N.Y. Senator Says He Would Testify for Goetz

Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) said today that he sympathized with Bernhard Goetz, the man accused of shooting four teen-agers on a New York subway, and would “be glad to” testify that the subway is a dangerous place inhabited by threatening thugs.

“I’m afraid to get in that subway system even when I’m with a bodyguard and--even my bodyguard is afraid,” D’Amato said at a hearing of the advisory Congressional Crime Caucus.

“I’ve been on that subway when three, four and five thugs get on a train. They don’t have to threaten you. They are very menacing by their presence and some of them get a kick out of it,” the senator said.

‘Impossible to Cross Town’

D’Amato said crime on New York subways has grown so bad “it’s impossible to get across town because of all the people in traffic who’ll do anything to escape the violence below.”

D’Amato predicted that the Goetz case “will not be an isolated instance because it represents the building emotions of millions of people who live each day knowing that there is a very real possibility that they will be the next target of some thug.”

The senator said that Goetz “may or may not have gone too far,” but that the man has demonstrated the public’s rage against a criminal justice system that D’Amato said fails to protect them.

Goetz’s lawyer, Joseph Kelner, a witness at the hearing, responded to D’Amato’s remarks by saying: “I think I’ll subpoena you, sir. Would you be willing to testify?”

D’Amato responded, “I’d be glad to.”

Goetz, an electronics engineer, is awaiting trial on charges that he shot and wounded the youths after they harassed him on a subway train Dec. 22. He has reportedly told New York police that he shot the four in self-defense.

Kelner maintained that Goetz “acted reasonably under New York law” and would be acquitted.

“He was confronted by four persons under circumstances . . . tantamount to life-threatening situations,” Kelner said. “He is not guilty, he is not a vigilante, he is not guilty and he will plead not guilty.”

“(Goetz) is the personification of the finest we can produce in America,” Kelner said.

Daughter Fondled on Train

D’Amato, who recalled an instance when his daughter was fondled on a New York City subway train last year, said Goetz is a hero to many because he stood up to what he called the growing arrogance of young criminals.

“Why is it that young thugs and toughs operate with impunity?” D’Amato said. “It’s because after they are apprehended the likelihood that they will spend any time in prison is minuscule. As a result, they laugh at the law and people’s rights are trampled.”

D’Amato and the caucus chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said a solution to the problem of career criminals is mandatory jail sentences for serious crimes and building more prisons.

“I believe the people of this country are truly fed up with the judicial system,” Specter said.