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It was a case that wouldn't seem out of place today. On Dec. 22, 1984, four black teens approached a white man on a New York City subway trainand either asked for or demanded money. The man, who'd been mugged before and would later tellauthorities he felt threatened, almost immediately pulled a handgun out of his jacket and began firing, striking and wounding all four teens.The criminal case that followed, and the national debate it stirred, raised questions about self-defense, vigilantism, and race that have been eerily echoed numerous times in the decades since.

The case ofBernhard BernieGoetz and his shooting ofTroy Canty, Barry Allen, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey is explored in thesecond episode ofTrial By Media a six-episode Netflix docuseries that focuses on highly publicized trialsand how the conversations around them are shaped.

Goetz would later recount how, after the teens approached him on a southbound 2 train at around 14th St., he visualized the pattern in which he'd fire off rounds, then methodically proceeded to do so. Two of the teens were shot in the back, and Goetz later told authorities he shot one of them twice because the teen didn't seem hurt enough.

Goetz, a 37-year-old engineer who operated a small electronics company out of his Greenwich Village apartment,told a train conductor in the immediate aftermath that the teensRamseur was 18 and the rest of his friends were 19 were trying to mug him.Canty and Ramseur later testified that they were just panhandling and had asked Goetz for$5.

As the "Trial By Media" episode shows, the teens, who had all been arrested in the past for minor offenses, were almost immediately assumed to be criminals and vilified by some in the public. The fourbecame symbols of rampant crime in New York City, which at the time was in the midst of the crack cocaine epidemic.Many New Yorkers who were tired of being crime victimsexpressed a kinship with Goetz for seemingly fighting back.The press even dubbed him the Subway Vigilante and compared him to Charles Bronsons character in the 1974 movie Death Wish. In the film, Bronson plays a New York City architect who takes matters into his own handsafter a brutal attack on his wife and daughter.

Lawyer Ron Kuby, who represented Cabey in a civil case against Goetz, told the producers of Trial by Media that Goetz was "lionized as some sort of hero.Goetzs face and name were plastered on shirts and bumper stickers with the phrase: Ride with Bernie he Goetz 'em!

The National Rifle Association were among the groups that attempted to brand him as a folk hero. Goetztold investigators that he'd bought a gun in Florida and illegally transported it to New York City after he was violently mugged by three teens four years before the subway shooting, and had applied for a New York gun permit as a result but was rejected. This led the NRA to openly support Goetz, raisingmoney for him and askingthe governor to pardon him, according to a 1987 Los Angeles Times report. They usedGoetz as a poster boy as they advocated for looser gun laws in New York City.

Goetz's vigilante hero persona may have helped him at thetrial for the shooting. Amostly white jury acquitted Goetz of attempted murder and first-degree assault charges. He was convicted only of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree for carrying an unlicensed weapon in a public place andserved just eight months.

However, public perception began to turn after an interrogation video was released, which revealed Goetz speaking callously about the shooting and his desire to kill the teenagers.

I wanted to kill those guys, he told investigators. I wanted to maim those guys.

He claimed to have shot one of the teens more than once because he thought hedidnt seem hurt enough the first time. He recalled telling the teenager, "You seem all right, here's another," before shooting him again. Whether or not this verbal exchange, as well as the second shot, happened has been long debated however, Goetz's sentiment certainly rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Goetz's self-defense claim also came under scrutinyas accusations of bigotry were brought to the fore.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and others blamed racial profiling for the shooting. In the docuseries, Sharpton called Goetzs reaction to the teenagersan overreaction that is soaked with race and bigotry. Sharpton told reporters at the time that Goetz had stereotyped all young black men as threats.

Similar caseas continueto make headlines across the nation.

Another Trial by Media episode tackles the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, a black immigrant from West Africawho was shot41 times by four plainclothesNYPD officers while he was taking a wallet out of his pocket. The officers were heavily criticized and charged with murder, but were were ultimately acquitted on all charges. All the officers contended they were acting in self-defense as they believed Diallo was armed.

Diallo'sdeath once again raised racial tensions in New York. Sharpton, who also became an advocate for Diallo, spoke out against the officers' acquittal and linked the shooting to police brutalityand racism.

