. Both my home and car have been broken into and burglarized. At the time I experienced tremendous feelings of anger and a sense of personal violation in addition to actual financial loss, but Goetz and his type just are not my kind of knights-errant.

In his deliberate shooting of the four youths, Goetz epitomized all of the pent-up anger, frustration and, yes, violence that people feel against the hoodlums who have so often assaulted and harassed them, stolen from them, and preyed upon them. How else to explain the fulsome outpouring of praise upon Goetz?

Interestingly enough, no police agency had any word of commendation for Goetz. I would assume the police fear an outbreak of vigilante justice and what that portends, with citizens engaging in indiscriminate shootouts in crowded streets and public places.

Somehow, we should be able to find more worthy heroes than Goetz who admitted that he didn't feel in any particular danger and did not shoot in self-defense, that he sent a second bullet into the inert figure of one of the youths, and who shot in a crowded subway without a thought for the innocent bystanders who could well have been hit by his fusillade.

Many of us carry around a lot of rage and frustration that is easily ignited. We are not solely passive victims of violence; we harbor strong impulses to reciprocate against our oppressors.

Thus I was both disturbed and frightened by the Goetz matter and the vengeful, bloodthirsty side of the public that it exposed.

Perhaps, as Passover approaches, we need a Moses to lead us safely through the Red Sea of blood and violence to a more tranquil land of Sinai.