Watch until 1:01:38. This is my transcript:
Don’t pretend that you’re serving the public — or the public interest.
This here — fine. You caught some maniac. That’s what you want, that’s what you got. It doesn’t matter.
But just don’t pretend… that you’re doing your job.
Y’know. So this one thing got a lot of press, so therefore it has to act. The city is so concerned about violence. Good. This is — quote — the most violent crime of the year.
Great.
New York City doesn’t give a damn about violence. Otherwise this would’ve never happened. And there’s violence all over New York, and the city…
I just want to say a couple things about statements that have been made. People have said that the response was out of proportion. Now, when a person… when any… you take any person in New York… I’m not talking about me; I’m talking about other people.
When they’re deliberately maimed and they’re beaten and the powers that be, they’re essentially — they fill in their paperwork and they shrug their shoulders and they turn their back… and they go back, they go home and they have their cup of coffee… this is the issue. This is the issue.
That — what they’re doing — that is criminal. That is negligent. That is criminal negligence. People have said: “Uhh, I’ve heard things said about [Bernard]… that I was uncivilized.” That I was uncivilized. That I acted in an uncivilized way. And if you think this is vicious…
If you knew what was in my mind, the most vicious thing I can think of, is that the person that said that — I wish that the person was sitting there in that seat instead of me. That would have been beautiful. I wish that I was never there and that they were there. That would have been great.
And again:
You talk about lawlessness. The city doesn’t care about lawlessness. You talk about anarchy. That’s what there is now.
And it’s… it’s… as I told Mr. — in there, or one of the detectives… what this is… I don’t care what you do with me. It doesn’t matter. I’m not hiding anything.
But all this is, it’s like a dam and water is building up behind that dam. And this is just a crack in the dam, or a little hole that’s in the dam. And eventually something, you know, the city, there are basic things that people must have — people must have — people can — it is unbearable for people to live in fear.
People must have police protection. The problem isn’t the police. The problem is you. It’s your legal system. The legal system is a sham. What I did down there — let’s say it’s wrong. That doesn’t bother me. But what this did — it showed the system as being a sham. That’s why the city so vehemently attacks the Guardian Angels — it shows the city for what it is. It shows the legal system for what it is. It is a sham.
Eventually, in the 1990s, urban political organizations had to react and reform somewhat to the crises brought to the fore by events like the Goetz shootings — at great expense. It’s not entirely clear that that can happen again. It’s also not clear that all that many bright political minds care all that much about the future of America’s cities, when many seem to believe that they have a brighter future either in a virtual world that hasn’t been created yet or in some other country.
Mark Citadel says
Good to see you writing again, Henry. I remember the first time I heard about the Goetz incident. It’s a perfect example of when systems fail to function, and an organic law takes over. People are surprised then when this form of ‘street law’ actually gets done what needs to be done. Probably explains why the ‘Punisher’ series is so popular. The aim always seems to be to stop vigilantism when surely it should be to prevent the need for vigilantism. With all the pedophiles let loose on probationary periods, I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen more Goetz’s.
henrydampier says
He did a lot to change the tone of even national elections. Goetz prefigured the stance of Bill Clinton towards urban crime.
I think the American system noticed the dramatic drop in its legitimacy around the mid-1980s and did a lot to reverse it. Then it squandered those gains in a way that only began to be fully exposed in 2007.
Frank Gappa says
The way he talked in those interviews about his thoughts, observations, perceptions of his attackers was breathtaking. The danger he felt he was in and his decision to take action when those threatening thugs made their move was illustrative. You’re right, he did influence the 90’s and I would bet Giuliani/Kerrick were influenced by this episode. But make no mistake, these interviews were decades ago, today he would have been vilified in social media, denounced by Obama and called every name in the book, completely discredited. I worry that New Yorkers will now have to learn these lessons all over again as they slide back into the Leftist abyss.
henrydampier says
Yes.
Doug says
I think what is missing here, is we as men gave up our absolute right to defend ourselves, rightfully inherent and primal, from harm. Soon as we did that, we put ourselves in the cat bird seat. We left the dealing of something of a most intimate nature, its tribal imperatives, to strangers with vested interests not our own. We gave up our legitimacy, our honor, and virtue, as sovereign men.
The hard part is before this shit is over, we are going to have to relearn 5000 years of history of how and why you as a man defends yourself, your loved ones, tribe and community, and the purview of all that belongs to the provincial, the local.
I remember Goetz like yesterday. Goetz was right, he still is. He always will be.
Remember your piece The Corporate Slave Class Mr. Dampier? Sublime stuff in that masterpiece. Goetz is all through it. He owns it.
henrydampier says
He seems to have gone crazy in the intervening years, but he was pretty lucid during the controversy.
Doug says
If he wasn’t a revolutionary, he certainly was revolutionary to go up against the disarmament marxist cabal. I would imagine the guy was pretty alone in more ways than one for standing up to the State and for portrayal in the press of what a monster he was for shooting those poor innocent brown people. Like you wrote about in About The Corporate Slave Class, and Kill The Kulaks, can you imagine the palpitations running amok within the oligarchy class system up in the north east when Goetz dared defy their diktat, and then defied them again in public? They where terrified of what he represented, they always have been, people defending themselves.
I personally thought a little cheese fell off his cracker, but that it did not make him a bad guy, nor unintelligent, I think he had more courage in his left pinky than the 35,000 NYC police force combined, and they new it, and if anything, it virtually instantly inspired me as a young man to never go unarmed to this very day. The guy was right then and now.
Molan Labe Bitchez!