Trayvon Martins 2012 killing also drew comparisons to the Goetz case. Like Goetz, shooter George Zimmerman claimed he shot the 17-year-old Martinin self-defense, invoking Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law.Zimmerman also styled himself as a somethingof a vigilante. He ran his neighborhood watch and often monitored people he deemed to be suspicious.Like Goetz, Zimmerman was accused of racially profiling Martinas a criminal, the Orlando Sentinel reported. And like many before him, Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted in the case.

Questions surrounding vigilantism and racial profiling are again atthe forefront of a national conversationfollowing the highly publicized shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. The 25-year-old black Georgia man was shot to death while running through a mostly white neighborhood in Glynn Countyin February after a white father and son Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34 said theybelieved he was a burglar. They then allegedly chased him down in a truck and shot him to death, also claiming to have acted in self-defense. They are currently facing murder charges, but weren't arrested for more than two months after a series of local prosecutors declined to pursue the case.

Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. And don't miss our own podcast, Martinis & Murder!

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How Echoes Of The Bernie Goetz Subway Shooting Still Resonate Today - Oxygen

NBA legend and entrepreneur Magic Johnson has taken note, he pointed out, that loans to assist small business owners during COVID-19 arent trickling down to nonwhites and women who own those businesses. Johnson wants to do something about that, so hes partnered with a New Jersey-based financial company to provide $100 million in funding as part of the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program.

Johnson told TheWall Street Journal in a Monday, May 18 article that his company EquiTrust Life Insurance Co. with MBE Capital Partners will give $100 million in PPP loans to help small businesses owned by nonwhites and women.

The retired NBA star explained how crucial loans are to these businesses, especially now as many are in danger of not reopening when cities and states return to normal.

We knew why the money was gone and couldnt trickle down to small businesses, especially small minority businesses, because they didnt have those great relationships with the banks, Johnson explained. So this was easy for us to understand This is, when you think about it, life and death for so many business owners. They have nowhere else to turn.

Johnson said that small businesses were finding it incredibly difficult to secure Paycheck Protection Program loans. Rafael Martinez, MBEs chief executive, expressed he received complaints from his clients about not being able to get PPP loans at all during the first round of funding. He and Johnson reportedly were connected through civil rights activist Al Sharpton. Martinez has said that the $100 million commitment first will go toward the 5,000 PPP loans his company has approved so far.

The PPP loan, part of Congress stimulus funding, was set up to assist small businesses during the COVID-19 shutdown. But bigger businesses, including Shake Shake and the Los Angeles Lakers, received several millions in loans instead. Ruths Chris Steak House was another company that received a PPP loan, for $20 million, but gave it back after public backlash. Reports have indicated that some lenders prioritized those businesses with whom they had existing relationships.

Johnsons COVID-19 related focus includes the March release of a PSA in which he speaks on practicing social distancing and hand washing.

During an April interview with ESPN, he compared the coronavirus to HIV and AIDS, and said, as with those illnesses, people again are spreading wrong information.

The same issues we had then, we have now Not being educated enough about HIV and AIDS, said Johnson. The same thing [is happening] with the coronavirus.

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Magic Johnson Partners with New Jersey-Based Company to Help Nonwhite and Female Small Business Owners - Atlanta Black Star

BOZEMAN, Mont. The only reason to be a Democrat running for statewide office in Montana is that, alas, you are one. Just keep in mind that there will be none of that heady, audacity-of-hope-type jazz. In this cold, conservative state, your mission is to persuade the skeptics east of the Rocky Mountain Front that you are a levelheaded, friendly, capitalist adult who wont be levitating the Pentagon a task that has gotten considerably easier since the Republican establishment lost interest in basic empiricism.

Privately, feel free to enjoy normal liberal thoughts like that Al Sharpton makes a lot of sense. Publicly, assume that everyone you talk to is a Republican or an independent unless you are chatting with the Butterfly Herbs cashier ringing up your bulk Korean ginseng or you happen to bump into Jeff from Pearl Jam. If anyone asks, your favorite artist is the Great Falls cowboy painter Charlie Russell, though nobody will, because it goes without saying.

If you believe in abortion rights, and tragically, you do, follow the lead of the states senior senator, Jon Tester, a Democrat and third-generation farmer from Big Sandy. Frame the issue as the rugged individualism of a womans right to make her own health care decisions, preferably while seated on a tractor. All Democratic officials in the Central and Mountain time zones surely envy the rural romance of Mr. Tester, whose three missing fingers, mangled in a meat grinder on the family farm, are the Montana electoral equivalent of being a Kennedy. A good rule for politicians still shackled with all 10 fingers is to trust Senator Testers instincts on everything but haircuts. He understands that a westward conscience (and a passing interest in re-election) sometimes compels a Montana Democrat to question coastal leftist groupthink just ask Bernie Sanders about Max Baucus, but not if there are ladies present.

