Back in 1984, the now 65-year-old Bernie Goetz became the George Zimmerman of his time when he shot four black teenagers who, he claimed, threatened him on the subway — an incident that “brought to the surface long-smoldering urban issues of race, crime and quality of life.” On Friday afternoon, Goetz was arrested for selling $30 worth of weed to a female undercover police officer after she responded positively to his offer to get her high. To hear Joe Lhota and his surrogates tell it, Bill de Blasio’s all but certain upcoming mayoral win means that New York City’s days as a graffiti-strewn crime incubator are on their way back, so the reemergence of one of the most polarizing figures of the eighties feels appropriate — especially because he’s in trouble over something as minor as “a small amount of pot in a tissue.”
