On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot and seriously wounded four black teenagers on the New York Subway. He claims they were trying to mug him; they claim they had merely asked him for five dollars.

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The circus that followed helped launch the careers of Giuliani, Sharpton, Murdoch and others, and set off a decades-long debate about race, crime, public safety, and vigilante justice we're still having today...