The exemplar remains the most powerful Montana Democrat in American history, Mike Mansfield. The longest-serving Senate majority leader, he quietly egged on his Republican counterpart, Everett Dirksen, to help pass the Great Society laws, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (back when, according to the 1960 census, the black population of Montana was 0.2 percent).

Senator Mansfields most relevant legacy is arguably the origin story of the Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Bidens professed bipartisanship. When a young Senator Biden griped about a heartless Republican, Mr. Mansfield counseled him to find the good in his colleagues, to see what their state saw in voting for them, adding, And Joe, never attack another mans motive, because you dont know his motive. Mr. Biden later wrote, Its probably the single most important piece of advice I got in my career.

The current administration of Gov. Steve Bullock, a two-term Democrat, has been reminiscent of the old, functional Mansfield Senate. At a time when Washington impotence is symbolized by how Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, shamelessly refers to himself as the grim reaper, its worth contemplating a deceptively bland talking point from Mr. Bullocks failed presidential bid and current U.S. Senate campaign, his pledge to make Washington work more like Montana.

He is not proposing to export the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale to the National Mall, though who wouldnt want to see that. He is simply alluding to the fact that in our state capital Helena, elected officials from both parties negotiate with one another and the chief executive to pass laws that actually help people. And just as Mr. Mansfield would tiptoe across the aisle to exploit the rift between centrist Republicans and conservative insurgents like Barry Goldwater, Mr. Bullock has capitalized on a civil war among Montana conservatives in a way that might be instructive to the country at large though the methodology works only if the rest of you can scrape up a few lucid Republicans. (Try harder, Kentucky.)

The Republican legislators are torn between the . 38 Special, a petulant Tea Party-tinged cabal, and the Solutions Caucus of businesslike conservatives who will stick with the right wing on bedrock beliefs like limiting abortion one bill provoked a Bullock veto but will vote with the Democrats when doing so solves a logistical problem or staves off needless idiocy. They sided with the Democrats, for example, to kill a bill that would have prohibited the state health department from requiring vaccinations of day care employees and children. When some of them partnered with Democrats to reauthorize Medicaid expansion, jars of petroleum jelly materialized on their desks like the severed horse head in The Godfather, apparently to help them sodomize the citizens of Montana. (By giving more of us better, cheaper health care?)

One of the two legislators Governor Bullock appointed to his statewide council of business leaders to recommend divvying up federal Covid-19 stimulus grants was State Representative Llew Jones, a Republican from Conrad. It was a deft, bipartisan campaign move, but also astute management, in that Mr. Jones, a member of the Solutions Caucus, is a thoughtful public servant with a masters degree in economics.

For Mr. Bullock, good government and good politics are often indistinguishable. Compared with the dystopian whimsy of President Trumps pandemic news conferences, Mr. Bullocks straightforward public briefings have featured him calmly enumerating statistical data from county health departments and issuing updates on what turned out to be an effective statewide stay-at-home order.

The only time the governor has sounded remotely frazzled was on a conference call pleading with Mr. Trump for more tests for the viral epicenter Gallatin County, incidentally the home district of his adversary in the Senate race, the Republican incumbent, Steve Daines. A recent state poll shows Mr. Bullock ahead but in a tight contest with Mr. Daines, a former software executive.

In this state and others in our time zone like Arizona and Colorado, where Democrats have a shot at lassoing Senate seats the current crisis seems to call for the Mansfield-style empathy for their opponents that Mountain West Democrats must have to be politically viable, because the virus itself is a small d democrat that smites an assisted-living home in Montanas Toole County as well as the British prime minister.

When Mr. Jones, the Solutions Caucus representative, had to explain to his conservative agrarian constituents why he supports something as seemingly woo-woo as Medicaid expansion, he brought up the toughest person I ever met, his nonagenarian retired rancher mother, who taught him how to birth a lamb and worked until she was 86. He insisted she deserves access to her small rural hospital, noting that until Obamacare is repealed and replaced with something better he would work within the current system to provide health care for the true Montana people like his mom.

