Goetz, Penny Subway Cases Have 'Very Different Motivations'

In the aftermath of Daniel Penny's decision to use a chokehold to restrain Jordan Neely, a homeless man acting erratically in a subway car, longtime commuters immediately drew comparisons to another incident that similarly divided the city nearly four decades ago – that of so-called "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz, who opened fire on four Black men who he alleged were robbing him.

For many straphangers, both cases are centered on the same issue: subway crime.