There's No Lack Of Losers In The Bernard Goetz Case

THE Bernard Goetz verdict has raised countless questions that will be thrashed out by lawyers, talk-show hosts, their scholarly callers, and in the nation's barrooms and Internet gab fests.

But is the case really all that complicated? Nah, not really.

What happened was that four criminally inclined young men set out to find someone who looked like easy pickings and to extract money from that person.

By chance, that stranger on the subway turned out to be Bernard Goetz.

No, that's wrong. It wasn't by chance. Had Goetz been a burly, thick armed, stubble-bearded iron worker, they would likely have steered clear of him.

But Goetz is more of a Woody Allen type. As the man who sued him admitted to columnist Jimmy Breslin, Goetz "looked like easy bait" for a robbery.

Whether they planned to take his money by force or intimidation, we don't know. That's because their plan was quickly aborted by Goetz, who shot all four when they crowded close and one asked him for $5.

Some will indignantly say: You don't pull a gun and start shooting because someone asks you for $5. That's true. The city streets would be littered with the bodies of panhandlers if everyone reacted like Goetz.

But there are all sorts of panhandlers. I have to assume that if Goetz had been approached by a bag lady or a trembling, toothless wino, he wouldn't have shot them.

Panhandlers seldom travel in groups of four. Victim-hunting muggers do. Your ordinary beggar tries to look pathetic and needy, not cool and tough. That's a mugger's pose.

So while Goetz looked like "easy bait," he turned out to be a terrible choice.

But the four young men had no way of knowing that (a) Goetz was carrying a gun and (b) he feared and disliked young black men. Or maybe black people in general, although I doubt that he would have plugged an elderly black man who looked like a retired Pullman porter.

In his weird, unrepentant testimony, Goetz says he "snapped," and that's why he started shooting.

That's possible. People snap all the time. Just turn on the news.

But the attorneys for Darrell Cabey, 30, who is now paralyzed, say no, Goetz didn't just "snap" when overwhelmed by some justifiable fear.

They said he was a vicious racist and bigot who was carrying a gun because he wanted to shoot young black men.

That's possible. Goetz pretty much admitted that he is or was a racist or a bigot or however you care to define it. And a jury of four blacks and two Hispanics obviously believed it.

But who says that a racist or bigot can't be scared out of his wits or driven into an uncontrollable rage when he believes that four young tough guys are about to jump him?

After all, if scrawny, nerdy bigots can't be mugged, robbed or intimidated, are liberals to be the only victims? That doesn't seem fair, although some people might be delighted by such an arrangement.

And the lawyers said that the jury should send a message that white bigots like Goetz aren't going to get away with going around shooting young black men.

Fair enough. That's a good message, although I wasn't aware that the streets and alleys and subways of America's multiracial big cities are teeming with nerdy white guys on search-and-destroy missions toward young black men. Or even old or middle-aged black men. The crime stats sure don't tell us that story.

However, it would be nice if this case also sent this message to young men who try to increase their net worth by using force or fear to take some stranger's possessions: Careful, that weak-looking victim might blow a big hole in your worthless hide.

But the crime stats do tell us that this message hasn't made much of an impression on those who prowl the streets.

Actually, about all that will come out of this verdict and trial are various questions and messages that people will interpret their own way, according to their own biases.

The $43 million award is meaningless, since Goetz is a man of modest means and under New York law the most they can take from him is 10 percent of his earnings. That's a better deal than the average divorced guy gets.

But there's one question that I haven't heard raised in the instant analysis on TV and radio.

And it's this: Why didn't the other three guys who were shot by Goetz sue. They surely experienced pain and suffering.

The answer is that one of them - James Ramseur - recovered from his wound and is now doing a prison stretch of up to 25 years for a brutal rape-robbery.

Another, Barry Allen, recovered from his wound and recently finished a prison sentence for the robbery of an elderly diabetic.

A third, Troy Cantry, recovered from his wound, and had a career as a thief and crack user, before dropping out of sight.

With their rap sheets and not being in wheelchairs, they might not have stirred $43 million worth of sympathy in a jury.

And you can say this for Darrell Cabey, who got the award: He hasn't been in any trouble with the law since he encountered Goetz.

I guess they don't make wheelchairs fast enough for a getaway.

(Copyright, 1996, Tribune Media Services, Inc.)

Mike Royko's column appears Friday on editorial pages of The Times.