Roughly 10 percent of the states population are a bunch of wimps who live in Billings to say nothing of dainty Bozeman eggheads personified by yours truly and Steve Daines but the law Mr. Jones supported and Governor Bullock signed applies to any qualified state resident. Mr. Jones, who won his district with literally 100 percent of the vote, can and should tailor his message to his like-minded neighbors.

Mr. Bullock, who won his last election by four miraculous points, throws around the one-size-fits-all word Montanans so often that the Rocking R Bar should institute a drinking game. He shows up in the news every day trying his hardest to help everybody. He has to. He needs every single vote.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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How Democrats Win in Montana (and They Do Win) - The New York Times

President Donald Trump praised his "great keyboard warriors" on Thursday night as pro-Trump meme makers and social media personalities have prepared for the 2020 presidential election.

The commander-in-chief said his army of online supporters were "far more brilliant" than anyone working in the advertising industry.

Posting on social media, the president said: "Thank you to all of my great Keyboard Warriors. You are better, and far more brilliant, than anyone on Madison Avenue (Ad Agencies). There is nobody like you!"

At the time of writing, his late-night tweet has been liked and retweeted more than 150,000 times.

Responding to the president's post, Trump supporters on the platform shared edited clips of the president performing professional wrestling moves on former Vice President Joe Biden and the CNN network.

Several others also shared memes featuring Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character that has appeared in some bigoted meme content, but is mostly used in non-bigoted ways, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

"We will always support you, Mr. President!!" the author Nick Adams said in response to the Trump's tweet.

"There's a digital information war going on and too few people realize it," the music video producer Robby Starbuck tweeted. "The warriors on the right are the best of the best though and won't ever cede ground to the far left socialists who want to destroy this great country."

Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser to the president's re-election campaign, tweeted: "ARMY FOR TRUMP!"

Trump thanked his army of "great keyboard warriors" on Twitter as some of the president's meme-making supporters on the platform began ratcheting viral content attacking the president's biggest political rivals over the Michael Flynn case.

One pro-Trump "memesmith" with almost 250,000 followers, Carpe Donktum, has posted a handful of videos using the "#ObamaGate" hashtag over the last few daysincluding one depicting the president as the superhero Iron Man.

Another meme shared by Turning Point USA's Chief Creative Officer Benny Johnson on Thursday depicted Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton being led away in handcuffs by law enforcement officials.

The White House staffer Dan Scavino also re-posted a doctored video from the user "@mad_liberals" on Thursday that showed Trump delivering the president's speech from the 1996 film Independence Day.

President Trump has repeatedly shown appreciation for the work of his online supporters and pro-Trump meme makers.

Aside from sharing their content on his own account, the commander-in-chief invited some to the White House last year.

Speaking to Fox News' Media Angle in February, Carpe Donktum said: "On July 3, 2019, President Trump invited me and my family to the White House and I also brought along a friend and his mother.

"We hung out in the Oval for about 25 minutes and chatted with the president. It was an amazing experience none of us will ever forget."

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Donald Trump Thanks 'Keyboard Warriors' as They Prepare for 2020 Election - Newsweek

Wheeler needs to finish with more than 50% of the vote in order to win a second term outright in the primary.

PORTLAND, Ore. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has a big lead in early returns, but it remains unclear if he'll finish with the support needed to win a second term in Tuesday's primary. Wheeler needs to finish with more than 50% of the vote in order to win a second term outright.

If he doesn't, Wheeler, and the candidate that receives the second-most votes, who is Sarah Iannarone, will be in a runoff in the November general election.

Wheeler faced tremendous pressures in his first four years in office, from his handling of the Portland Police Bureau, to homelessness and culture wars.

He went up against a number of credible candidates, among them Iannarone, who finished third in the 2016 and had no intention of being swept aside in 2020.

She sued Wheeler following an Oregon Supreme Court ruling for receiving large campaign violations that violated a city law passed by voters in 2018. The suit came just after an Oregon Supreme Court decision upholding such laws.

During the campaign, Wheeler was called out for claiming endorsements that were not true, among them support from the Thorns and Timbers and City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly.

In a final indignity, the city auditor fined Wheeler $500 the day before the primary for having donor information on his campaign mailers so small it could not be read.

The Oregonian asked each of candidates to respond to a series of key policy questions. Read their answers here.

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Portland mayor election results: Wheeler with big lead, but November runoff possible - KGW.com