Marijuana case vs. Bernie Goetz dismissed
Source: Associated Press
Sep 10, 3:38 PM EDT
Marijuana case vs. Bernie Goetz dismissed
By COLLEEN LONG and JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
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NEW YORK (AP) -- A low-level marijuana case against 1980s subway shooter Bernie Goetz has been dismissed after a judge concluded the clock ran out for trying it.
Goetz was busted in December on charges he sold $30 worth of marijuana to an undercover officer he'd been flirting with in Union Square park.
He was offered a plea deal involving 10 days of community service. Goetz rejected it for a host of reasons, saying he felt coerced into taking the money from the undercover officer and that police are too aggressive nowadays.
"If I had accepted the prosecutor's offer, it would have meant I was a convicted drug seller," he said Wednesday. "If I were to get arrested after a year or two on some other baloney offense, then I'm a repeat offender."
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOETZ_ARRESTED?SITE=UTSAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Wikipedia
Bernhard Hugo Goetz (born November 7, 1947) is a New York City man known for shooting four young black men when they allegedly tried to mug him[2][3][4][5] on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan on 22 December 1984. He fired five shots, seriously wounding all four men. Nine days later he surrendered to police and was eventually charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. A jury found him not guilty of all charges except for one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm, for which he served eight months of a one-year sentence. In 1996, one of the shot men, who had been left paraplegic and brain damaged as a result of his injuries, obtained a civil judgment of $43 million against Goetz.[6]
The incident sparked a nationwide debate on race and crime in major cities, the legal limits of self-defense, and the extent to which the citizenry could rely on the police to secure their safety.[4] Although Goetz, dubbed the "Subway Vigilante" by New York City's press, came to symbolize New Yorkers' frustrations with the high crime rates of the 1980s, he was both praised and vilified in the media and public opinion. The incident has also been cited as a contributing factor to the groundswell movement against urban crime and disorder,[7] and the successful National Rifle Association campaigns to loosen restrictions on the concealed carrying of firearms.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Goetz
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Worth watching for that alone. After that, you can turn it off....
